Constant dropped WiFi connections

N

nickednamed

I am using FreeBSD 9.1 with a TP-LINK TL-WN781ND WiFi card with Atheros AR9285 chipset. I set up the connection during the installation and it has worked fine until about a week ago.

It has just started dropping the connection about 10mins after every boot. Rebooting "solves" the issue. I'm writing this as quick as I can before I lose my connection again!

I get a kernel message
Code: 
hostname kernel: arp: c0:3f:0e:a9:aa:c8 is using my IP address 192.168.1.3 on wlan0!
before every dropped connection.

my /etc/rc.conf contains
Code: 
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
ifconfig_wlan0_ipv6="inet6 accept_rtadv"

I have recently started using "ntpd" so I tried disabling it, but it didn't make any difference. I have looked at the part of the handbook about wireless. It says to add
Code: 
if_ath_load="YES"
to /boot/loader.conf, among many other things I haven't done: My connection has been working fine without these steps until know, so I thought I'd try the forums before complicating the problem by making more system changes.

Is some other device kicking me off my network or what?
 
Well, is there any other device in that network?
Something is taking that IP address.
Manually set your IP to something else in the meantime, you shouldn't need to restart just to regain connectivity.
 
nickednamed said:
Is some other device kicking me off my network or what?
Click to expand...

I'm not a pro like some of these other guys here, but that's what appears to be happening. If you have administrative access to your router, see if it has a feature that binds MAC addressess to specific IP addresses. If you don't have admin privileges, set your IP address in /etc/rc.conf or # ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.x. If you keep having trouble, try # service netif restart. That should save you a little trouble shooting time instead of rebooting.
 
nickednamed said:
I have looked at the part of the handbook about wireless. It says to add
Code: 
if_ath_load="YES"
to /boot/loader.conf
Click to expand...

That module is built into the GENERIC kernel. It does not need to be loaded separately unless you have a custom kernel built without it.
 
nickednamed said:
I get a kernel message
Code: 
hostname kernel: arp: c0:3f:0e:a9:aa:c8 is using my IP address 192.168.1.3 on wlan0!
before every dropped connection.
Click to expand...

That's a Netgear MAC address. Since you are using WPA, it's unlikely some neighbor is helping themselves to your network. What Netgear devices do you have?
 
Thanks guys - I'm also no expert on the subject, to say the least.

I have manually reset my IP address for the time being, while I look into this more. I didn't mention the other devices on the network because they haven't changed for months, if not years.

There is a NETGEAR device on the network, but never had any issues with it until now. Guess I'll check that out first. Had a quick look at my router, but couldn't find MAC address binding, but I'll have another look later - it would be useful.

Thanks again.
 
This could a be case of a brain dead feature called "any ip" on the netgear router that basically answer ARP queries for just about any IP address imaginable to allow machines with statically assigned addresses to connect to the net without changing the addresses to match the ones used in the local LAN or WLAN. Worth looking in the set up of the router if there's anything that sounds like this "feature".
 
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