[wplug] wireless networking stability

[Rick Reynolds]

>Just to add to the noise.  If there is nothing in your logs, it may be a
>heat issue.  I've noticed that my system runs a lot hotter in Linux
>(ACPI isn't fully functional on my system) and I'm pretty sure it
>doesn't ever power down my wireless card or lower the power level of it
>to prevent as much heat build up.  This heat can cause cards to function
>strangely.
>
>A good example of this is the first generation LinkSys WRT54Gs (the ones
>with about 30 LEDs on the front).  The venting wasn't so good, and the
>chips ran hot.  As a result, they sometimes overheat and just stop
>working.  Letting them cool off seems to fix it.   In my case, a dremel
>and a little fan did the same thing.
>  
>

Well, I'm wondering if this is the issue.  I've watched the networking 
drop off (running a ping to the AP in one window until it drops), while 
watching a tail -f of /var/log/messages (after turning up the reporting) 
and tail -f of the kern.log file.  Nothing significant in either 
coincides with of them shows up, except for this notation in the 
messages file:

Aug 12 14:59:56 gish waproamd(eth1)[3782]: No longer associated.

when the networking is lost and

Aug 12 15:00:08 gish waproamd(eth1)[3782]: Associated.

when it is regained.

I've googled a bit about waproamd, and all I've seen is that it has been 
deprecated in favor of wpa_supplicant.  I attempted to remove waproamd 
and put in wpa_supplicant, but I don't think I ever got it really 
working and in place correctly.

Should I go down this path more?  Or should I look at a temperature issue?

One other item:  I've noticed that it drops off when I'm using the 
wireless card more -- during a download of a large file, for instance 
rather than during just web browsing or email reading.  The fact that it 
drops off during a higher load also points to a possible temperature 
issue ... right?

Thanks,
Rick Reynolds
-- 
 I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us 
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. -- 
Galileo Galilei