In message <200508222321.j7MNLoh00981@left.wing.org>, Ed Gould writes:
>Steve Bellovin wrote:
>> In message <87acj97kb8.fsf@snark.piermont.com>, "Perry E. Metzger" wri=
tes:
>>>
>>>Vincent <10.50@free.fr> writes:
>>>> Perry E. Metzger a =E9crit :
>>>>> I've found that under -current, continuously pinging the base =

>station
>>>>> stops the disconnections. That doesn't explain what the problem is,=

>>>>> though.
>>>>
>>>> True. The disconnections happen after a while when the link is
>>>> idle. Never while I 'cvs update', though ;)
>>>
>>> They only happen to you on WEP links you say? Any other info you have=

>>> on the nature of the problem?
>> =

>> I missed the beginning of this thread, but I've had problems with my =

>> default route -- on ath0 and wi0, and going back a couple of years -- =

>> going away for no apparent reason.  It doesn't matter whether WEP is o=
n =

>> or off.  I've posted about this a few times, in fact.  The problem is =

>> related to carrier dropping -- at least, I see the carrier drops since=
 =

>> I run ifwatchd.
>
>Under a recent -current (3.99.7, built 3 August from then-latest =

>sources) I started seeing failures where ath0 would disconnect when =

>idle for a long time (e.g., over night).  Only a reboot would recover =

>it.  When I removed the card and reinserted it, I got a message about =

>not being able to allocate descriptors (or some such - it was a week or =

>so ago that I saw this message, and I'm not sitting at that machine to =

>reproduce the failure just now).  (I haven't built anything more =

>recent, since I don't have the time just now to deal with the 64-bit =

>link change.)
>
>I have also seen, but less often, a failure where wi0 (I use that when =

>ath0 has failed) disconnects, but re-running dhclient recovers it.

I have a built-in ath card, using -current from about 13 August; I have =

not had that problem.  Whenever I have trouble, dhclient restores =

things.

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb