[SOLVED]Re: flakey wifi access

[mett <mett@pmars.jp>]

On Sun, 14 Sep 2014 12:13:14 -0700
tom arnall <kloro2006@gmail.com> wrote:

> SOLVED!
> 
> i use wicd and i changed a preference:
> 
> preferences>external programs  and change 'auto' to 'dhclient'
> 
> Mett, is this the equivalent of what you suggest doing manually?
> 
> thanks everyone for your help.
> 
> Tom
> 
> On 6/30/14, mett <mett@pmars.jp> wrote:
> > On Mon, 30 Jun 2014 06:39:29 -0400
> > ken <gebser@mousecar.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 06/29/2014 10:50 PM tom arnall wrote:
> >> > my wicd agent is unable to connect to wifi at mcDonald's, both in
> >> > mexico and the states. it's fine with my home wifi and the coffee
> >> > shop i go to. it also fails on the network at the campus where i
> >> > teach in mexico.
> >>
> >> "Unable to connect" can mean a lot of things.  I recently had a
> >> wifi connection problem which, using 'ping', I determined to be
> >> caused by a lot of packets being dropped-- like 30 - 60% of them.
> >> I found that ping will return a response in some cases even when
> >> it seems there is no connection.  You'll need to find out the IP
> >> address of the access point (AP).  If your system doesn't tell you
> >> this, you might ask some other user.  Get rates from all APs,
> >> working and non-working, and compare them.
> >>
> >> Another utility to use is tcpdump.  This will provide very detailed
> >> information about the packets constituting the connection attempt.
> >>
> >> And iwlist will provide info on the available APs.  Noting the
> >> relative signal strengths and protocols used and other details
> >> might point to patterns.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > You can try to go the "manual" way to see if you get better results:
> >
> > -bring up your wireless interface, if it s not already up
> >
> > 'ifconfig' (if it doesn't appear here, means it is not up)
> >
> > 'ifconfig -a' (you should see it here, as this command lists all the
> > available physical interfaces on your machine. Then)
> >
> > 'ifconfig WIRELESS-INTERFACE-NAME up' (to bring it up).
> >
> > -Then, once up, you can, as ken said, use iwlist to know about the
> > AP in your vicinity
> >
> > 'iwlist scan'
> >
> > You should see mac-donald's AP essid name in the list you get from
> > iwlist.
> >
> > -Finally, for mac-donalds, I saw on their page they re isn't any
> > encryption and password to connect to their AP, so you just need to
> > run
> >
> > 'iwconfig WIRELESS-INTERFACE-NAME essid MACDO-ESSID-NAME'
> >
> > and then dhclient to get an IP(with the -v flag to be sure you
> > obtained an IP address)
> >
> > 'dhclient -v WIRELESS-INTERFACE-NAME'
> >
> > -Finally_2, open your browser and you should see mac-do HP,
> > and a 'connect' button to connect from there.
> >
> >
> > There is a detailed explanation to connect manually on crunchbang,
> > under the three main methods (no password and no encryption, or WEP
> > or WPA). Here is the link
> > http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=16624
> >
> > Also, you might have to use 'sudo' for all those commands as you
> > need to be the root user to run them.
> >
> > Also_2, stop all the other wifi-network-related daemons as they
> > might get in the way when you try to config manually(wicd and
> > others if you have).
> >
> > HTH
> >
> >
> > --
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> > Archive:
> > https://lists.debian.org/20140701113048.2b0b6e7b@asus.tamerr
> >
> >

Hey, nice to hear about that.

I just checked wicd and it uses the default dhcp client of the box it
runs on, when set to 'auto'.

I think the default dhcp client on Debian(squeeze at least) is
dhclient(ISC) anyway.
So maybe the problem was not on your side but on the AP one.

At any rate, next time you have a problem try a scan first to check if
you see the AP you want to connect to (iwlist).