ipw2100 + WPA-PSK link dies if not used

[Szymon Juraszczyk]

   Hi everyone,

   I successfully made use of my ipw2100 and connected my notebook to a 
D-Link AP using WPA-PSK. However, I've noticed a wierd behaviour, namely 
when the link is not used for a while (a few idle minutes is enough), it 
simply stops working. Wpa_supplicant with -d shows no errors (haven't 
tried more -d's though...), but no packet can be sent.
   After some testing I realised that sending pings (to my AP, ruter or 
wherever else) every second helps to keep the link alive. Otherwise it 
would stop working if not used for a while and I would have to restart 
wpa_supplicant to get it working back again.

   My software is:
	- Debian sarge+sid (mixed using APT::Default-Release "testing")
	- 'self-made' kernel 2.6.10 (also tried 2.6.10-rc3 before)
	- ipw2100 open source driver v1.0.2 (tried 1.0.1 as well) with
	  ipw2100-1.0.2-set_security.patch
	- wpa_supplicant v 0.3.2-1 (Debian's package from sid, tried
	  0.2.5-2 from sarge as well)

   The hardware is IBM ThinkPad T41 with built in IPW2100 and D-Link DI-514.

   Here is my /etc/wpasupplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=2
ap_scan=1
network={
         ssid="mynetworkssid"
         proto=WPA RSN
         key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
         pairwise=CCMP TKIP
         group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
         psk="myverysecretpassphrase"
         priority=2
}


   Although running the ping in the background is not a problem, I'd 
like to try to investigate the issue, possibly helping to improve the 
code. Any clues?

-- 
Best regards,
Szymon Juraszczyk
szymon at juraszczyk.com