WiFi connects only part of the time at startup; but solid when it does

Hello,

I've been using my Pogo for a variety of things over the years (asterisk, zoneminder, mythbackend, etc.), but finally got a real home server for the majority of those things. Still want to get some use out of my Pogo though, so decided to configure it as an internet radio, which is what I did with the Pogo's predecessor, my Slug, which worked well. Anyway, the Pogo will be in another room, so I needed WiFi. I'm pretty clumsy with Linux, but I managed to get it working, almost correctly, but not quite. The WiFi is one of those Raspberry Pi Edimax mini dongles, and I'm using MPD for the stream. I've got a static IP with WPA2 (forget which variety) security. If I boot it and it connects, it works perfectly. It's solid as a rock and I can stream for hours without an issue (i.e. the basic config is OK and the connection is strong). The problem is with the "if it connects", because 1/3rd of the time (or more), it will not connect. The dongle light comes on, and it's running, but I don't get an IP address. Anyone have a better idea of what happens during that connect process and what could be happening that prevents it from "catching"? Sounds like some kind of a timing issue to me.

Really bothersome, because sometimes I will have to restart it 8 or 9 times before it works.

I thought one solution would be to do ifdown, ifup after boot if it's not connected, and I found a script that does just that (checks for IP address, then down-ups if not present), but that doesn't do it either. The behavior is: if it connects at startup, it works great for hours. But it doesn't connect 70% of the time.

Anyway, probably not enough info for someone to help, but I thought it might ring some bells for someone. Thanks in advance if so.

My first step would be, to look at the messages you get, which you can get via "dmesg" when it does not connect. But I guess, if the Pogo is not connected, you can't do this as you can't access it? If you can (via ethernet), dmesg should give you an idea what is going on.

I had a similar question but did not get an answer, but look at http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,26071

===========================
Blog: https://rmkrug.wordpress.com/

1 x Pogoplug E02 (pink): Logitech media server

1 x Pogoplug E02 (pink): FTP server only (throw away configuration - quick to rebuild)

1 x GoFlex Net: running OpenMediaVault



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2016 12:19PM by rkrug.

for my two cents worth i would try a different usb wifi adaptor. i had loads of problems with them until i standardised on ATHEROS as my chipset of choice.

rkrug Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My first step would be, to look at the messages
> you get, which you can get via "dmesg" when it
> does not connect. But I guess, if the Pogo is not
> connected, you can't do this as you can't access
> it? If you can (via ethernet), dmesg should give
> you an idea what is going on.
>
> I had a similar question but did not get an
> answer, but look at
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,26071

This isn't actually the script that I used (I can't find that one now), but the one in this thread does pretty much the same thing.
reconnect script
Like I said, it didn't actually work for me though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2016 04:17PM by allerretour.

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> for my two cents worth i would try a different usb
> wifi adaptor. i had loads of problems with them
> until i standardised on ATHEROS as my chipset of
> choice.


I've actually got another WiFi dongle at home (very old; not Atheros), so I think I'll try that out. Thanks.