argh -- can't get wireless in someone else's house

[John W. Linville]

On Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 01:19:29PM -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Fri, 8 Feb 2008, John W. Linville wrote:
> 
> > I'd have to see more of /var/log/messages, as well as iwconfig output.
> 
> # iwconfig
> lo        no wireless extensions.
> 
> eth0      no wireless extensions.
> 
> wmaster0  no wireless extensions.
> 
> wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"xxxxxxx"
>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
>           Tx-Power=27 dBm
>           Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
>           Encryption key:3431-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
>           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
 
Presuming the key is correct, you might try an additional "iwconfig
wlan0 essid xxxxxxx" (where xxxxxxx is changed appropriatedly) to
trigger a new association attempt.  Sometimes multiple tries are
necessary, YMMV.

> where the ESSID is correct and the key is the ASCII representation of
> the 10-digit WEP key, which is precisely what can be read from the
> linksys wireless security page.

That looks longer than 10-digits to me...?  Anyway, please re-check
the WEP key just to be sure.  You might also ensure that the key is
configured as a hex value at the router, and not as a passphrase.
Just because it looks like hex doesn't mean it is being treated
that way.

> 
>   from /var/log/messages, upon running system-config-network and
> trying to activate wlan0:
> 
> ...
> Feb  8 13:13:47 localhost dhclient: wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
> Feb  8 13:13:47 localhost dhclient: wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
> Feb  8 13:13:47 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
> Feb  8 13:13:55 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
> Feb  8 13:14:07 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
> Feb  8 13:14:17 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19
> Feb  8 13:14:36 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
> Feb  8 13:14:48 localhost dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.

I was hoping to see something other than the dhclient messages.
Is there no other pertinent information?

> > Are they using shared-key authentication instead of open?  Or
> > perhaps vice versa?
> 
>   the stock linksys firmware doesn't offer that kind of choice -- you
> can pick either straight WEP or a number of WPA variations or RADIUS.
> i'm not sure what the connecting windows system has.

Don't confuse encryption with authentication.

ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pdf/wrt54g_ug.pdf

See page 49 under "Authentication Type".

On the linux box, use "iwconfig wlan0 key open" or "iwconfig wlan0
key restricted" as appropriate for how the AP is configured.

> 
> > Are you setting the WEP key before setting the SSID?
> 
>   i'm not sure what this means -- in system-config-network, i've
> simply filled in the appropriate values in the dialog screen.
> 
>   Mode: Managed
>   SSID: Specified XXXXXXX
>   Key: xxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> and no manual selection of channel or transmit rate.  this has always
> worked before.
> 
> > Are you doing this manually?  Did you stop NetworkManager before
> > doing any manual configuration?
> 
> yes, manually, and NM and NMD are both disabled.

You might try this sequence:

	killall dhclient
	ifconfig wlan0 up
	iwconfig wlan0 key xxxxxxxxxx open # or restricted, if appropriate
	iwconfig wlan0 essid XXXXXXX

Then check the output of "iwconfig wlan0", do you get an entry for
"Access Point"?  If not, try that last command another time or two.
If you still get no association, then try "modprobe -r b43 ; modprobe
b43" and repeat.

If you finally get an association, then try:

	dhclient wlan0

If that doesn't help, I don't know what to suggest.  You might try to
capture some wireless traffic during an association using wireshark
and open a bugzilla.

Hth!

John
-- 
John W. Linville
linville at redhat.com