In/Out errors :(

hoba · May 10, 2006, 9:49 PM

Thanks hoba!
Although it's fairly obvious, I was just hoping to see it spelled out in no uncertain terms that 0=Main and 1=Aux. -Pete

I think that is related to the hardwarelayout. I have even seen cards with no label on either of the antennaoutputs. I recommend doing what nima.m suggested. Try to see what gives you the best results. Generate some traffic (try to load it) and you should see errors increasing rather fast with the wrong setting. Closing the case might help finding the wrong setting too, so you get some noise reflections inside the case with the non hooked up output.

nima.m · May 10, 2006, 9:56 PM

I have no idea :-)

I bought one of those Lintex 6 Nic router and told them to install a CM9 minipci and a external antenna and send it to me.
And they did that, And I havn't open my case for checking it.

pcatiprodotnet · May 10, 2006, 10:39 PM

I just tried the above procedure on beta4, deleted /tmp/config.cache, rebooted for good measure, and it didn't change.
I loaded up /cf/conf/config.xml , and re-checked it…
<maximumstates><afterfilterchangeshellcmd>sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=0;sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=0;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0</afterfilterchangeshellcmd>

but in shell it still reports...

sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity

dev.ath.0.diversity: 1

sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1

sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna

dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0</maximumstates>

nima.m · May 10, 2006, 10:35 PM

Change it to :

<shellcmd>sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0</shellcmd>
<afterfilterchangeshellcmd>sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0</afterfilterchangeshellcmd>

then reboot and check

sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity

pcatiprodotnet · May 10, 2006, 10:50 PM

It's still unchanged. -Pete

pcatiprodotnet · May 13, 2006, 3:59 PM

Is there a way to simply run a shell script after pfsense finishes booting? If so, I could put the sysctl commands there.
This problem with the antennas is causing us quite a bit of hassle.
Also, I wouldn't recommend pfSense pre-determining the antenna settings because people will often attach a single pigtail on the "wrong" mini-pci U.FL connector or transpose two connectors for main/aux. If you must, perhaps setting both Tx & Rx to Auto would be the most generally helpful; but, having the ability to set them in the GUI is golden.
Thank you, -Pete

lsf · May 13, 2006, 6:33 AM

This is not something we controll, it's controlled by the freebsd driver/HAL. One of the reasons i haven't added these settings are just because of that. What should be defaults ? should I first up the card and enable it, and then allow the values to be changed ? if not, how should i get the defaults ? (the defaults "change" based on what settings it found "sensible" when the interface was up'ed and configured).
Basically what i'm trying to say is that the driver does not behave the same on every HW combo/user setup. So it's hard to pick any default. I know the driver does not do this perfectly, but it probably does a better job then us presetting/hardcoding this.

nima.m · May 13, 2006, 10:07 AM

@pcatiprodotnet:

Is there a way to simply run a shell script after pfsense finishes booting? If so, I could put the sysctl commands there.

Thats what shellcmd tag do,

Lets try this
1.Change your config file in this way :
<shellcmd>echo 1 > /beforeShell;sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0;echo 1 > /afterShell</shellcmd>
<afterfilterchangeshellcmd>echo 1 > /beforeFilter;sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0;echo 1 > /afterFilter;</afterfilterchangeshellcmd>

2.Reboot

3.SSH to your router

4.Run this command one by one and see the result :

ls /beforeShell
ls /afterShell
ls /beforeFilter
ls /afterFilter

pcatiprodotnet · May 14, 2006, 8:33 PM

After some investigation, I discovered that boot commands are working; however, after a little time, the old settings get put back. I'm not quite sure what to make of this. Perhaps with Diversity is On, the wireless card is changing the Rx antenna setting based on what it thinks is best at the moment?

Another handy command: athstats

Although information is sparse, it appears that for tx/rxantenna setting: 0=auto, 1=antenna1, 2=antenna2.

-Pete

billm · May 14, 2006, 1:36 PM

@pcatiprodotnet:

After some investigation, I discovered that boot commands are working; however, after a little time, the old settings get put back. I'm not quite sure what to make of this.
-Pete

Yeah, I believe some of that is the ATH driver. It's annoying. FWIW, I have a machine with two antenna's attached and I constantly get errors - it doesn't seem to impact the performance of the unit, so I've just learned to ignore it.

–Bill

lsf · May 16, 2006, 10:20 PM

@pcatiprodotnet:

Although information is sparse, it appears that for tx/rxantenna setting: 0=auto, 1=antenna1, 2=antenna2.

To be honest i haven't checked this in a while, so it might have changed in the ath driver, however madwifi also seems to have what I stated earlier, and it used to be the defautls of the HAL.
So this might be some weirdness with athstats as well (i'll check this out later)
BTW: both=auto

If diversity is on then it should change antennas whenever it needs to (autosense), however if diversity is off then it should stick to what you set it to. And diversity should not turn on again unless you change the interface settings or up/down the interface.

rneily · May 18, 2006, 3:03 AM

Another question.. If I enable TPC via sysctl commands, it seems to turn on both antennas, and diversity. Does TPC require the use of two antennas? I have searched on this, but I cant find anything? (I'm using a CM9)

lsf · May 19, 2006, 12:39 AM

That really depends on the implemetation, to be honest I'm not sure how this is controlled in sams HAL.
Normally it should not require diversity and/or two antennas.

rneily · May 20, 2006, 4:16 AM

Nevermind. I got it working, I was using the wrong antenna connector on the card. On the Cm9, the main port is the one nearest the corner of the card. What I didnt know was that this was antenna 1, not 0… Everything is good with TCP now.

pcatiprodotnet · May 27, 2006, 2:18 AM

It seems the pfSense default antenna settings are great as is (for Atheros).
I just tested this at extreme range (pfSense default is Transmit=Auto and Receive=Diversity).
No matter which antenna port I plugged the antenna into, I got a stable connection with zero ping loss.
I also tested using antenna port #1 with a directional antenna for backhaul and port #2 with an omni for re-transmittion, worked great; it was very good at determining which antenna to use. So, from now on, I'm just going to leave the antenna settings alone. The current defaults work great.

One thing I noticed though, no matter how I setup antennas, on every unit I get enormous FIFO Overrun Errors, even when they're not in use, but it still works fine; is this normal? (fyi, I'm using EMP-8602, ad-hoc mode, odfm cts/rts protection, olsr, on wrap.2c if that matters)
-pc

billm · May 28, 2006, 2:33 PM

Heh, 3x more input errors than packets ;) It all works well (it seems), so I dunno. I kinda don't really care much as long as it works though. I'll have to poke at the driver code and see events increase Ierrs.

$ netstat -ni -I ath0
Name Mtu Network Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Coll
ath0 1500 <link#1>00:0b:6b:4d:58:10 3348424 9424614 3895234 99 0
ath0 1500 fe80:1::20b:6 fe80:1::20b:6bff: 0 - 4 - -
ath0 1500 192.168.255 192.168.255.254 247 - 0 - -</link#1>

btrafela · Jan 8, 2007, 3:06 PM

is this problem solved?

because I have a lot of In errors and wirreless speed is very low. when i ping host it's fine, but when i have load (like http), then
in errors are increasing and i am loosing ping packets.

I have tried all setting above (onl 11b, mixed mode, sysctl settings) but nothing is better

I have atheros 5212 wireless card and 1.0.1 Embended image

regards

pabloamitelo · Feb 16, 2007, 8:42 AM

@btrafela:

is this problem solved?

because I have a lot of In errors and wirreless speed is very low. when i ping host it's fine, but when i have load (like http), then
in errors are increasing and i am loosing ping packets.

I have tried all setting above (onl 11b, mixed mode, sysctl settings) but nothing is better

I have atheros 5212 wireless card and 1.0.1 Embended image

regards

I have one wireless link point to point. One pfsense is configured in access point mode, and the other in infrastructure. The distance between them is 10km with line of sight. The equiment works in 5 Ghz (atheros 5213) and the received signal is very good. I don't have interferences with others networks in the same band. My hardware is wrap 2c and minipci atheros ubiquiti. I have low capacity (6mb) in transmition and 54mb in reception, many "in errors" and 0 "out errors". I have tested different parameters: dev.aht.0.txantenna=1,… rxantenna=1, diversity=0. I have configured dev.ath.0.tpc=0, tpscale=0 and tpack=tpcts=63

My ifconfig -v:

ath0: flags=8843 <up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::215:6dff:fe53:a06a%ath0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet _________ netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast ______________
ether 00:15:6d:53:a0:6a
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11a (OFDM/6Mbps)
status: associated
ssid channel 140 (5700) bssid 00:15:6d:53:25:14
authmode OPEN privacy OFF deftxkey UNDEF powersavemode OFF
powersavesleep 100 txpowmax 36 txpower 63 rtsthreshold 2346
mcastrate 1 fragthreshold 2346 -pureg protmode OFF -wme burst
roaming AUTO bintval 100

I don't have packet loss. What could be the problem?</up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>

baskin · May 18, 2007, 11:16 AM

I'm not opening a new topic because this problem has been discussed here.

I have edit /cf/conf/config.xml and added the following

<shellcmd>sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0</shellcmd>
<shellcmd>sysctl dev.ath.1.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.1.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.1.diversity=0</shellcmd>
<afterfilterchangeshellcmd>sysctl dev.ath.1.rxantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.1.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.1.diversity=0;sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna=1; sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=1;sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0</afterfilterchangeshellcmd>

Everything works after reboot, but as soon as i change something in the web interface (for example the channel or the power) the diversity goes to on (diversity=1). tx and rx antenna stays untouched.

Any ideas;

redonisc · Jun 30, 2007, 11:37 PM

I've errors on my wireless interface too, also i noticed this:

sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1

sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1

sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 2

sysctl dev.ath.0.rxantenna

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 2

Is this right, some bug? this is changing without doing anything….

Thanks for your comments