My wlan quits on me for no reason.
 

Greetings All,

FYI I am running Xubuntu 7.10 on a 2GHz AMD processor with a Linksys WMP54G (RaLink Chip) wlan card. I usually can get 15 minutes of Linux Browsing in before my connection is severed. Xubuntu asks me for my key over and over but so far the only solution is to reboot for another 15 minutes. Any ideas as to where the trouble might be? Thanks.

Is your wireless connection the default one? Or do you switch from wired to wireless?

I can do wired but I have to use the wireless in order to be connected in my basement. Another thing I have noticed is my wlan only functions in roaming mode. When I first login my home wireless network is the only one detected, but once the neighbor's wlan is detected is when I seem to lose connectivity. Hope this helps. Thanks.

Is it possible that the neighbor's wireless is on the same channel and maybe has a stronger signal than yours?

Try this:
In a terminal, enter:
iwlist wlan0 scan

Look at the signal levels and channels (frequency). If your neighbor uses the same frequency and has a stronger signal, then try setting your router / access point to a different channel.

Also, If your signal is weak, it could cause loss of a connection (e.g. everytime a car goes by and changes the RF patterns.)

My neighbor is Channel 6 and I am on channel 1, and we use different frequencies by 100ths of a GHz. Signal strength may be an issue; however, the same thing happens with a laptop (inspiron 3800, same Xubunu, wlan card) that I use around the house. I have tried to get out of roaming mode with a manual configuration, but then I get no signal at all. Hope this helps, and thanks for all your help.

Just a quick update to all who are interested. I took the liberty of installing/reinstalling ubuntu 7.10 on both my laptop and my desktop and the results are interesting. The laptop now has on-demand, uninteruptable wireless, but the desktop still suffers from the same problem. Perhaps 8.04 will present a solution. As for now I am thinking this is a signal strength issue for the desktop. Cheers.

If you are using Wpa, you will have trouble with the linux ralink drivers, notably the 2500 chipset. Whenever I succeeded in connecting the connection was very slow and erratic.

Blacklisting linux driver and using windows drivers with ndiswrapper cured the problem.