[TriLUG] WiFi quality monitoring

[Igor Partola]

Bill: my laptop is running Mac OS X, so I don't have a iwconfig command. I
tried with a Linux laptop with a stronger Wi-Fi card and it seems to report
no wireless packet loss.

As an experiment, I tried a different wireless AP, a Buffalo
WZR-HP-G300NH2. I set up a completely separate SSID for it, so it's just my
laptop and nothing else. I also turned off the WDR4300's 2.4 GHz radio so
that only the Buffalo is using that band. Here's a ping test:

64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=20.802 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=27 ttl=64 time=69.379 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=28 ttl=64 time=2.930 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=29 ttl=64 time=71.429 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=0.899 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=0.844 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=32 ttl=64 time=0.977 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=33 ttl=64 time=19.288 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=34 ttl=64 time=63.497 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=35 ttl=64 time=1.011 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=36 ttl=64 time=1.035 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=37 ttl=64 time=0.610 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=38 ttl=64 time=3.438 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=39 ttl=64 time=25.692 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=40 ttl=64 time=71.502 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=41 ttl=64 time=3.165 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=42 ttl=64 time=33.158 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=43 ttl=64 time=2.041 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=44 ttl=64 time=71.972 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=45 ttl=64 time=19.576 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=46 ttl=64 time=1.112 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=47 ttl=64 time=91.708 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=48 ttl=64 time=4.495 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=49 ttl=64 time=50.250 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=50 ttl=64 time=1.836 ms
64 bytes from 172.20.20.3: icmp_seq=51 ttl=64 time=1.016 ms

Now I'm really at a loss. This is a completely separate piece of hardware,
yet it's displaying the same pattern. They do both use Atheros radios...

I also just connected a Linux laptop to the Buffalo AP. Same story:
sporadic slow ping, and iperf shows speeds around 15 Mbps. This is the same
physical setup: laptop next to the router. It reports the wireless signal
level as -37 dBm and link quality as 70/70. What Wi-Fi ghosts could these
be?

Perhaps the next test really will be to take this whole setup to a
different location to rule out equipment issues. I'll try that over the
weekend.

Thanks everyone!
Igor