[metroidfox]

Hi all,

I've tried searching through the forums, the wiki, and Google in general to see if mine was an existing issue, but I have not found any matches.

I've got a desktop hooked up to my Trendnet TEW-632brp router, running dd-wrt v3-27456 (from http://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2015/06-27-2015-r27456/trendnet-tew632brp/) as a wireless client bridge. I also have a laptop running Fedora 22 with an Intel Wireless G card in it. Both computers receive WiFi from a Bell router.

Whenever the laptop engages in heavy traffic, it kills only the WAN access on my desktop. Funnily enough, I can still access the router's dd-wrt connection like nothing went wrong, but if I try to go to browse the web, nothing. A yum or dnf update seems to be the best at reproducing this, but enough streaming and so forth will also kill the desktop's Internet connection. I can fix the issue by unplugging and replugging the ethernet cable into my desktop, but if Fedora remains running, things will break again.

As it stands, my settings are all stock defaults, with the exception of being in client bridge mode, and I've disabled the SPI firewall. My guess is that dd-wrt kills the connection on my desktop momentarily, and something never recovers.

I've reproduced this issue continuously from Fedora 20 onwards, with v24 from at least the beginning of this year. I would imagine this has not worked correctly ever.

I can provide any more details to help fix this issue.

[tatsuya46]

run dmesg command from the bridged router when it drops, paste the output here in a txt file. fedora like linux os fedora? if so be on a recent kernel (how to update im clueless, i dont use linux i only tried it years ago & fedora..12 lol..was one of them)

and try enabling rts/cts in the bell router, ddwrt router, & all wifi clients in ur network if they have settings for it. if u have a choice between rts/cts or cts to self, use rts/cts, if the bell router has a no ack option, have it disabled

and what u probably figured already, consider upgrading the wifi card in the laptop, 802.11n nics are everywhere & cheap

[metroidfox]

Yep, this is fully updated Fedora. dnf and yum are the ways of updating the kernel as well as the rest of the system, and ironically, it's the best way of reproducing this issue.

I'm not entirely sure how to enable rts/cts protection across all my devices, so I'm going to look up how to do it then report back.

Attached is a dmesg pretty much off a new dd-wrt reboot, and carrying out a dnf update on the Fedora machine.

[tatsuya46]

this was run when the wireless dropped?

[metroidfox]

Indeed. Attached is another one from the issue occurring right now. It's not that the wireless drops. The computer behind dd-wrt always reports that Internet exists. It's just that browsing websites or using chat services slows to the point of being unusable.

The funny thing is that issues like this don't happen on my other computers that also have wireless cards, so it's somehow related to dd-wrt.

I've enabled rts/cts protection on dd-wrt. I did not see a way of doing this on my other computers, or on the Bell router, nor have I noticed much of a difference with it on vs. it being off.

EDIT: maybe things are more stable with it on. I'll keep this going for some time longer then report back.

[tatsuya46]

can u post a screenshot of the wifi settings (check advanced tab) of the client bridge, & whatever settings the isp router provides?

[metroidfox]

Sorry for getting back so late. I'm only around on this network on the weekends. Here are the two screenshots requested. The Bell router doesn't provide much in the way of options. Even with rts/cts protection enabled on dd-wrt, its connection seems to be getting smashed by Fedora on a regular basis this weekend.

[tatsuya46]

on the bell router: settings -> wireless/advanced, ur on the network option which isnt wireless settings

[metroidfox]

Oops. I didn't choose that one because it's even sparser.

EDIT: MAC filtering is disabled. For now.

[tatsuya46]

wow..typical isp config "options" at their best hardly anything, while on the bell config page, manually pick a channel dont let auto control it, its just good wifi practice (ive seen routers that LOVED to spam channel changes every..5 seconds, it was funny for about 1 minute)

for the bridge try change the following settings

RTS Threshold: Enable
Threshold: 2346 <-- if continues after this try 2304 if still again, then 1000 if it remains yet again, if even this has no effect then go back to 2346 but leave it on)
Short Preamble: Enable
ACK Timing: 1800

when the problem happens (but before any wireless reinits, reboots or anything that makes the interface go down), telnet or ssh login to the bridge, enter ifconfig, look at the ath0 interface, look at RX/TX packet data, is there collisions, overruns or other errors?