Unexplained Log Cruft and Possible Dropped Packets on WPA2-Personal LAN

Question

I've been receiving a LOT of log cruft ever since I installed my WUSB100V2 (using the rt2870sta community driver from the Linux kernel) and was wondering what it all meant.

Many times when these messages occur it is accompanied by slow network speeds and many DNS queries and outgoing SYNs being dropped. I have searched for documentation for these (error?) messages and have come up empty as far as what they mean or how I can stop them from occurring.

I reside on the opposite side of the building from my WAP. I have taken steps to improve the signal strength, but the signal quality hovers between 50% and 70%, sometimes dropping to 40% for unknown reasons.

My /var/log/messages:

Sep 12 05:04:40 necronomicon -- MARK --
Sep 12 05:29:48 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4284
Sep 12 05:29:53 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4104
Sep 12 05:30:06 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4156
Sep 12 05:31:02 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:12260
Sep 12 05:31:03 necronomicon kernel: 0:4 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:12260
Sep 12 05:31:21 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4100
Sep 12 05:31:28 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4160
Sep 12 05:32:41 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:5612
Sep 12 05:33:12 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4208
Sep 12 05:33:16 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4696
Sep 12 05:37:40 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=16896 L:24604
Sep 12 05:41:06 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=16896 , TL=0 L:4184
Sep 12 05:41:55 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:3456
Sep 12 05:42:20 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:24736
Sep 12 05:42:21 necronomicon kernel: 0:4 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:24736
Sep 12 05:42:22 necronomicon kernel: 0:5 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:24736
Sep 12 05:42:23 necronomicon kernel: 0:6 LTL=0 , TL=18944 L:24736
Sep 12 05:43:06 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=18944 , TL=0 L:2176
Sep 12 05:44:14 necronomicon kernel: 0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4996

My dmesg:

DeQueueRunning[0]= TRUE!
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4996
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4144
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4100
DeQueueRunning[0]= TRUE!
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4832
DeQueueRunning[0]= TRUE!
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4184
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:5260
DeQueueRunning[0]= TRUE!
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4200
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4120
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4140
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:5292
0:3 LTL=0 , TL=0 L:4188

My /proc/net/wireless:

Inter-| sta-|   Quality        |   Discarded packets               | Missed | WE
 face | tus | link level noise |  nwid  crypt   frag  retry   misc | beacon | 22
 wlan0: 0000   70.  -65   -83        0      0      0      0      0        0

My iwconfig settings:

wlan0     Ralink STA  ESSID:"Network Awesome"  Nickname:"necronomicon"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.457 GHz  Access Point: 00:16:B6:BA:FC:B0   
          Bit Rate=12 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:1111-1AA1-1AAA-A111-1A1A-1111-111A-1AAA
          Link Quality=67/100  Signal level:-63 dBm  Noise level:-83 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

My wpa_supplicant.conf:

network={
        ssid="Network Awesome"
        psk="my_network_password"
        proto=RSN
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        pairwise=CCMP
        priority=10
        id_str="netawesome"
}

Answer 1

I figured out the problem and thought I'd post it here in case someone else is having similar problems.

The problem was that the network card was failing, but not fatally at first. About two weeks after the original question, the card completely failed, eventually becoming unresponsive but at the same time showing up in lsusb output.

I pried open the plastic case of the adapter to find that one of the diodes on the ICB had turned into a little lump of solder.

I solved the problem by buying a new one. Works fine now.