daniewicz Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 I have a Asus W7J laptop with a 3945 wireless card and use the ipw3945 daemon. I dual-boot using Kubuntu (Ubuntu 6.10 edgy) and Win XP . I have a question regarding the strength of wireless signals. This week I attended a technical conference in Tampa. The conference people supplied wireless access to the participants. I was able to use the wireless under both Linux and XP. However, in some of the more remote corners of the conference hotel, the ipw3945 was unable to connect. I had no such problems with XP. Has anyone had a similar experience? Is there a way to increase the ability to connect with a weaker signal when using the ipw3945 daemon? Thanks all. [moved from Laptops by spinynorman] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavaeolus Posted November 19, 2007 Report Share Posted November 19, 2007 Strangely enough I had the opposite experience, with Win XP I had a weak signal which the connection sometimes dropping, while with Mandriva 2008 and Ubuntu 7.10 I have a much better signal, and even if it drops there are no Problems reconnecting. Maybe you could try kwifi-manager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted November 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2007 I currently use wicd. In an earlier post I was encouraged to switch from KNetworkManager to wicd link I don't believe I have ever used kwifi-manager. Something to think about..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavaeolus Posted November 20, 2007 Report Share Posted November 20, 2007 I used it so far only on Mandriva 2008, because it lets you deactivate the wifi antenna, a function I have not found so far in Mandrivas network-tool (which is otherwise fantastic), but maybe I am just to silly to find the switch there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonEberger Posted November 20, 2007 Report Share Posted November 20, 2007 i've seen the same issue. on the university campus i'm on there are two distinct sets of wireless networks: one for visitors and the other for university affiliates. in the same office within 5 minutes of each other the linux (using ipw3945d just like you're using) struggled to even find the signal (/sbin/iwlist eth1 scan) while under windows it showed a strong signal strength. in windows i'm actually using the intel tool that came with it and not the windows wireless-manager. i would think that since they're both from intel, they'd work equivalently. but perhaps something is amiss. jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavaeolus Posted November 20, 2007 Report Share Posted November 20, 2007 (edited) Seems the ipw-driver has a problem if there are more than one wireless network with about the same signal strength, I once had this problem at home (there is another wireless network in my neighbourhood), but since windows had the same problems connecting that day and it never surfaced again, I did not digg any deeper into the problem. Edit: Just encountered something really weird: with Mandriva I can connect to my wireless network without problems, with Ubuntu 7.10 I get no connection at the moment :huh: there is one other network at the moment and both the Mandriva Network Tool and KKWifiManager say 45-49 % signal strength for my own network will try how other distributions behave Edited November 20, 2007 by lavaeolus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 I have problems with ipw3945 crashing my machine every 3 hours or so. It stops responding, and then I can't shut my machine down, other than a hard reset (5 seconds or more on the power button). This is progress on the older driver version since I couldn't get anything on that. I managed to connect once, but after that it never worked again. And even, the iwlwifi driver for 3945 or 4965 is even worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted November 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 Thanks for the responses folks, I appreciate the feedback. It appears that ipw3945 has some problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 (edited) That's funny... my daughter's laptop has an onboard 3945, and it is working right out of the box without ANY issue (she is running PCLinuxOS 2007). My antenna signal is quite weak, but she had no trouble connecting even from some 100 ft. away! Edited November 21, 2007 by scarecrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted November 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 I would say that my ipw3945 troubles occurred when I was perhaps 300 feet from the antenna. distance < 300 feet, both XP and KUbuntu worked distance > 300 feet, XP worked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavaeolus Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 (edited) Funny thing on my thinkpad is that mandriva works best, windows worked ok (although it always showed weaker signals than mandriva) and ubuntu only works if it wants, but then it shows roughly the same signal strength and connection speed as mandriva, it just does not want to connect sometimes (couldn't persuade it to work reliably so far) still have to test debian, fedora and opensuse haven't tested the distance, but my access point is "at the other end of the house" (there are two concrete walls and one ceiling between access point and notebook) Edited November 21, 2007 by lavaeolus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 It can depend on how new/old your hardware is to the success of your version of ipw card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavaeolus Posted November 23, 2007 Report Share Posted November 23, 2007 (edited) but I still don't understand the different behaviour of different distributions with the same card, so far only mandriva and to some extent winxp worked reliably with it :huh: ??? behaviour on fedora 7 is the same as on ubuntu 7.10 different firmware ??? just guessing Edited November 23, 2007 by lavaeolus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted November 23, 2007 Report Share Posted November 23, 2007 I also noticed that, Debian Etch/SID, Ubuntu 7.04 and Fedora 7 all had the symptoms of connecting the first time, and never again after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavaeolus Posted November 23, 2007 Report Share Posted November 23, 2007 haven't tested debian etch yet, but they all use network-manager ?, at least on my notebook I have the impression it is not the driver but network-manager that for some strange reason does not want to connect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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