Wireless Speed and duplex selection (on 2.1-BETA0 i386)

mdima

Hi,
when I select the "Speed and duplex" option on my wifi card, I see in the system log a couple of odd things. When I select one of the entries in the list (but the examples refer to: "OFDM/54Mbps mode 11g hostap"), I see:

php: /interfaces.php: The command '/sbin/ifconfig 'run0_wlan1' media 'OFDM/54Mbps' mediaopt 'mode''
returned exit code '1', the output was 'ifconfig: SIOCSIFMEDIA (media): Device not configured'

I think the correct command should be:
/sbin/ifconfig 'run0_wlan1' media 'OFDM/54Mbps' mediaopt 'hostap'
isn't it?

The second is this other log entry:
hostapd: run0_wlan1: IEEE 802.11 Fetching hardware channel/rate support not supported.

The wireless card is a USB "Ralink RT3070", and the firewall runs on an Alix (finally I got pfSense also at home!! I got sick of the standard ADSL home routers).

Anyone has some ideas about that?

Thanks,
Michele

jimp

The media options for speed/duplex really are meant for wired adapters. We should probably hide them on wireless cards, you're meant to use the actual wireless options father down the page, and leave the 'advanced' hidden media options alone.

mdima

@jimp:

The media options for speed/duplex really are meant for wired adapters. We should probably hide them on wireless cards, you're meant to use the actual wireless options father down the page, and leave the 'advanced' hidden media options alone.

mmmhhh… I don't know, I see appreciable differences in the performances (in terms of bandwidth, not just "power" of the transmission) when I select different options... I think it worth a fix, maybe I do some test on a virtual machine + spare WLAN adapter.

Btw, having pfSense also at home, in a small box, is so cool...

jimp

What you are setting there is messing up what the code is trying to do later on.

At best you're creating a conflict, at worst you're breaking it. Any perceived difference is likely something you could set differently in the lower section of the page to get the same net effect.

mdima

yes, I was looking a bit the code and you're right. Just maybe we could add the "speed" option, if it makes sense…

mdima

Maybe I understood what is driving me crazy about the Wifi connection, it's the WME setting.

Under heavy traffic, in the first seconds I see a good speed, then it drops down… and I see the "RATE" in the Status->Wireless page dropping from 54 to 11 mbps, and the transfer speed drops.

If I run "ifconfig "run0_wlan1" list wmm" I see:

        AC_BE cwmin  4 cwmax  6 aifs  3 txopLimit   0
        AC_BK cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0
        AC_VI cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  1 txopLimit  94
        AC_VO cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  1 txopLimit  47

which could makes sense with the drop of the download speed.

How is it possible to change this settings in order to be able to transfer a 300Mb file using the Wifi connection without spending the double of the time?

Thanks,
Michele

EDIT: This happens also with the "Enable WME" set to false, so ifconfig should set -wme …