[ltp] Wireless failing to connect

[John Jason Jordan]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:53:42 +0000
Phil <phil@stairbridge.org.uk> dijo:

> After many months happily running Ubuntu Feisty my T60 has suddenly 
> started misbehaving.
> Connecting to my home wireless network has become really painful, but 
> connecting to my office wifi is no problem. Before this started 
> happening I'd work, s2ram, go home, wake up and it would connect fine. 
> Then I'd sleep it again, go to work, wake up and again, no problem 
> connecting.
> Now, when I go home, the nm-applet shows my home wifi and tries to 
> connect but fails after 30 secs or so. I can get it to connect by 
> rebooting - most times - although somethimes it takes more than 1 boot, 
> sometimes I have to disable and re-enable wifi.
> No problem connecting to work.
> Both networks are encrypted, but I also have an open wifi at home (which 
> also fails to connect).
> I've no idea why it's suddenly gone bad after many months of OK 
> behaviour. I've installed all updates - but never noticed a wifi update.
> $ uname -a
> Linux phil-t60-linux 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Sun Sep 23 19:50:39 UTC 
> 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
> $lspci
>  ...
> 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 
> Network Connection (rev 02)
>  ...
> 
> Nothing in the system log other than repeated "ipw3945: Detected 
> geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)" messages. 
> When wifi works there's only one of these, but when it's not working it 
> repeats every few seconds.
> 
> Please tell me where to start diagnosing this problem,

I'm writing this on the assumption that my problem, while it appears
similar to yours, is probably completely different.

I have a brand new T61 with Intel 4965 running Gutsy x86_64. I have no
wireless at home, but at school and several other locations I suddenly
lose my DHCP lease. At least, I think that is what is happening. The
wireless performs beautifully when it works, but it will work for only
a few minutes to maybe an hour or so. Then suddenly I am unable to go
anywhere. All my wireless tools and iwconfig and stuff say the wireless
is connected and working. The only solution is to reboot, and that
sometimes takes several attempts. Like you, I found that disabling the
wireless in the BIOS, booting, restarting, enabling it again in the
BIOS and letting it boot finally gets it working again.

There is a thread about this on the Ubuntu forums - I didn't save the
bookmark, but I know that "T61" is in the title of the thread so a
search should turn it up. At least one other person (Nigel) has been
having the same problem. He said that Intel was working on new drivers.

I have no idea how this could affect your situation, but our symptoms
are remarkably similar, in spite of the differences in hardware and OS.
I thought I would answer in the vain hope that someone can help at
least one of us.