Topic: Wifi connection?

My first post here in a long time! Still using Chumbys after a dozen years now!
Unfortunately, my reason for posting is not a positive one. I'm seeking help with a connection problem. A search of the forum did not turn up anything related to my specific experience. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone can help...
As of today, one of my original black Chumbys won't connect to Wifi. It sees the available Wifi, but I get the Chumby is "unreachable" error message no matter what (I tried two different networks). Rebooting and even unplugging have not helped.
My other original two-tone Chumby seems fine.
I would be very appreciative of any help!
-Carl

Re: Wifi connection?

Are you getting a "legit" MAC address (ie NOT all zeros) in the screen that shows the list of available access points?

Re: Wifi connection?

Yes, it's there (at the top of the screen, right?).
I've tried both using existing connections and setting up new connections.
I set up a hotspot from my phone to see if that would work. No good. The Chumby sees all the wifi networks, but won't connect to any. I just get the "unreachable" error no matter what. I let the Chumby sit unplugged overnight, but it's still happening. All I can do is manually set date and time.
Other Chumbys are working fine. I even revived a Chumby One that's been dormant for a couple of years.

Re: Wifi connection?

Can you please post the entire error message you're getting?

Re: Wifi connection?

Ok. Whether I use an existing connection or create a new connection, I eventually get:

"failed to obtain IP address
chumby.com is unreachable"

Re: Wifi connection?

After almost a week, I decided to try a reboot again. It booted... I wasn't watching too closely, but I noticed the progress bar like it was connecting... Then I noticed a whole bunch of text on screen. It was behaving like a new device, telling me how to activate ("Are you near a computer..." or something like that).

On a hunch, I shut it down and rebooted again...

Voilà! Back to normal! It connected, and is now behaving like nothing ever happened!

Re: Wifi connection?

For what it is worth, I've been chasing WiFi problems, too.  I recently added some extra APs, and I thought that might be the problem.  They would successfully associate and run, but a few hours later, I'd come back and they'd be asking for the WiFi password again.  I assumed it was something about reassociating when jumpting between APs. So, I dug out one of my extra Chumby8's, soldered in the serial console and fired it up... and predictably, they're now all working fine and there's nothing to see.

Is there a rule-of-thumb of sorts about compatibility? Or are there features that should be disabled out of hand?

I particular, I have my APs squished down on 2.4GHz to 54Mb/s, and have expressly turned off 300Mb/s 'Neighbor Friendly Mode' and 867Mb/s '-ac Mode'.  Auth is set to "WPA2-PSK [AES]".

Re: Wifi connection?

I have an I3.5 whose network card gave up the ghost several years ago — it’s been sitting in my basement in pieces for some time. Then just recently my I8 has started disconnecting from the net after running happily for a few hours; if I power-cycle it the WiFi connects and it boots up just fine, but later in the day the yellow triangle appears in the network icon and it won’t reconnect manually without another restart.

Is there a known issue with the WiFi units? Any common fixes?

Re: Wifi connection?

The Wi-Fi is handled from a USB Wi-Fi card. I replaced the cards years ago and have never had an issue with flaky connections.