824398 - Internet sharing (tethering) stops working after a while - cannot reconnect until it gets disabled and enabled again

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Wifi, defect)

Description

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away July 24th - August 16th)]

When internet sharing is enabled while you are on a mobile connection, it will be disabled once you loose the mobile signal. When you are back in reach of your mobile network you will have to manually enable internet sharing in the settings.

Whenever mobile data is not available but it's pref is turned on in settings we should not disable internet sharing. Only the user should be able to do so.

Right now it's frustrating to work that way in an area where you often loose your signal. You will have to keep the settings page open.

Comment 1

[Vincent Chang[:vchang][changyihsin]]

(In reply to Henrik Skupin (:whimboo) [away 12/21 - 01/01] from comment #0)
> When internet sharing is enabled while you are on a mobile connection, it
> will be disabled once you loose the mobile signal. 

Once the internet sharing is enabled, it will not be disabled even if you loose the mobile signal. 

> When you are back in
> reach of your mobile network you will have to manually enable internet
> sharing in the settings.

No, you don't need to do that. 
 
> Whenever mobile data is not available but it's pref is turned on in settings
> we should not disable internet sharing. Only the user should be able to do
> so.
> 
> Right now it's frustrating to work that way in an area where you often loose
> your signal. You will have to keep the settings page open.

To enable wifi hotspot, we need to turn on mobile data connection first. The reason we do that is because we have to obtain mobile data connection's interface name from NetworkManager. The mobile data connection registers itself to NetworkManager when it is turned on. We also need dns server's ip address when enabling wifi hotspot. The dns server's ip address is assigned when mobile data connection is established. We can avoid the dependency which is addressed in Bug 815924. 

Once the wifi hotspot is enabled successfully, it will not be turned off automatically even if mobile data connection is lost and back frequently.

Comment 2

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away July 24th - August 16th)]

(In reply to Vincent Chang[:vchang] from comment #1)
> (In reply to Henrik Skupin (:whimboo) [away 12/21 - 01/01] from comment #0)
> > When internet sharing is enabled while you are on a mobile connection, it
> > will be disabled once you loose the mobile signal. 
> 
> Once the internet sharing is enabled, it will not be disabled even if you
> loose the mobile signal. 
> 
> > When you are back in
> > reach of your mobile network you will have to manually enable internet
> > sharing in the settings.
> 
> No, you don't need to do that. 

Well, that's what I have seen on Dec 11th and 12th as discussed on bug 802418 before. Each time I lost the mobile connection the internet sharing has been turned off.

I haven't been able to check that lately given that I haven't found a place without mobile connection. But I will retry again in the next days.

Comment 3

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away July 24th - August 16th)]

Ok, I have tested it again today and as Vincent said, it is not related to the mobile connection. Instead the access point stops working after a while (for me 2-3 minutes).

With the build from yesterday I enable the internet sharing and start a 'ping google.com' in a terminal of my connected os x machine. Everything looks fine in the first 2 minutes or so but then it starts failing and finally the connection drops completely. I cannot reconnect to the access point with my Mac until the internet sharing has been disabled and enabled again. I always get a timeout.

Here an output of the ping command:

64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=39 ttl=51 time=118.261 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=40 ttl=51 time=76.372 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=41 ttl=51 time=74.860 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=42 ttl=51 time=74.156 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 43
Request timeout for icmp_seq 44
Request timeout for icmp_seq 45
Request timeout for icmp_seq 46
Request timeout for icmp_seq 47
Request timeout for icmp_seq 48
Request timeout for icmp_seq 49
Request timeout for icmp_seq 50
Request timeout for icmp_seq 51
Request timeout for icmp_seq 52
ping: sendto: No route to host
Request timeout for icmp_seq 53
ping: sendto: No route to host

When that happens I was kicked out of the network due to unknown reasons and can't join anymore.

Comment 4

[Vincent Chang[:vchang][changyihsin]]

(In reply to Henrik Skupin (:whimboo) [away 12/21 - 01/01] from comment #3)
> Ok, I have tested it again today and as Vincent said, it is not related to
> the mobile connection. Instead the access point stops working after a while
> (for me 2-3 minutes).
> 
> With the build from yesterday I enable the internet sharing and start a
> 'ping google.com' in a terminal of my connected os x machine. Everything
> looks fine in the first 2 minutes or so but then it starts failing and
> finally the connection drops completely. I cannot reconnect to the access
> point with my Mac until the internet sharing has been disabled and enabled
> again. I always get a timeout.
> 
> Here an output of the ping command:
> 
> 64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=39 ttl=51 time=118.261 ms
> 64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=40 ttl=51 time=76.372 ms
> 64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=41 ttl=51 time=74.860 ms
> 64 bytes from 173.194.35.152: icmp_seq=42 ttl=51 time=74.156 ms
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 43
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 44
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 45
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 46
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 47
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 48
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 49
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 50
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 51
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 52
> ping: sendto: No route to host
> Request timeout for icmp_seq 53
> ping: sendto: No route to host
> 
> When that happens I was kicked out of the network due to unknown reasons and
> can't join anymore.

Does it happen all the time ? I can't reproduce the problem in my test environment. Looks like the hostapd daemon is dead... It would be nice if you can help to capture the logcat log and turn DEBUG=true in "http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/dom/system/gonk/NetworkManager.js#86" and "http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/dom/system/gonk/net_worker.js#18".

Comment 5

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away July 24th - August 16th)]

Sorry, but I haven't seen this problem anymore since I have reset the configuration settings for mobile data and agps. Not sure what has been caused this. To reproduce the issue I put my phone into a metal box for a while. Even with no mobile connection for about 1h the data connection came back when I opened the case.

Comment 6

[Vincent Chang[:vchang][changyihsin]]

I would like to close this based on comment 5. Feel free to reopen if you see this behavior again.