ALIX+Wireless Help

[serialdie]

Here goes my first post! :)
I am having a small issue…. I just got me a:

802.11a/b/g WLM54SAG mPCI card, 2 cables & 2 dual band antenna
m1n1wall wireless ready 3E 2C3 (red) with USB

The m1n1wall is running pfsense and I am so far loving it...
The issue I am having seems to be the wireless I keep getting Random Disconnects as if the Wireless radio would go in to sleep mode caused by inactivity.... Is there a power save mode on this cards?
Also I have a lot of in and out errors here how it looks....

Status associated
MAC address
IP address 10.30.3.1 
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Media autoselect mode 11g <hostap>Channel 11
SSID pfSense-nUll
In/out packets 7243/2617 (658 KB/642 KB)
In/out errors 6597/3
Collisions 0

Settings from shell

pfSense:~#  cat /tmp/ath0_setup.sh
#!/bin/sh

pfSense wireless configuration script.

enable shell debugging

set -x
/bin/ps awwuxx | grep hostapd | grep ath0 | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs kill

/sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 mediaopt hostap
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 mode '11g'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 channel '11'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -mediaopt turbo
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 ssid 'pfSense-nUll'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -hidessid
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -mediaopt adhoc
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 protmode 'off'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -pureg
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -apbridge
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -wme
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 authmode open wepmode off
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 txpower '99'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 up
/usr/sbin/hostapd -B /var/etc/hostapd_ath0.conf

Any ideas or pointer that can help me out here?
I also seen a few threads about the antennas needing to be setup....
Any help would be very appreciated!

TIA!</hostap>

[serialdie]

I just notice that if pfsense marks the system offline and is over wireless in order to com back online it needs to re negotiate…

[serialdie]

WLM54SAG High Power: 200mW 802.11a/b/g mini PCI Card
Atheros Chipset

pfSense:~#  athstats
4139 tx management frames
3314 tx frames discarded prior to association
3 tx stopped 'cuz no xmit buffer
1635 tx failed 'cuz FIFO underrun
9160 tx failed 'cuz bogus xmit rate
5 tx frames with rts enabled
4949 tx frames with an alternate rate
797 tx frames with 11g protection
32954 rx failed 'cuz of FIFO overrun
1 rx failed 'cuz frame too short
11600 rx management frames
442805 beacon setup failed 'cuz no mbuf
816714256 beacons transmitted
1554 periodic calibration failures
405 tx used alternate antenna
Antenna profile:
[2] tx    4186 rx    46796
[3] tx    1630 rx    3039

fSense:~#  cat /tmp/ath0_setup.sh
#!/bin/sh

pfSense wireless configuration script.

enable shell debugging

set -x
/bin/ps awwuxx | grep hostapd | grep ath0 | awk '{ print $2 }' | xargs kill

/sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 mediaopt hostap
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 mode '11g'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 channel '11'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -mediaopt turbo
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 ssid 'pfSense-nUll'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -hidessid
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -mediaopt adhoc
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 protmode 'off'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -pureg
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -apbridge
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 -wme
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 authmode open wepmode off
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 txpower '99'
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 up
/usr/sbin/hostapd -B /var/etc/hostapd_ath0.conf

pfSense:~#  cat /var/etc/hostapd_ath0.conf
interface=ath0
driver=bsd
logger_syslog=-1
logger_syslog_level=0
logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=0
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd_ath0.dump
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
#accept_mac_file=/tmp/hostapd_ath0.accept
#deny_mac_file=/tmp/hostapd_ath0.deny
#macaddr_acl=
ssid=l
debug=
auth_algs=1
wpa=1
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP TKIP
wpa_group_rekey=60
wpa_gmk_rekey=3600
wpa_strict_rekey=
wpa_passphrase=
ieee8021x=
#Enable the next lines for preauth when roaming. Interface = wired or wireless interface talking to the AP you want to roam from/to
#rsn_preauth=1
#rsn_preauth_interfaces=eth0

[serialdie]

I made a few changes…
I change sysctl dev.ath.0.txantenna=2, dev.ath.0.rxantenna=2, and sysctl dev.ath.0.diversity=0
It used to be rx=2, tx=0, and diversity=1
I have 2 antennas so I set them bth to 2.
Than I did ifconfig ath0 down - up

now I am seen this in the logs...

Jul 23 16:24:11 hostapd: ath0: STA 00:1d:4f:27:62:09 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request
Jul 23 16:24:11 hostapd: ath0: STA 00:1d:4f:27:62:09 IEEE 802.11: deassociated
Jul 23 16:24:19 hostapd: ath0: STA 00:1d:4f:27:62:09 IEEE 802.11: associated
Jul 23 16:24:20 hostapd: ath0: STA 00:1d:4f:27:62:09 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (WPA)
Jul 23 16:24:20 hostapd: ath0: STA 00:1d:4f:27:62:09 WPA: group key handshake completed (WPA)

[serialdie]

This is insane…
Any Ideas whats going on?
Any body?  :'(

in/out errors 94737/46

[serialdie]

Mhhhhh I think I found the solution….
Will post back.

TIA!

[dotdash]

Just an FYI- If you search around the wireless forum there is a lot of information on similar issues.
Here's a quick summary of how I interpret the issues: (my interpretation may be flawed)

1. Wireless, especially on WRAP/ALIX?, seems to generate a lot of errors. These seem to be cosmetic for some, and others are seeing issues. I have an Alix box with wireless. It shows lots of errors, but I've never had issues with it. Then again, I use it only for browsing, etc when I'm not near a wired computer.
2. The diversity settings appear to be firmware set, so they revert when the card re-initializes.
3. Some people have reported better wireless performance with the 1.2 release based on 6.3 (search around for the link).

[serialdie]

Thanks for your reply….
I have been searching and found very useful information. I learned to ignore the errors... I do have a serious disconnect issues but only with my iPod Tocuh (2 of them)
My laptops work flawlessly... So I am setting up a test CF with pfsense 1.2 FBSD 6.3 and see if that helps.
I did gain performance by setting
tx=1
rx=1
diversity=0
AES only
802.11g protection mode on.

Thank You!

[serialdie]

It might be to early to say but seems that 6.3 May indeed fix my connectivity issue.

TIA.

[serialdie]

Update: 6.3 Fix all my connectivity issues.