wireless connection occasionally is dropped

http://forums.opensuse.org – Dell Inspiron 600m laptop, SUSE 11.2, Broadcom b43 driver, using Network Manager, with a Belkin N+ wireless router. My wireless works well most of the time, BUT the connection occasionally drops. It may be after a period of inactivity. Sometimes, it happens while I'm actively using it. For what it's worth, I have no problems with two other laptops, one Windows XP and one Windows 7, using the same router. When it's working (after boot): PHP Code: mark@linux-wpmp:~> dmesg | grep firmware [   59.000366] tg3 0000:02:00.0: firmware: requesting tigon/tg3_tso5.bin [   60.768095] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw [   60.895486] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/pcm5.fw [   60.977859] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw [   61.013849] b43 ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw [   61.252090] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10) mark@linux-wpmp:~> sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig lo        no wireless extensions. eth0      no wireless extensions. wmaster0  no wireless extensions. wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"myssid"             Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: [my router mac address]              Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm              Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off           Encryption key:[my encryption key] [3]           Power Management:off           Link Quality=64/70  Signal level=-46 dBm  Noise level=-68 dBm           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0  When it drops, I see a disconnected wireless icon in the gnome panel. When the wireless connection has failed: PHP Code: mark@linux-wpmp:~> sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig roots password: lo        no wireless extensions. eth0      no wireless extensions. wmaster0  no wireless extensions. wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"g\xC6isQ\xFFJ\xEC)\xCD\xBA\xAB\xF2\xFB\xE3F|\xC2T\xF8\x1B\xE8\xE7\x8DvZ.c3\x9F\xC9\x9A"             Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated              Tx-Power=20 dBm              Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off           Encryption key:off           Power Management:off           Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0 mark@linux-wpmp:~> dmesg | grep wlan0 [   74.808329] wlan0: authenticate with AP [router mac address] [   74.809891] wlan0: authenticated [   74.809897] wlan0: associate with AP [router mac address] [   74.812594] wlan0: RX AssocResp from [router mac address] (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1) [   74.812602] wlan0: associated [   79.660824] martian source 255.255.255.255 from 192.168.4.10, on dev wlan0 [   84.024363] martian source 255.255.255.255 from 192.168.4.10, on dev wlan0 [  993.433251] wlan0: deauthenticated (Reason: 3) [  994.432063] wlan0: direct probe to AP [router mac address] try 1 [  994.436545] wlan0 direct probe responded [  994.436550] wlan0: authenticate with AP [router mac address] [  994.438387] wlan0: authenticated [  994.438391] wlan0: associate with AP [router mac address] [  994.441045] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from [router mac address] (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1) [  994.441051] wlan0: associated [ 7938.886667] wlan0: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)  Now, if I right-click the Network Manager (version 0.7.1), Select edit connections, Select wireless tab in the Network Connections window, Left-click my wireless [my ssid], and ENTER, The Editing [my ssid] window comes up, click Apply, This re-establishes the connection, and a Bug Buddy window opens The crash details are as follows: PHP Code: Distribution: openSUSE 11.2 (i586) Gnome Release: 2.28.2 (null) (SUSE) BugBuddy Version: 2.28.0 System: Linux 2.6.31.12-0.1-default #1 SMP 2010-01-27 08:20:11 +0100 i686 X Vendor: The X.Org Foundation X Vendor Release: 10605000 Selinux: No Accessibility: Disabled GTK+ Theme: Sonar Icon Theme: Gilouche GTK+ Modules: canberra-gtk-module, gnomebreakpad Memory status: size: 0 vsize: 0 resident: 0 share: 0 rss: 0 rss_rlim: 0 CPU usage: start_time: 0 rtime: 0 utime: 0 stime: 0 cutime:0 cstime: 0 timeout: 0 it_real_value: 0 frequency: 0 ----------- .xsession-errors --------------------- ** (nm-applet:1610): WARNING **: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingConnection' / 'type' invalid: 3 ** (nm-applet:1610): WARNING **: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingConnection' / 'type' invalid: 3 ** (nm-applet:1610): WARNING **: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingConnection' / 'type' invalid: 3 ** (nm-applet:1610): WARNING **: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWirelessSecurity' / 'key-mgmt' invalid: 2 ** (nm-applet:1610): WARNING **: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingConnection' / 'type' invalid: 3 ** (nm-applet:1610): WARNING **: Invalid connection: 'NMSettingWireless' / 'ssid' invalid: 2 (nm-connection-editor:12881): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid cast from `NMConnectionEditor' to `GtkWindow' ** (bug-buddy:13045): WARNING **: Couldn't load /etc/xdg/autostart/ksmolt-autostart.desktop: Invalid key name: X-KDE-autostart-condition[$e] --------------------------------------------------  Any ideas on how to avoid all this aggravation ?? 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