[GLLUG] Vexing Wireless Problem

[Chick Tower]

I'm having a problem getting connected to unsecured wireless access 
points with my ThinkPad.  (I haven't tried any secured APs.)  It's 
really tricky, and I've been searching on the web with little success. 
I've found a few things, but they either didn't apply, were already in 
use, or had no positive effect.

I've been using the laptop's internal wireless system for months with 
two versions of Bodhi Linux.  I installed ArchBang Linux, and wireless 
networking worked fine.  Both distros have Network Manager installed by 
default, so that's what I use.  However, when I tried connecting at 
Schuler Books last week, ArchBang never did let me get anywhere with a 
web browser.  I could connect with Bodhi just fine.  ArchBang's 
nm-applet would sometimes show me a list of detected access points, and 
sometimes it would say networking has been disabled.  Even when it 
showed me the list of APs and I selected the Schuler Books one, and even 
though the icon made it look as though I connected, I couldn't access 
anything on the internet.

I took the laptop to the downtown branch of the public library on 
Sunday.  Neither ArchBand nor Bodhi could connect in a useful manner, 
with several reboots of both distros.  In Bodhi, nm-applet would offer 
me a list of APs, but I get nothing in the browser.  In fact, after 
about twenty seconds I would get an error message, but we can't send 
screenshots in the GLLUG mailing list.  In essence it said "(4) Did not 
receive a reply." and listed a few reasons why that might have happened. 
  ArchBang always said networking was disabled, giving me no list of 
APs.  So, instead of solving the problem at the library, I got nowhere, 
and even lost ground.

In my living room, I can see several APs in the neighborhood, but only 
one is open.  In playing around some more with the ThinkPad, I've found 
that sometimes in Bodhi I can get connected and actually load sites like 
SlashDot, Linux Today, and Google.  I even downloaded a Lansing L1040 
tax form.  Other times I get the error message and no internet. ArchBang 
still won't connect, although sometimes it offers me the list of APs and 
then the error message when I select the open one.

Now, you might think something in this old wireless chip or the antenna 
is failing.  Perhaps this is so.  Since the one AP that is open in my 
neighborhood has the SSID of "im a hacker", I was reluctant to connect 
to it at first, thinking it may be like a honeypot.  So I tried it using 
a live CD.  It connects to that AP just fine with the live CDs of both 
ArchBang and Bodhi that I used to install them on my ThinkPad's hard 
drive!  Every time I tested them.  That's what is really puzzling.

I tried making connections using "manual" commands rather than Network 
Manager.  dhcpcd was not installed, so I used dhclient.  It looked like 
dhclient was sending out connection requests but getting no responses or 
acceptances, whichever is the correct term.  I saw a lot of DHCPDISCOVER 
transmissions using different frequency intervals, and dhclient kept 
trying until I stopped it.

I considered that perhaps the versions of Network Manager on the live 
CDs and on the hard-drive installations were different, since I had done 
system upgrades after installation.  They appear to be the same version 
for ArchBang, but it appears I have upgraded Network Manager in Bodhi, 
so that doesn't seem to explain the difference.  Besides, I may have 
upgraded it in Bodhi well before all this started.

I use Privoxy (an ad-blocking proxy) and a firewall, so I turned those 
off.  No change.

Oh, yeah, it's an Atheros wireless chipset.  They're usually no problem 
with Linux, and it did work great before.  I guess it's possible the 
driver got updated in both distros and it's causing the problem, so I'll 
try to remember to check on that.  However, I think it's in the kernel, 
so I would have to figure out how to downgrade the kernel.

I'm just about at wits end with this.  The fact that the live CDs always 
work really messes things up.  I could try disabling the internal 
wireless and using a PCMCIA wireless adapter (I did just happen to buy a 
spare one on Craigslist recently), but I'd rather get the internal 
wireless working again.  Do any of you have suggestions for things I 
could try that I haven't thought of?  Installing new network connection 
managers would be a problem if I can't get connected, and I have no 
network at home.  Besides, Network Manager was working great before.
-- 

                                Chick

P.S.  I wrote that last night.  Today I took the ThinkPad to the new 
Delta township library.  Bodhi connected flawlessly, and I rebooted it 
and tried it at least three times.  ArchBang still couldn't connect.  I 
even disabled the internal wireless card in the BIOS and tried an PCMCIA 
wireless card with an Atheros chip, but it made no difference.  I didn't 
try it in Bodhi since it was working with the internal wireless.  So, 
I'm convinced it's a software problem in ArchBang, and possibly in 
Bodhi, but what software?  Network Manager?  The kernel?  Something else?