cannot get wireless LAN up [SOLVED]

zaphyr · Last edited by zaphyr on Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

I have struggeled with this network for a while now, and have no clue what to do.

I have a Linksys WRT54GL router with DD/WRT firmware and a Linksys WPC54G PCMCIA card.

I just can not get connected, I can scan the network, and actually find 3 or 4 AP`s including my own, but can not connect.

This is my wpa_supplicant.conf

madams · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:59 pm Post subject:

I am using the same router/AP, but had no luck with the linksys wireless 'G" pcmcia cards

have you tried manually setting the values using 'iwconfig'? (this is part of the 'wireless-tools' package)

I would start by disabling all encryption/authenticaion on your access point (i.e. start simple) and seeing your results, if that works then you can get fancy...

I will tell you that the linksys cards can be a little difficult (at least they were in the past).

I ended using the Netgear WG511 802.11G card

Also have these running just fine:

Orinoco
Avaya
Lucent

Sorry wasn't more help.
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zaphyr · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:00 pm Post subject:

Please...help?

Should I drop wpa_supplicant and use wireless tools?...what impact would that have on my security?

Thanks
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madams · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject:

I am merely suggesting you drop the encryption and authenticaion stuff as a troubleshooting step not as the long term solution... i.e. if you get it working without, then you know the card is working and you have isolated the problem to your 'wpa' setup and config.
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zaphyr · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:20 pm Post subject:

I have tried without any security on the router, and configured wpa_supplicant with

zaphyr · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:47 pm Post subject:

oh yeah, I got it!
I used the command

madams · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:19 pm Post subject:

as I said earlier, I have had no luck with the linksys wireless card.. That is why I bought the Netgear WG511to connect to my linysys router, Netgears are well supported. My linksys 802.11G card is gathering dust..

However the fact that you can scan indicates that at least you have the card working to a degree (i.e. you have eliminated pcmcia problems), so it looks like you have the 'wireless-tools' installed since I see you used 'iwlist', , with *all* encryption and auth turned off, put the AP into 'managed' mode (should have choices ad-hoc, managed, etc), make sure it has a unique 'essid' (i.e. don't leave it set to default of 'linksys')

at a root prompt type:

iwconfig wlan0 essid "essid_you_set_goes_here" mode managed # insert appropriate ethernet interface wlan0, eth0,eth1, etc.

rm -Rvf /var/lib/dhcpc # this will delete any old dhcp lease info, will speed up address assignement (i.e. dhcpcd will attempt to request its previously assigned address)

dhcpcd wlan0 # insert appropriate ethernet interface wlan0, eth0, eth1, etc

if you are using some other dhcp client (i.e. pump, etc), then adjust accordingly.

If you don't get an address, then I would attempt to verify the ability to connect to the AP/Router using another card that is known to work, or trying getting the card to work in a windows machine. i.e. just as an excercise to prove that the card and AP work at all.. nothing worse than chewing up a lot of time only to find out it was a hardware problem with the card or router.

just a little background on wireless networking, the process of scanning for available networks is quite different than initiating a session with the access point (i.e. attaching to the MAC layer, then initiating the DHCP process). Scanning is akin to putting the card in permisuous mode and just listening to see what AP's are in range (i.e. you are not attached to the network yet (i.e. OSI model layer 1 a.k.a MAC layer), you have to do that before you can start a layer 2/3 session a.k.a TCP/IP session (i.e. DHCP the address).

Personally, I don't use any of the wireless security (wep, wpa, etc), it is rather easy to hack (i.e. it only keeps honest people and rookies off your network). I limit access to my access points by explicitly listing the MAC addresses that are permitted to attach, and I VPN (blowfish cypto libs) all trafic traversing the wireless connection (much stronger encryption). While this is impractical to manage for a large wireless network, or a network that has lots of transient users on it, it serves my purposes well for home use.

Sorry I can't be more help.. There are lots of post on problems with Linksys wireless cards..
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madams · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:24 pm Post subject:

w00t..

messages must have crossed while I was typing my response.. it looks like you are making progress..

I won't be able to help much with the wpa suplicant stuff, don't use it, but you seem to be on track.. at least you know the hardware is working...
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zaphyr · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:03 pm Post subject:

success!
everything is working with wireless tools now, so h... with wpa_supplicant

I am writing this post using the WLAN, created a small script that connects to the AP and fetches an IP from DHCP just to make things easier

Perhaps you should give your Linksys WLAN card another chance?

Thanks!
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madams · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:27 pm Post subject:

dusting the linksys card off right now

I've never bothered to automate bringing the wireless stuff online, I just do the same thing, put it all in a script and execute from there..
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