Return-path: Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:40839 "EHLO lo.gmane.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932518Ab0EFRpG (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 May 2010 13:45:06 -0400 Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OA58B-0007MP-D1 for linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org; Thu, 06 May 2010 19:45:03 +0200 Received: from CPE0014bf4aedf8-CM00111ae2cca2.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com ([99.234.24.234]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 06 May 2010 19:45:03 +0200 Received: from senada by CPE0014bf4aedf8-CM00111ae2cca2.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 06 May 2010 19:45:03 +0200 To: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org From: seno Subject: Re: RTL 8187b - naughty behaviour Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 17:36:18 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <4BB7660A.3030900@lwfinger.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Hi Larry, I'm running Mandriva 2010 x86_64 (2.6.31.13) and have a 8187b chipset installed: 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter As many other linux users report, this chipset is supported but offers only limited performance, especially compared to results when using windows. Some time ago I connected to a Linksys wrt 54 GL router with Linksys firmware and recently I installed DD-wrt on that router, but perfomance remaind at the same (poor) level; meaning there must be something wrong with the rtl8187 linux modul. Right now the router is ~10 meters away and iwconfig wlan0 output is IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"xxx" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:14:BF:4A:ED:F9 Bit Rate=18 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx [3] Power Management:off Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-33 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 Right after booting, I can reach a wireless download rate of ~ 10mbit/s (I have 10 mbit cable internet). After a while, it seems that the wireless rate drops to 1 mbit/s although iwconfig wlan0 stills shows a bit rate of 11 or 18 mbit/s. That means, I get stuck at a download speed of ~ 130 K/s -unless I come closer to the router, 1 meter ie, then the wireless speed goes up again. The router status shows Wireless Packet Info Received (RX) 45915806 OK, 10 errors Transmitted (TX) 81142592 OK, 746 errors If the machine with the 8187b chip is connected, I get a lot of TX errors on the router. While linux shows good connection quality, the router indicates a bad signal quality: Signal Noise SNR Signal Quality -74 -94 20 24% -I installed the latest package from linux wireless, driver loaded but for some reason it was not able to connect to a wpa2 network (iwconfig wlan0 never shot enc key), so I uninstalled that again. -I booted a Mandirva 2010.0 x86 live cd to see if the problem is the same on 32 bit system, and yes, it is. -I found a 'newer' driver rtl8187B_linux_26.1056.1112.2009.release.tar.gz on ubuntu forum - compiled, installed but for any reason driver did not load correctly and something ooopsed (I blacklisted rtl8187 and set r8187 as alias for wlan0). Any idea what I could do to get some better performance with the 8187b chipset?