Poor performance/sensitivity Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN

Bug #286071 reported by Alex Mayorga
22
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
b43-fwcutter (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
linux (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: b43-fwcutter

I still see rather poor performance/sensitivity on my wireless card with the latest updates. My details below:
$ uname -a
Linux inspiron-1501 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Fri Oct 17 22:24:21 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
$ lspci -vvnn|grep etwork
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
$ apt-cache policy b43-fwcutter
b43-fwcutter:
  Installed: 1:011-4ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:011-4ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:011-4ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:17628 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:17628 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:1066448 (1.0 MB) TX bytes:1066448 (1.0 MB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
          inet addr:192.168.1.114 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21a:92ff:fe1a:98fe/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1492 Metric:1
          RX packets:3496 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1705 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1219783 (1.2 MB) TX bytes:242919 (242.9 KB)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

The card seems to associate to the AP fine using WEP but there are frequent disconnects and slow traffic.
The latest update really worsened this situation as I can now see 200B/s speeds while doing aptitude update and frequent disconnects even when I'm 1.5 meters from the wireless router.

Please let me know what else is needed on my end. I really would like for this to be solved for good.

I'm filing this as a follow up from Bug #124159: as requested by Leann Ogasawara.

Tags: linux-2.6.27
Revision history for this message
jyk (jykaminski) wrote :

This bug also affects me. It is very disturbing because we don't have actually wifi, since it is so unstable. This someone knows a workout, it would be great.

Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Benjamin (benperezc) wrote :

In an Acer 4315 laptop, it's very unstable since starting and when it finally goes running it sometimes drops and doesn't connect again.. Any hint is well appreciated...

Revision history for this message
Alex Mayorga (alex-mayorga) wrote :

jyk, Benjamin,

Given the poor performance of the wl driver with my specific card I ended up using ndiswrapper following this guide https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff as suggested on this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=881903

Follow the guide and I hope it helps.

Revision history for this message
jyk (jykaminski) wrote :

Alex,

Your suggestion solved my problems.

Many Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Adam Kimber (adam-kimber) wrote :

Note this also affects the Broadcom Corporation BCM4306.

Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :

Not a b43-fwcutter bug. If you want to report bugs against the b43
driver please use the linux package.

Can you check if this issue is still present in the latest Ubuntu 9.10?

Changed in b43-fwcutter (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee) wrote :

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

Przemek K. (azrael)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
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