Intermittent WLAN disconnections

Hi all.. my WLAN seems to intermittently disconnect, I think it may be a driver issue...

It's a onboard Intel NIC (I don't have the exact version to hand at the moment).... but Zorin shows it as RALINK 802.11 N WLAN using driver RT2800USB.

Is there a way I can search for other drivers, perhaps those they have not be confirmed as working?

Thanks

Also please post the results of
lspci -nn
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

Hi and thanks for the replies...

The IFCONFIG result is as follows... something I should mention is that my router is setting the IP address. I am using this device as it supports "N"... I also have a Netgear PCI card (showing around 135mbps) that I have disabled as that only supports G and connects around 35mps (although does seem more stable).

Using the N device on Windows Vista seems fine, no disconnects.

wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:af:b8:b2:8f
inet addr:192.168.0.50 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::215:afff:feb8:b28f/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:69645 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:89837 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:59828297 (59.8 MB) TX bytes:86462341 (86.4 MB)

Here is the result of the other commands that MadVinegar asked me to post:

danny@Zorin:~$ lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller [8086:29c0] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI Express Root Port [8086:29c1] (rev 02)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection [8086:10c0] (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 02)
00:1a.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge [8086:244e] (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801IH (ICH9DH) LPC Interface Controller [8086:2912] (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:2922] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation G96 [GeForce 9500 GS] [10de:0644] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0013] (rev 01)
02:01.0 Multimedia controller [0480]: Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder [1131:7133] (rev d1)
02:02.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller [1106:3044] (rev c0)
danny@Zorin:~$ sudo lshw -c network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 19
bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:21:85:0f:a5:21
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=1.5.1-k firmware=1.1-2 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:42 memory:fdfc0000-fdfdffff memory:fdfff000-fdffffff ioport:ff00(size=32)
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: AR5212/AR5213 Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 00:0f:b5:80:e7:73
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k driverversion=3.2.0-33-generic-pae firmware=N/A latency=168 link=no maxlatency=28 mingnt=10 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
resources: irq:16 memory:fdde0000-fddeffff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
bus info: usb@1:5
logical name: wlan1
serial: 00:15:af:b8:b2:8f
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800usb driverversion=3.2.0-33-generic-pae firmware=0.29 ip=192.168.0.50 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
danny@Zorin:~$ sudo rfkill list all
0: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
danny@Zorin:~$

I see you have 1 internal card with ath5k module and 1 USB wireless adapter (rt2800usb)?
Why use the USB adapter? Is your internal card working?
Unplug the usb adapter and run in terminal

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
sudo modprobe ath5k

Does your wifi turn on?

Hi, no USB adapter... although I think the onboard wireless interface is configured through the USB bus if that makes sense.

Both Wireless interfaces connect fine... it's just the "N" on that is a bit intermittent.

Ok, now I understand. Yes, it is usual sometimes the wifi adapter to work via the USB bus. This is why I could not identify your wireless adapter via the command "lspci". If you give the results of "lsusb" then we will see it.

You can fix the "N" like follows:
Open terminal and write:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf

A blank document will open.
Copy and paste the following line inside it

options ath5k nohwcrypt=1

Save, close, reboot and let me know if your wifi works better!

Hi again, unfortunately that seems to have removed the wlan1 "N" NIC??

Not dependent as such... I can use either one although I generally use the "N" one which in Windows is described as 802.11 n/g/b Wireless LAN USB Adapter. As mentioned earlier my router is providing this device MAC address a 192.168.0.50 static IP address, in the the case of the other device it is always a dynamic IP address

Will do thanks... 3/4 of the way through the reinstall at the moment.

OK I'm in the newly installed Zorin... I've made the MTU changes and add the IP details as a static address... I'll let you know how it goes.... thanks again.

Just to let you know that on my fresh install of Zorin, this problem still exists...

Just to recap I have changed the MTU and also set a static IP address. The connection itself does not disconnect, it just seems to lock up resulting in page timeouts/unavailable. The only way to overcome this is it seems to disconnect/reconnect. The Atheros based Netgear G PCI card appears to be stable (although obviously much slower connection speed).

Have you tried changing channel in your router? The channel you are using may face interference etc, and may work far better when on another channel.

I haven't but it's fine with other machines and also when this machine is running Vista