WIFI link dropping out

[Rob VDN]

Hi Folks,

Configuration:
Beyonwiz T2
Netgear MR1100 mobile router
Ice Tv
Beyonwiz USB WiFi Adapter

For many years now i have been happily operating ICE TV using the USB adapter on the front to the Beyonwiz with my Netgear Router. About three months ago, the link has started to drop out. I manage to get it going again through a reboot of the PVR and resetting the WLAN network and restarting ICE TV.

I have been trying to resolve the issue. It has improved with the link lasting longer but WiFi link still drops out.

The adapter blue WiFi light used to blink more or less continuously. Now it doesn't. I purchased a new adapter but i still have the same issue.
The Netgear router seems to work fine with laptops and phones. Even so, I was concerned that the battery wasn't holding its charge as well as it used to. I had the router on a timer so that the battery would never be full. I have now removed the battery altogether to take this out of the equation and left the unit on permanently.

More recently, i reset the router to operate at only 2.4GHz and not as a dual frequency unit and this does seem to have had a positive effect. The WiFi link now lasts for around 12 hours but does drop out, usually at night.

I am starting to wonder whether the power from the T2 to the USB WiFi adapter has faded over time and this is the cause of the problem.

Any thoughts or ideas or comments?

Thanks,
Rob

[MrQuade]

Is there any correlation between when the wireless problems started and any firmware updates to either the access point or the T2?
I know it is hard to pinpoint exact dates, but were there any changes vaguely around the same time?

Have you tried moving the router closer to the T2 to perhaps check if a consistently stronger signal resolves the issue? That's not to say I have an explanation why it would have been working fine for a while and then suddenly stopped behaving.

Have you tried a different USB port on the T2? You may have cabling limitations, and swapping things about may look uglier (at least temporarily for the test), but the front and rear ports are wired differently internally, and you may be seeing some issues that are limited to the front port.

[Rob VDN]

Thanks MrQuade.

There are a few questions there. I'll respond to each.

I assume you mean the Netgear Router when you refer to the Access Point. A lot of settings changes were attempted and reset during my investigation but I don't recall updating firmware as one of the options around that time. The problem seemed to coincide with a period when we went away on holidays and the message log on the router was full when we returned home. Telstra used an old phone SIM when we got the router and people are still leaving messages. The T2 has been locking up and slow for a while so we did update the firmware to it when we returned from holidays.

I have been moving the Router around for a better direct line of sight but it would have been no further than 4 meters away from the beyonwiz for the whole period.

I have also tried both USB ports for the adapter and this has not made any difference.

The biggest improvement in the length of time before the Wifi dropped out was when i stopped using the 5Ghz band on the router and went to a single band only.

Any thoughts on why the adapter wifi light is no longer blinking?

Thanks and regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

I assume you mean the Netgear Router when you refer to the Access Point.

Yep.

The T2 has been locking up and slow for a while so we did update the firmware to it when we returned from holidays.

Any thoughts on why the adapter wifi light is no longer blinking?

If your T2 update was a major update 16.1 to 17.5 or up to 19.3, then the T2 would almost certainly be using a different set of WiFi drivers than it was previously. These could be having an effect on the stability of your wireless connection. What WiFi adaptor are you using on your T2 at the moment? Can you provide a brand name, or a chipset? Grumpy_Geoff may have a better handle on what ones work better at the moment......it seems to be a bit of a moving target.

If you can capture log files from the T2 when (ideally soon after) the connection fails, them often the cause, or at lease some helpful messages, can be seen. Getting at the system log files while your network connection is down is a bit of a hassle though.


If all else fails, the usual advice is to ditch the adaptor and switch to using an external Wireless client device that can bridge your T2's LAN connection to the Wireless connection. It means another device and extra cables, and power adaptors, but the result is usually a more stable network connection. I do something similar with my T2. I used to use a USB adaptor attached to it, but opted to switch to a more reliable WiFi signal by using a WiFi mesh node that could provide a LAN connection. (I hadn't had any real problems with the WiFi adaptor other than a generally weak signal at that particular location).

[Rob VDN]

Thanks again MrQuade.

It was a major update to 17.5.

I purchased the adapter from Beyonwiz and has the Beyonwiz name on it. The box it was in says it is an Equip EP-MS1559 11N 300Mbps adapter.

I hope that is what you are after. I'll see what I can do about the logs but I am not hopeful as it seems to fail during the night.

Ditching the adaptor is something I was hoping to avoid. The NBN is supposed to be coming here soon so that may provide some alternate options.

I appreciate your quick responses.

Regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

You can try updating to the 19.3 series firmware. I am fairly sure that some new drivers have been included, but I honestly couldn't tell you if they are more or less reliable than the 17.5 ones.

The latest firmware images were posted at the end of the current "beta" thread here.


Again though, I think that Grumpy_Geoff has a better handle on the history and performance of the wireless dongle drivers, so he may be able to add something here.

[Rob VDN]

Thanks again.

How do I know if my T2 is set to Beta Feed?

Rob

[MrQuade]

If you load 19.3 series firmware onto the T2 at this point in time, you will automatically receive all the newest beta updates without having to explicitly register for the beta.

Once 19.3 is released officially, you will only receive the public updates from there on.

You need to be able to telnet or SSH into the T2 in order to check the configuration files directly to see if you are on the beta feed or regular feed. There is unfortunately no sure fire way to know just from the T2 GUI.

[Paul_oz53]

I can't help wondering if the dropouts are related to channel congestion on the WiFi. You don't mention trying a different WiFi channel. It may be the problem is because of interference from a neighbour (unintentional of course).

Personally, I use a wired connection for the wizzes but you could try changing the wireless channel and see if that makes a difference. Costless and easy enough to do with nothing to lose.

When we got the NBN we got a new router that has performed well. We updated all 15 of our wireless devices as we use set IPs in the router tied to MAC addresses for everything. You may have similar good luck when the NBN comes.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Again though, I think that Grumpy_Geoff has a better handle on the history and performance of the wireless dongle drivers, so he may be able to add something here.

... And I'm in Margaret River for a few days with only phone access (Trevor).

The EDUP EP-MS1559 uses a Realtor 8192CU chip. From 20180417 firmware onwards, the driver's been crap.

[MrQuade]

The EDUP EP-MS1559 uses a Realtor 8192CU chip. From 20180417 firmware onwards, the driver's been crap.

Good effort getting on the forums then

Sink a couple at the Colonial for me

[Rob VDN]

Thanks Gents.

This is getting complicated from my "non geek" brain.

Paul: My channel is set to auto on my Netgear. Are you suggesting I try a number instead? What impact is this likely to have on other devices.

MrQuade: Is a Factory Reset an option? Will firmware revert back to the original version. Maybe if I revert back to the twin Tuner rather than have a third tuner set up, the unit will work for our purposes and simplify things until the NBN comes through.

Kind regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

Paul: My channel is set to auto on my Netgear. Are you suggesting I try a number instead? What impact is this likely to have on other devices.

o impact, the client devices will switch to the new channel automatically without you needing to do anything more.

MrQuade: Is a Factory Reset an option? Will firmware revert back to the original version. Maybe if I revert back to the twin Tuner rather than have a third tuner set up, the unit will work for our purposes and simplify things until the NBN comes through.

The "factory reset", somewhat counter intuitively, just resets all (or mostly all) of your settings back to your current firmware default values.

The *fully* set all your values back to firmware defaults, you need to re-install the firmware from a USB stick. This process formats the internal storage and loads on a whole fresh new operating system.

In order to roll back to the better behaved drivers, you would need to revert back to the 16.1 firmware by way of a USB firmware installation. It would be a shame to do that though, as you'd be losing all the latest improvements and channel icons etc, but I understand that having working networking is also rather important .

Perhaps this is something that PeterU (firmware guru) can find time to look into in more detail. If the Beyonwiz-supplied WiFi sticks are no longer functioning correctly, then this is a bit of a problem.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

How do I know if my T2 is set to Beta Feed?

Use File Commander to navigate through 'internal flash' to directory /etc/opkg and view the contents of file all-feed.conf (i.e. /etc/opkg/all-feed.conf). Press TEXT to view it.
If the "http" URL has 'feeds.beyonwiz.org' then it's the production feed. the beta feed will be 'beta.beyonwiz.org'.

[Paul_oz53]

Thanks Gents.

This is getting complicated from my "non geek" brain.

Paul: My channel is set to auto on my Netgear. Are you suggesting I try a number instead? What impact is this likely to have on other devices.

MrQuade: Is a Factory Reset an option? Will firmware revert back to the original version. Maybe if I revert back to the twin Tuner rather than have a third tuner set up, the unit will work for our purposes and simplify things until the NBN comes through.

Kind regards,
Rob

Hi Rob,

It shouldn't impact any of your devices to simply set a fixed channel number. Devices scan the band for the channel with the appropriate SSID. What can happen is your router selects a low number channel as does one or more neighbours, resulting in congestion on that channel. if you select a number like 6, 7, 8 there's less chance that you will have this effect.

Mine is set to 8 on the 2.4 GHz band and 48 on the 5 GHz and has been up for 106 days without issues. I have about 8 devices on the 2.4 GHz band, all working fine.

It may not help but its worth a try. If Grumpy Geoff is right (and he usually is), then it's likely to be a driver issue. I flirted with removing the wifi drivers a time back and reinstalling an older version in later firmware but never worked out how to extract the older version to install.

Some reading I did suggests that on Linux the RTL8192cu driver has some compatibility issues with updates to the linux core to version 4. Not sure that this is even related to our machines but there is mention of a fixed version for version 4 which requires some skill to install on Linux. Since the later Wizzes run enigma2, which is in the linux family it may (or may not) be a clue as to what is wrong. If so, alternatives like a wireless bridge or powerline carrier may be a better fix if a cable is not an option.

As MrQuade says, you could try 16.1 firmware but I think 19.3 is a much better option, even though its wifi performance will likely be affected by the same driver issue.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I can't help wondering if the dropouts are related to channel congestion on the WiFi. You don't mention trying a different WiFi channel. It may be the problem is because of interference from a neighbour (unintentional of course).

Yep, good idea. Use a Wi-Fi analyser app on a phone/tablet to check for channel contention.

[MrQuade]

It shouldn't impact any of your devices to simply set a fixed channel number. Devices scan the band for the channel with the appropriate SSID. What can happen is your router selects a low number channel as does one or more neighbours, resulting in congestion on that channel. if you select a number like 6, 7, 8 there's less chance that you will have this effect.

Ideally, you really only ever want to use channels 1, 6, or 11 in your normal setting. These are the channels that guarantee no overlapping interference between each channel.

If there are more than three access points in an area, then it is better that the extra access points completely overlap by putting them on channels 1, 6, and 11, rather than having them partially overlap by having them on 7, 8 etc.... WiFi is designed to deal with APs on the same channel, but des not do so well with APs that are on adjacent but interfering channels.

Playing with power levels and placement of the AP can help, but you are a bit limited when it comes to interacting with WiFi APs that are owned by neighbours.

Also, my advice for the 2.4GHz band is to only ever use 20Mhz channel widths. 40MHz is just too wide and leads to way too much sideband interference and is a bit un-neighbourly. If you live out in the bush though, go nuts! Similarly with 5Ghz channels, there is a lot more space there, so you can easily use 40MHz or 80MHz channels.

[Rob VDN]

Hello again gents,

I have captured a couple of screen shots of logs after WiFi failure and after attempting to restart the network. Apologies for the quality and superfluous background. I hope this helps to shed some light on the issues.

Regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

Thanks for checking those. Unfortunately, the IceTV specific logs only really tell us that the T2 can't talk to the Ice servers and not much else.

logs like /var/log/dmesg and /var/log/messages are more useful for diagnosing the cause of the failure.

You would need to either use the "Sources / files" utility in the main menu and go and find those log files and copy them to a USB drive.

Or alternatively, if the network is running (which it probably won't be given that we are trying to catch the WiFi in a failed state), then you can grab those files via ftp or SCP.
ftp://root@beyonwizt2/var/log/

To access the Wiz via FTP/SCP/SSH/Telnet, you will first need to set up a root password from the setup menu
MENU->Setup->Network->Password

[Rob VDN]

Hi MrQuade,
I tied for about an hour to get those files but I had no success,
I think I might have to wait until the NBN comes through..
Kind regards,
Rob

[prl]

Nothing in MtQuade's suggestions depends on you having an NBN connection. You don''t need any network connection at all for his suggestion of using Sources / Files and copying to a USB stick, and using your browser for FTP access to the files requires a working home network, but doesn't access the wider Internet at all.

[MrQuade]

I think I might have to wait until the NBN comes through..

NBN won't really help in this instance.

Did you try the "Sources / files" method first?
Were you unable to locate the log files, or was there a problem in the copy procedure?

It may not really be necessary though. If what Grumpy_Geoff reported is correct, that the drivers have been flakey since quite a few firmware versions back, then the problem should be common and relatively easily reproducible.

This is another case of something I or someone should just log officially in the bug tracker, so it gets on the radar and can be looked at.
I have no idea how fixable this is, since the choice of driver and kernel versions seems to be a bit of a black art when it comes to these MIPS based PVRs.

[Paul_oz53]

Hi MrQuade,
I tied for about an hour to get those files but I had no success,
I think I might have to wait until the NBN comes through..
Kind regards,
Rob

Rob,

The Sources/files method should work ok.

1. Plug a usb stick into a spare port (front or rear).
2. Navigate to "Sources/files" and then press OK.
3. You should see two columns. One will be your source and the other the destination.
4. Use PREVIOUS / NEXT to swap between them.
5. Navigate down to "Internal flash". Press OK.
6. "var" is a subdirectory - navigate down until you find it. Press OK.
7. Navigate to "log".
8. Select "messages".
9. Use NEXT to swap to the other side.
10. Navigate to your USB device and press OK to select it as the target.
11. Use PREVIOUS to swap back to the source.
12. Press YELLOW. A menu should appear asking you to confirm the copy operation. Press OK or press "1".
13. Repeat copy for "dmesg"
14. Press "EXIT".
15. Navigate to "SimpleUmount", select your usb stick and unmount it.

Job done.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I have no idea how fixable this is, since the choice of driver and kernel versions seems to be a bit of a black art when it comes to these MIPS based PVRs.

You got that right! I've been testing one that uses the RTL8812BU chip. On MIPS it dies when you ask it to do more than pull the skin off a rice pudding. On ARM it's quite good.

[Rob VDN]

Thanks gents.

Paul's method looks simple enough so I will give it a crack. Hopefully it will shed some light on the issue.

Your efforts are much appreciated,
Rob

[Rob VDN]

OK. I have followed Paul's instructions and downloaded the logs.

I can see them on my USB stick but when I try to attach the files, i get a message to say I couldn't do this because they do not have a valid file extension. Should I rename the files?

Regards,
Rob

[IanB]

Put them is a .ZIP archive.

[Rob VDN]

Thanks IanB.
I am very grateful for the number of people that are trying to help me.
See attachments.

Kind regards,
Rob

[prl]

OK. I have followed Paul's instructions and downloaded the logs.

I can see them on my USB stick but when I try to attach the files, i get a message to say I couldn't do this because they do not have a valid file extension. Should I rename the files?

If you want to view them yourself on Windows, just rename them to have a .txt extension. They;re plain text files with Unix-style (<LF>) line endings (rather than DOS/Windows style <CR><LF>).

Most Windows editors will be able to read them, though.

[MrQuade]

Most Windows editors will be able to read them, though.

In terms of the bundled apps, you would use "write" or "wordpad" as that will preserve Unix style formatting. The standard Notepad will make a mess of it.

Notepad++ is a very popular third party text editor for Windows and is another option.

[Rob VDN]

Thank you all.

I did read then as a txt file but it looks like I missed the failure event. Is this correct? Should I repeat the exercise as soon as I notice the failure? Does the log run for a period of 24 hours or less?

Regards,
Rob

[prl]

I did read then as a txt file but it looks like I missed the failure event. Is this correct? Should I repeat the exercise as soon as I notice the failure? Does the log run for a period of 24 hours or less?

/Var/log/messages and the dmesg buffer are cleared on reboot. They will last as long as the Beyonwiz isn't rebooted.

So if you have a failure, you need to get copies of those before you reboot the PVR.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I did read then as a txt file but it looks like I missed the failure event. Is this correct?

Your T2 associates to the router -

Code: Select all

Oct  9 08:05:40 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: rtl8192cu: Chip version 0x11

... and then 2 minutes later it drops out -

Code: Select all

Oct  9 08:07:37 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: disassociated from b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 (Reason: 2)

That cycle is repeated.

A bit of googling reveals -
Linux WiFi: Deauthenticated Reason Codes

Code / Reason / Explanation
2 / Previous authentication no longer valid / Client has associated but is not authorised

So is there a password encryption type mismatch when you created the wireless connection after flashing the new firmware, i.e. "WPA" c.f. "WPA or WPA2"?
I've seen that before, where the adapter/Wiz will initially connect then drop out.
Try the "other" encryption type from what you have currently.

[Paul_oz53]

...
So is there a password encryption type mismatch when you created the wireless connection after flashing the new firmware, i.e. "WPA" c.f. "WPA or WPA2"?
I've seen that before, where the adapter/Wiz will initially connect then drop out.
Try the "other" encryption type from what you have currently.

Well spotted.

I recall encountering a problem with exactly those two alternatives in the WiFi adapter settings - one worked fine and the other did not. Definitely worth checking and trying. I believe I had to use the "WPA or WPA2" option.

[Rob VDN]

Hello folks,
I did as you suggested and altered the encryption yesterday and it was looking very promising. That is until this morning when it lost the WIFI connection again. When I do a network scan it shows no networks at all. When it works properly it normally shows other networks around the area as well.

Any way, I have followed Paul's instructions again and obtained new logs for your information. I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

[Rob VDN]

Sorry.

Thanks and regards,
Rob

[Grumpy_Geoff]

The T2 authenticates/associates to the router, and then a minute later it appears that the connection dropped out -

Code: Select all

Oct 12 12:20:02 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: authenticate with b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0
Oct 12 12:20:02 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: send auth to b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 (try 1/3)
Oct 12 12:20:02 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: authenticated
Oct 12 12:20:02 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: associate with b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 (try 1/3)
Oct 12 12:20:02 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: RX AssocResp from b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
Oct 12 12:20:02 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: associated
...
Oct 12 12:21:07 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: deauthenticating from b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 by local choice (reason=3)

Reason 3 -
'Deauthenticated because sending STA is leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS
The access point went offline, deauthenticating the client.'

[Rob VDN]

Thank you Grumpy_Geoff for your reply on a Saturday. That is service "above and beyond."

I am not sure what your message in code means but it does seem that Restarting the Network (to update ICE TV EPG and timers) is a trigger for the failure of the WiFi connection. At the moment it is set to 5 minutes, which I realise is very short, but I figure the less time that the WiFi Connection is off the better the chances of it restarting. I am beginning to think that logic is flawed. However, it does need to restart eventually so if the theory is correct, the failure would be inevitable any way.

Best regards,
Rob

[Grumpy_Geoff]

About 50 seconds after the T2 started, at roughly 12:20:02, the wireless adapter authenticated (joined) with your router and associated (signed in) to it.
Then it drops out at 12:21:07 due to your router "disappearing" (based upon deauthenticating from b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 by local choice (reason=3)).
About 4 seconds later (12:21:11) it associates and authenticates again.
Dropping out again about 8 mins later (same (reason=3)).
It then times out after 3 attempts of trying to authenticate again -

Code: Select all

Oct 12 12:29:19 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: send auth to b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 (try 3/3)
Oct 12 12:29:19 beyonwizt2 user.info kernel: wlan0: authentication with b0:b9:8a:a1:54:f0 timed out

It doesn't reconnect. In my experience (which is really limited to when testing wireless adapters, as I normally use an ethernet connection), this is common on the Wiz, whereas a mobile device will re-establish a connection.
I doubt it's anything to do your IceTV fetch frequency.

Have you used a mobile app to analyse for competing wireless networks and channels?

[Rob VDN]

Thanks again Grumpy_Geoff.

Good to know about ICE TV.

I did download a couple of WiFi analysers but they didn't really provide me with the information I needed, merely speeds. I have now googled and found I could use the command prompt on Windows 10 to get the information I wanted.

I think I mentioned before that my WiFi channel is set to "Auto". When I did use Windows 10, I found there were six competing SSIDs at the time of the test. Two each were on channel 1 and 11 and one each on 6 and 13. My Wifi Channel was set on 3.

I would have thought that 3 was OK but may be I should set it on "Manual" and 3 rather than "Auto". Does that sound OK and is there anything else I might need to watch out for when connecting devices to the router?

Kind regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

Given that info, I'd be inclined to set it to 6.

At the moment your AP is competing with both channel 1 and 6 as sideband interference. Best to share with 6 and the APs can manage themselves.

The relative strengths of the competing APs can factor in, but for now, keep it simple.

[Rob VDN]

OK. Thanks MrQuade. I will give it a go. Can you clarify what AP stands for!

Regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

OK. Thanks MrQuade. I will give it a go. Can you clarify what AP stands for!

Wireless Access Point.

It's a term that can refer to anything that allows you to connect to wifi, be it a router, phone with sharing enabled or some other type of device. It's just handy shorthand.

[Rob VDN]

Hi again folks.

I'm afraid changing to channel 6 didn't solve the problem.

I have taken new scans today of the logs - dmesgs and messages - for your consideration and analysis. I have also done a few more wireless access point scans and summarised them in an Excel spreadsheet and a Notepad txt file, but neither would be accepted as an attachment. My only comments are to say that the other AP using channel 6 (Optus) is slightly weaker than my Nighthawk M1 but not by that much and that each scan was different in that the Wifi Networks or numbers of networks varied slightly.

Any ideas how I might get the spreadsheet to you?

Any thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

I'm afraid changing to channel 6 didn't solve the problem.

Didn't think it would help for this issue, but is overall good practice

I just found this article, when I noticed the "CRDA" line in your messages log file
https://superuser.com/questions/974017/ ... then-drops

It suggest that the world regulatory domain may not be set, and that setting it could help.

It's possible that the AU regulatory domain would need to be set if the driver isn't making an assumption itself?

Bit of a long shot, and maybe it is something Geoff can have a look at if he has a box that he can test this issue with.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Any thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I chucked my Realtek rtl8192cu adapter (so same chipset) in my T4 (same CPU architecture) and set it up. It associated/authenticated _once_ and hasn't yet missed a beat.
The T4 has done a number of IceTV updates, and I've forced many firmware update checks. It's now been streaming a movie from a Samba share for over an hour.
The T4 is on 19.3.20190928 firmware.

Your adapter dropping roughly every 10 minutes (at IceTV fetch time?) makes me start to suspect your router.
It deauthenticated 71 times, before eventually appearing to give up completely.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

To rule the adapter out -
Do you have a spare phone that you can setup a "mobile hotspot" on it for extended testing? Or use your phone if you'll not miss it for the many hours the test could take.

[Rob VDN]

OK. Thanks.

I will try my phone overnight. Shouldn't get too many calls then.

With regards to the 19.3 beta firmware, how can I check whether my T2 is compatible? Is there a series of instructions I can use to check it?

Regards,
Rob

[MrQuade]

With regards to the 19.3 beta firmware, how can I check whether my T2 is compatible? Is there a series of instructions I can use to check it?

The T2 will definitely run that firmware. There is a firmware image that was specifically built for the T2. A USB update completely formats the T2 and installs the firmware fresh, so there is no concern about being compatible with previous versions of firmware either.

The latest image is here.