Linksys Bridge & Router Drop Signal

[BurgerMan]

For about 4 months, my WRT54GS and WET54gs5 (wireless bridge) worked beautifully. I needed to securely network my basement to the computers up a floor. There's not much distance, but the central A/C and some walls are in the way. With a directional antenna on the WET, I got near 100% signal strength and months of trouble-free connectivity.

And then, one day, reception on the WET just dropped. It would struggle to connect, seeing my WRT in the site-scan but at only 50% strength and failing to negotiate the WAP security. The Connect indicator would light, and 2 sec later it would go out. On the WET, the error I get in the Security Log is
* In WPA-PSK mode
* Set Information Element
* Couldn't Find Authenticator SSID: my_ssid (repeat 5X)
even though my SSID appears on the Site Survey, and the Bridge may have been connecting fine only a few minutes ago.

What does this mean? Which of the units is failing? Again, they worked great for months... now, they might connect for a few hours, then the above happens and the units never establish a connection (while my laptop continues to connect to the WRT just fine).

 

[Ned_Flanders]

What other devices have just been installed that are wireless? Phone for example.

 

[BurgerMan]

None... although I can't count anything my upstairs neighbor might have.

But the connection I'm hoping for goes in the opposite direction.

I wish there was something out there that could track what happens. All I know is I've isolated the problem to the WRT54GS (version 2, latest firmware) because if I restart it, the client connects right away and lasts anywhere up to an hour or two... then gets hopelessly dropped.

 

[icemann77]

are you using the latest firmware of the router? if not upgrade the firmware. and if your already using the latest firmware try to reflash the firmware.

 

[blue68f100]

Run a scan with Network Stumbler and see if a neighbor has set something up.
Make sure you lease time is not dropping your connection, set to max.

Does your log in the router shows anything?

 

[BurgerMan]

Thanks for your advice. I don't know how to get a log on the WRT54GS, at least not one that reports on local activity. But I've tried a few things.

The connection may always be established if I power-cycle the Router; the WET54GS5 connects right away. But gets dropped some time later. I have tried moving the Router around to no avail. If I put the Bridge in the same room as the Router, it will connect, but any other room (and my apartment is quite small) the Bridge will just struggle unless I power-cycle the Router.

It's like the Bridge gets blacklisted byt the Router after working ok for 30 minutes. This doesn't happen with my wireless G laptop.

I have the latest firmware on both units, and have reflashed the Router. Could this be either a function of my Advanced Settings, or my use of WPA security?

 

[blue68f100]

Here is the link to net stumbler http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Run a survey of your area using your laptop. Netstumler will give signal strength. This way you will see if the signal from the router is weak, droping or maybe the laptop. Or if one of your neighbors has one that is nocking you out. Yes, if you allow it to run for 10 minutes, you will see any and all, hidded or not. In some cases you can over drive a conection, reducing power output can help. This happen if you are too close. Its based on the signal pattern given off by the router. dual antenna give off a figure 8 pattern, front to back. Where a single antenna is omni.

Is the ssid in the clear?
Is the lease time less than forever?

On your laptop is it set to auto connect to your router?

If a ssid is hidden, auto connect only works on startup.

Set the log to only log errors.

You say you have to reboot to re-connect wirelessly. Connect by cable to look at log, rebooting clears the log.

 

[BurgerMan]

Here is the link to net stumbler http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Run a survey of your area using your laptop. Netstumler will give signal strength. This way you will see if the signal from the router is weak, droping or maybe the laptop. Or if one of your neighbors has one that is nocking you out. Yes, if you allow it to run for 10 minutes, you will see any and all, hidded or not. In some cases you can over drive a conection, reducing power output can help. This happen if you are too close. Its based on the signal pattern given off by the router. dual antenna give off a figure 8 pattern, front to back. Where a single antenna is omni.

Tried that. My laptop uses an Intel wireless card so I'm not able to do half the stuff netstumbler could do, like check signal noise. However, it Found a lot more wireless activity than I anticipated, so I changed my channel to something available.

Is the ssid in the clear?
Is the lease time less than forever?

yes and yes (one day). Could any other wireless settings help, like RTS Threshold or DTIM or Beacon Interval?

Set the log to only log errors.

How do I do this on a WRT54GS v2? There's not many options available for logging, and none of them have to do with wireless activity

 

[blue68f100]

If the power signal was not reaching max, I suspect your Linksys router may have failed. That particular unit has high gain antennas, which should make it powerful. My usr5054 has 5dbi antenna. I can cover my whole house on low power.

I would contact Linksys tech support.

 

[wolverinechris]

I had this same issue. However, what I had to do was switch my router's security mode. I had to switch it from AES only to TKIP and AES. Doing so, I was able to get it working with WPA2 successfully. Seeing the large font "WAP Success" is a great feeling