MorphOS 3.11 - Massive WiFi problems on G4 PB
  • Just looking around
    Reth
    Posts: 18 from 2006/8/27
    Hi everybody,

    unfortunately since MOS 3.11 (IMO I did not experience this problem before) I have a lot of severe WiFi problems! Wifi either doesn't get connected at all or if connected I cannot even ping the internal address of my router!

    If both might be working by chance data transmission is horribly slow, contains lots of package losses (according to parallel ping) and so on.

    When I boot into MacOS instead everything is fine: WiFi is working great and transmission is stable and fast.

    Does anybody know what the problem might be on MOS side? Even more since Wifi and transmission worked much more stable in earlier versions?

    Thank you for your help and

    Kind Regards
  • »11.08.19 - 23:22
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Templario
    Posts: 544 from 2012/4/28
    Also I have problems as you, the wifi drivers of MorphOS 3.11 has snyome problems, slow connection and disconnects
  • »12.08.19 - 07:47
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Jeckel
    Posts: 133 from 2007/3/11
    It is funny because I have the exact opposite problem: under MorphOS 3.11 WIFI works reliable, strong signal, good bandwidth; under MacOS X, WIFI had a very low signal, sometimes doesn't connect or loose connection, and the bandwidth is very bad unless I move the computer very close to the router.

    I guess WIFI is a bit weird. :)
  • »12.08.19 - 09:12
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  • MorphOS Developer
    jacadcaps
    Posts: 3110 from 2003/3/5
    From: Canada
    It could be down to the firmware that's being uploaded to the chip by the respective OS.
  • »12.08.19 - 09:44
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Have you got an Android tablet or phone? It would be helpful to use Wifi Analyzer to make sure that you suddenly didn't get a neighbouring source which is now interfering with your signal. (Wifi analogue video senders are the worst, though thankfully nobody really uses them any more.)

    I know you said it works fine on MacOS but that could still be auto-channel negotiation, with that driver picking a nice clear channel and maybe MorphOS failing to.
  • »12.08.19 - 09:45
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  • MorphOS Developer
    jacadcaps
    Posts: 3110 from 2003/3/5
    From: Canada
    My ASUS router has some settings for "legacy receivers". Turning that on was key to making WiFi work somewhat OK.

    [ Edited by jacadcaps 12.08.2019 - 11:47 ]
  • »12.08.19 - 09:46
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  • jPV
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    jPV
    Posts: 2100 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    Wifi can be horrible slow with lots of packet loss on my PB too, but after configuring my router to use channel 1 it's been fine. When I had that in "auto" mode, it was pure luck when it worked fine and when not. So I think it's a bit sensitive about the channel and I'd try to use channels 1 or 6 which are the best wifi channels in theory. 11 could be too, but it's been said that at least for certain age Apple hardware you shouldn't use channels over 10 or so.. so I'd try 1 or 6 when testing if it's about this.
  • »12.08.19 - 14:12
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    2.4G wifi routers switched to dual band 802.11n in the mid 00s. Unfortunately this means they use channel 6, plus another channel (usually 3 or 9). Most people rarely switch this off in their routers and a lot of ISP routers leave it configured by default, even if they also support 5G.

    What this means is that channel 6 gets really crowded, and adapters which support single band only usually end up with really crappy performance because they can't connect to that second band channel.

    So trying to turn off 802.11n and making sure A and G compatibility is on, and setting single band, and using a low channel like 1 may indeed work for solving these kind of problems.

    I personally used channel 13 when I lived in a flat with around 20 other 2.4G networks crowding the airwaves, and that worked really well - with the problem that many drivers (especially those meant for the US market) don't actually support channel 13.
  • »12.08.19 - 17:37
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  • Just looking around
    Reth
    Posts: 18 from 2006/8/27
    But wouldn't that mean all our other devices running on 802.11n won't work any longer or slow down massivly when using A?
  • »13.08.19 - 19:35
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    KennyR
    Posts: 880 from 2003/3/4
    From: #AmigaZeux, Gu...
    Quote:

    Reth wrote:
    But wouldn't that mean all our other devices running on 802.11n won't work any longer or slow down massivly when using A?


    Yes. Even if you're just using a single channel, try to leave N enabled if possible. It does theoretical max 150 MB/s on single channel, and G does 54 MB/s.

    But if you're struggling to find clear channels, it's already being hit pretty hard so it may actually not make as much difference.

    That's of course if noise is indeed the problem. For all I know your airwaves could be totally clear and it's 100% a MorphOS issue.
  • »13.08.19 - 19:42
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  • Just looking around
    Reth
    Posts: 18 from 2006/8/27
    For me at least it seems so since within previous MOS versions everything worked fine and reliably.

    Does anybody know about the expert settings within network? Maybe I can tweak those a little?
  • »13.08.19 - 19:48
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  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    Posts: 27 from 2015/12/17
    my g4 freezes when i use wifi. also on 3.12

    thought it was a hardware defect until i found this thread...

    is there any fix ?
  • »09.10.19 - 14:56
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Amigaharry2
    Posts: 1282 from 2010/1/6
    From: EU-Austria (Wien)
    Buy a Netgear WG511T (or similar Atheros5000 bases Card) cardbus Card, and forget Airport. During whole the years I use my two Powerbooks, I tried to get Airport working properly - nope! The connection distance is much shorter than the Atheros Card and I've enough from connection break-down every few minutes.....
    I don't know why Airport is so much weaker and less stable under MOS than under MacOS.
    Peg2, 3xPowerMac G5, 2xPowerbookG4, 2x MacMiniG4, Efika (again), A3000T and life is never boring.....
  • »09.10.19 - 18:31
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  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    Posts: 27 from 2015/12/17
    ok.. i ordered a wg511t

    thank you!
  • »10.10.19 - 19:43
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Posts: 165 from 2004/11/18
    I have the same issue on my Pb, first it doesn't work after a frimware update internal wifi works but it's slow, on macosx it work fine ..strange
  • »10.10.19 - 20:44
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  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    Megander
    Posts: 85 from 2011/11/28
    Quote:

    frickler schrieb:
    my g4 freezes when i use wifi. also on 3.12


    Same here. This is a serious regression IMHO and should be addressed.
  • »24.10.19 - 14:33
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  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    Posts: 27 from 2015/12/17
    got my netgear wg511t. i bought it new and sealed from ebay.

    morphos does not detect it. only status light on the pcmcia card is flashing.

    when i enter showconfig in shell i do not see the card. any tips ?
  • »27.10.19 - 18:55
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  • Moderator
    Kronos
    Posts: 2329 from 2003/2/24
    Does it show up in Network prefs?
  • »27.10.19 - 19:40
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  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    Posts: 27 from 2015/12/17
    no, does not show up.
  • »27.10.19 - 19:45
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Templario
    Posts: 544 from 2012/4/28
    The wifi problems continue with the last MorphOS 3.12
  • »28.10.19 - 11:30
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Amigaharry2
    Posts: 1282 from 2010/1/6
    From: EU-Austria (Wien)
    Quote:

    frickler schrieb:
    no, does not show up.


    Very strange, because that card is working well here. Really a PC Card WG511T 108 Mbps Wireless ?
    It should appear in NetPrefs as Wl1 (atheros5000.device:0). 1st LED should beginn to flash after FirmWareboot is complete and MOS-Kernel starts. When booting MOS is complete, both LEDs should light/flash.

    Edit: Found out that status-LED must flash one(?) time when turning power-on (means recognized card by firmware). If not, MOS won't recognize it.
    The card has to be connected before turning power-on. Normaly it should be hot-pluggable, but seems not to work in all cases

    [ Editiert durch Amigaharry2 29.10.2019 - 09:06 ]
    Peg2, 3xPowerMac G5, 2xPowerbookG4, 2x MacMiniG4, Efika (again), A3000T and life is never boring.....
  • »29.10.19 - 07:28
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  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    Posts: 27 from 2015/12/17
    yes wg511t

    tried it with boot cd also..not working :(
  • »11.11.19 - 15:58
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Amigaharry2
    Posts: 1282 from 2010/1/6
    From: EU-Austria (Wien)
    Strange! May be your CardBus is damaged? No cracked pins?

    Should normaly look like this:

    37198369vh.jpg
    Peg2, 3xPowerMac G5, 2xPowerbookG4, 2x MacMiniG4, Efika (again), A3000T and life is never boring.....
  • »11.11.19 - 17:51
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