From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 14 11:52:11 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED51316A40F for ; Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:52:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from soralx@cydem.org) Received: from cydem.org (S0106000103ce4c9c.vc.shawcable.net [24.87.27.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D357013C455 for ; Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:52:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from soralx@cydem.org) Received: from soralx.cydem.org (unknown [192.168.0.249]) by cydem.org (Postfix/FreeBSD) with ESMTP id 1369391FAE; Sun, 14 Jan 2007 03:52:08 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 03:52:06 -0800 From: To: Message-ID: <20070114035206.2089217d@soralx.cydem.org> In-Reply-To: <20070113121335.46975.qmail@web52714.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20070113121335.46975.qmail@web52714.mail.yahoo.com> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.6.1 (GTK+ 2.10.6; i386-portbld-freebsd5.4) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: trigves@yahoo.com Subject: Re: DWL-G520 low signal, low speed X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:52:12 -0000 > >>> I have a problem with my wifi DWL G520 atheros chip based card... > >>> I have low signal only 20-30% and also a low speed 5-11 > >>> Mbit/s..router is only 1-2 m away from me and with gentoo I have > >>> 90% signal strength..I'm using FreeBSD 6.2 PRERELEASE Same thing here, folks. When using the 'if_ath' module (or compiling the driver into kernel -- doesn't matter), the reported signal strength (via `ifconfig ath0 up && ifconfig ath0 scan`) is about 20:0 to 30:0 (whatever the units are?), depending on spatial orientation, and being positioned ~10m away from the base station. The 'media:' quickly degrades to 'DS/1Mbps'. Measurement of the signal strength with notebook relocated right near the transceiver yield values of 50-60 units (noise has the value of '0' all the time). Perhaps the ndisulator is being overly optimistic, but it reports S:N of ~140:0 when away from the transiever, and ~160:0 when near. ifconfig says that media is OFDM/54Mbps. I says that probably the units are totally arbitrary, or the ndis driver is just being piss-proud [i.e., exaggerating a little, and his signal is not really that big] ;) Now, I didn't do any real performance comparison yet (ath vs ndis), but I can say this: ath performance seems to me rather disappointing -- the carrier gets lost from time to time, range is not impressive (or am i just expecting too much?), there's absolutely no reception without antenna connected (I believe this isn't right), etc... I don't have much time to look into the issue now, but if someone will suggest how to do some advanced testing (at almost a step-by-step level), I would do that. OS: 6.2-BETA2 [SorAlx] ridin' VN1500-B2