MADwifi HTTP access slow
 

My internet connection is running at snail pace. The thing is it is only for HTTP protocol. I have downloaded via ftp at usual speeds. I dual boot my laptop so I have checked it in Windows and it works fine.

As an example of how slow it is this page has been loading for 4 minutes.

Does anybody have any ideas on how I can resolve this?

Is the problem occurring in all browsers, or just one? If it's all then the problem could well be DNS issues. Maybe you need to specify your ISP's DNS servers in your network card setup.
What are your ping times like?

Tried with both Lynx and Konqueror with same results. Also it is running VERY slow via SSH as well.

[me@myLaptop ~]$ ping bbc.co.uk
PING bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=1 ttl=244 time=8389 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=2 ttl=244 time=8507 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=3 ttl=244 time=8453 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=4 ttl=244 time=8472 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=5 ttl=244 time=8655 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=6 ttl=244 time=8315 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=7 ttl=244 time=8286 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=8 ttl=244 time=8120 ms
64 bytes from virtual0.mh.bbc.co.uk (212.58.228.155): icmp_seq=9 ttl=244 time=8258 ms

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---
14 packets transmitted, 9 received, 35% packet loss, time 20803ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 8120.079/8384.246/8655.051/149.486 ms, pipe 9

I am accessing the same Wireless Access Point as I do when I connect through Windows. Why would I be having these problems with Linux but not with Windows?

My ping times are about 20 ms with no packet loss, so your problem is there. Post what you know about your network card and driver / install / firmware / kernel / madwifi.

Thanks for the reply rjwilmsi.

Information as follows:

//----------------------------------------------------------------

Network Card: Atheros AR 5005G

[me@myLaptop home]uname -a
Linux myLaptop 2.6.18-1.2849.fc6 #1 SMP Fri Nov 10 12:36:14 EST 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

[me@myLaptop home]$ dmesg | grep ath0
ath0: no IPv6 routers present

[me@myLaptop home]hal-device
41: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/
info.product = 'Networking Wireless Control Interface' (string)
net.interface = 'wifi0' (string)
net.physical_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_168c_1a' (string)
info.capabilities = { 'net', 'net.80211control' } (string list)
info.category = 'net.80211control' (string)
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_168c_1a' (string)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/class/net/wifi0' (string)

42: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/
linux.subsystem = 'net' (string)
info.product = 'WLAN Interface' (string)
net.interface = 'ath0' (string)
net.physical_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_168c_1a' (string)
info.capabilities = { 'net', 'net.80211' } (string list)
info.category = 'net.80211' (string)

43: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_168c_1a'
pci.subsys_vendor = 'Atheros Communications, Inc.' (string)
info.product = 'AR5005G 802.11abg NIC' (string)
pci.product = 'AR5005G 802.11abg NIC' (string)
info.vendor = 'Atheros Communications, Inc.' (string)
pci.vendor = 'Atheros Communications, Inc.' (string)
info.linux.driver = 'ath_pci' (string)

[me@myLaptop home]$ dmesg | grep wifi
wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP
wifi0: mac 7.8 phy 4.5 radio 5.6
wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xd0000000, irq=193

[me@myLaptop home]# /sbin/lsmod
ip_conntrack 56993 2 ip_conntrack_netbios_ns,xt_state
nfnetlink 11353 1 ip_conntrack
iptable_filter 7233 1
ip_tables 17669 1 iptable_filter
ip6t_REJECT 9537 1
xt_tcpudp 7361 9
ip6table_filter 7105 1
ip6_tables 18821 1 ip6table_filter
x_tables 18501 6 ipt_REJECT,xt_state,ip_tables,ip6t_REJECT,xt_tcpudp,ip6_tables


//----------------------------------------------------------------

This is all the information I could locate. How do I find out the firmware information?

ifconfig? iwconfig? route?

erm.... oops.... sorry.

[me@myLaptop ~]$ /sbin/ifconfig
ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr **:**:**:**:**:**
inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: ****::****:****:****:****/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3800923 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4651845 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1708157140 (1.5 GiB) TX bytes:624881475 (595.9 MiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:3497 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3497 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:4815459 (4.5 MiB) TX bytes:4815459 (4.5 MiB)

wifi0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-**-**-**-**-**-**-**-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7544036 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1653748
TX packets:4670594 errors:3561 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
RX bytes:2167299596 (2.0 GiB) TX bytes:727855811 (694.1 MiB)
Interrupt:193 Memory:f8a00000-f8a10000


[me@myLaptop ~]$ /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"RG54GS"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: **:**:**:**:**:**
Bit Rate:6 Mb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=23/94 Signal level=-72 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:1726823 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.


[me@myLaptop ~]$ /sbin/route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
***.***.***.*** * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 ath0
default ***.***.***.*** 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ath0

Could you verify that these figures look "right" for the amount of downloading you've done?

RX bytes:1708157140 (1.5 GiB) TX bytes:624881475 (595.9 MiB)

Also, could you verify that your routing table is:
It probably doesn't make a big difference, but you never know what will turn up behind asterisks.

Also, interrupt 193? That doesn't seem right.

Finally, what browser are you using? If HTTP is the only thing affected (i.e. ftp transfers are OK) it sounds like it might be the browser.

Added:
Oh, and have you tried rebooting/resetting your router?

The ammount of network traffic seems to check out

Gateway on second is different

I am using Firefox however I have tried it with Konqueror and Lynx as well to the same conclusion.

I don't have access to the router, however this isn't the only access point I have tried it from where it runs slower than a snail. Also it works fine when I boot into Windows, As this is the case I can only deduce that the problem is with my setup, and not with the router.

I was hoping it would have something to do with:

[me@myLaptop home]$ dmesg | grep ath0
ath0: no IPv6 routers present

Also I mentioned that SSH is running really slow so I don't think this problem is limited to HTTP anymore.

When I run dmesg | grep ath0 I also get that 'no IPv6 routers present' message, so I don't think that's the problem.
What are the ping times to the router like (mine all sub 5ms)?

Interrupt 193 doesn't sound good. Check http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...nt-get-ip.html as that could be it

"I don't have access to the router,"

In that case, and since my guess about your default route is wrong, it might be a good idea to go over your problem and configuration with the router owner.

As I said, when I connect to the router through Windows it works fine.

I can't see how it can be a problem with the configuration of the router, as this would mean that the problem would be present in Windows as well... wouldn't it?

Also the problem http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...nt-get-ip.html was caused by having eth0 up which it isn't on my machine as can be seen by interfaces listed in previous post when I listed the results of [me@myLaptop ~]# route

have just run nmap on the IP address listed as my default route and it has come up with the following

Also my ping times are between 1.43ms and 2.13ms

If I do manage to get access to the router what should I be looking for? Although I know the principle of how they work, I have never even touched a router before let alone troubleshooting problems on one.