What to do about wireless issues?

[Chuck Anderson]

On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 10:37:41AM -0500, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> > e.g. /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log-20080722
> >
> > Also, paste the output of these into the bug:
> >
> > nm-tool
> >
> > dmesg
> >
> > (the latter can be helpful to see kernel messages from your wireless
> > driver)
> >
> > Also, note what you see in the nm-applet drop-down list, whether there
> > is a security icon or a computer icon, etc.
> 
> 
> Thank you, this is useful.

A couple more things may be useful as well:

iwlist scanning

(point out which network in the scan results you are trying to connect 
to)

iwconfig

(check if it is Associated to the right ESSID)

If you can, you might try disabling NetworkManager and connecting 
manually, especially if it is an open network (unencrypted):

/sbin/service NetworkManager stop
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 essid "Foo"
/sbin/iwconfig enc off
/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
/sbin/dhclient wlan0

For WEP encryption, instead of "enc off" use:

/sbin/iwconfig key XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX 

or:

/sbin/iwconfig key XXXXXXXX

For WPA encrypted networks, that requires a bit more fussing about 
with wpa_supplicant.conf, killing wpa_supplicant, and then running 
wpa_supplicant manually.