OK,
Your interfaces file just refers back to interfaces.d, which is certainly different to how Debian normally sets things up.
I'll wait to see what the logs contain, when you get a drop out on wireless.
There is nothing wrong per se with the modules and firmware, the dongle is being recognised and brought up.
These USB dongles are pretty flaky a lot of the time in my experience.
I tend to always use
wicd for a much more reliable wireless connection.
Would be worth trying removing the package
network-manager and installing
wicd.
Just make sure you keep the dongle plugged in, so that hopefully it will be picked up automatically.
If it doesn't, you can normally use this procedure.
If Wireless LAN is shown blocked (soft or hard)
Code:
rfkill unblock wifi
Then
which should give something like
Code:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether c0:4a:00:02:bf:d1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.2/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global eth0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::c24a:ff:fe02:bfd1/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 7c:dd:90:25:03:a3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Note
wlan1 is shown as DOWN
Code:
ip link set wlan1 up
Now check appears in listing
Which it does
Code:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr c0:4a:00:02:bf:d1
inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::c24a:ff:fe02:bfd1/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:289154 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:183142 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:361719392 (344.9 MiB) TX bytes:18481853 (17.6 MiB)
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:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:2228 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2228 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
RX bytes:5760967 (5.4 MiB) TX bytes:5760967 (5.4 MiB)
wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 7c:dd:90:25:03:a3
UP BROADCAST 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)
Now check it is receiving and what stations are in range
and you get something like this
Code:
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.
wlan1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 30:B5:C2:51:0D:91
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=70/70 Signal level=-35 dBm
Encryption key:off
ESSID:"TP-LINK_2.4GHz_510D91"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=000000392050a79a
Extra: Last beacon: 18896ms ago
IE: Unknown: 001554502D4C494E4B5F322E3447487A5F353130443931
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
IE: Unknown: 2D1AEE111BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 331AEE111BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D16010D0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3416010D0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 4A0E14000A002C01C800140005001900
IE: Unknown: 7F0101
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F
IE: Unknown: DDA70050F204104A0001101044000102103B000103104700100000000000001000000030B5C2510D101021000754502D4C494E4B1023000854442D573939383010240003312E301042000C3330423543323531304439311054000800060050F20400011011001F576972656C657373204475616C2042616E64204D6F64656D20526F75746572100800020086103C000100104900140024E26002000101600000020001600100020001
Cell 02 - Address: 00:1D:AA:B2:7D:60
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=31/70 Signal level=-79 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:"Banks_Wireless"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000008940cefda0
Extra: Last beacon: 28ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000E42616E6B735F576972656C657373
IE: Unknown: 010882848B961224486C
IE: Unknown: 030106
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32040C183060
IE: Unknown: 2D1A6E1017FFFFFF00010000000000000000000000000C0000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D1606070600000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3E0100
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: 0B050005107A12
IE: Unknown: 7F0101
IE: Unknown: DD07000C4304000000
IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C336E1017FFFFFF00010000000000000000000000000C0000000000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C3406070600000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD9D0050F204104A0001101044000101103B00010310470010BC329E001DD811B28601001DAAB27D601021001852616C696E6B20546563686E6F6C6F67792C20436F72702E1023001C52616C696E6B20576972656C6573732041636365737320506F696E74102400065254323836301042000831323334353637381054000800060050F20400011011000952616C696E6B415053100800020084103C000100
Cell 03 - Address: BC:F6:85:AD:3A:B9
Channel:2
Frequency:2.417 GHz (Channel 2)
Quality=33/70 Signal level=-77 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:"TALKTALK-AD3AB9"
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000002349c3c10f
Extra: Last beacon: 1308ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000F54414C4B54414C4B2D414433414239
IE: Unknown: 010882848B961224486C
IE: Unknown: 030102
IE: Unknown: 32040C183060
IE: Unknown: 0706545720010B14
IE: Unknown: 33082001020304050607
IE: Unknown: 33082105060708090A0B
IE: Unknown: DD270050F204104A000110104400010210470010BC329E001DD811B28601BCF685AD3AB9103C000100
IE: Unknown: 050400010000
IE: Unknown: 2A0104
IE: Unknown: 2D1A0C0117FF000000000000000000000000000000000C0000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D1602000700000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: 0B0500020D7A12
IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C330C0117FF000000000000000000000000000000000C0000000000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C3402000700000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD07000C4304000000
eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
Now you can open up wicd and click on the right hand drop menu [V]
Select 'Preferences', get this menu and add your WLAN desigination, in this case wlan1.
Then click OK and return to main dialog and click [Refresh], after which those stations you detected should come up and you are up and running once you select one of them and sort out password etc.
Note the strength of first station is 72%
That was 3ft from the router! Just shows how flaky these dongles are, my laptop gets 100% anywhere in visible range and 85% 15 metres away, behind 3 brick walls.
regards