ipw2100 + WPA-PSK link dies if not used

[Szymon Juraszczyk]

Jouni Malinen wrote:

> Have you configured the AP to do Group Key handshakes (broadcast
> rekeying, or something similar in configuration) frequently? If not,
> there should not be wpa_supplicant-related events happening that often
> and this would be something that would be better handled by ipw2100
> developers/mailing lists. 

   I'm not a WLAN expert - this is actually my first hands-on contat 
with WLANs (though I know pretty much about other kinds of networks). 
These are all relevant tunable parameters in Performance tab of my AP 
configuration:

Beacon interval:	100	(msec, range:1~1000, default:100)
RTS Threshold :		2432	(range: 256~2432, default:2432)
Fragmentation :		2346	(range: 256~2346, default:2346, even number only)
DTIM interval :		3	(range: 1~255, default:3)

   I did not really bother to figure out what they really mean and 
relied on the defaults. I only concentrated on the thing that I'm more 
familliar of which is security and I guess that WPA-PSK is the best 
possible solution for my little home network (although static WEP keys 
would probably be easier to set up in Linux). There are a few other WLAN 
networks in my range and I don't want anyone uninvited to get into my 
network.

> Which DI-514 revision (h/w ver) is that (A/B/C) and which firmware
> version?

   It's revision B with firmware 1.04 (I upgraded it right after 
purchase). There's not much to tweak with the WLAN part of this device 
as it's also a router and most settings regard the router part, which I 
don't use anyway. It was simply the cheapest D-Link available at my 
dealer's and that's why I bought it. Speed is of no concern as long as 
it's faster than my ISDN Internet connection connected through an old 
good Cisco 1603 to my AP.

   Those pings really help - I've been connected for more than 2 hours 
now which would otherwise be impossible, unless I rebooted to Window$ 
(where of course it works perfectly).

   I think of adjusting the ping interval in order to get more clues. 
One second works for sure and one minute is obviously not enough (though 
I'm not 100% sure - would have to check it again to make sure).

   If this can be of any help to wpa_supplicant team, I can launch it in 
the foreground again with more verbose debugging. Unless there's another 
trivial cause of my problem and it's not related to wpa_supplicant at all...


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