ms-chaps school routers?

genusr · 2012-01-05 20:49:57

So I installed Arch about 5 days ago. Everything's going well, until I try to connect to my school's (encrypted) wireless routers. I've tried everything I can think of to connect: dhcpcd, dhclient, wcid, networkmanager, ect. I think the problem may be because the routers use "MS CHAPS v2" (instead of dhcp?). Is there some module I can install to enable compatibility with mschaps? I can connect fine to other routers.

Thank you so much for the help. I've spent days on what should probably be a trivial problem, and I can't find the answer anywhere. Thanks!

Gusar · 2012-01-05 20:56:59

We use mschap-v2 here, works perfectly. Ask your school if they have Linux instructions. Mine does. They have instructions for Win (separately for XP, Vista and 7), OSX, Linux (both network-manager and command-line), iOS, Android and even Bada. I'm not kidding, there's instructions for Bada phones.

I'm using this netcfg profile, but you might need additional options, for example if your school uses certificates (mine doesn't):

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE="wlan0"
SECURITY="wpa-configsection"
ESSID="eduroam"
IP="dhcp"
DHCP_TIMEOUT="30"
CONFIGSECTION='
	ssid="eduroam"
	key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
	eap=PEAP
	phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
	identity="username_Here"
	password=password_here'

Oh, and mschap is an authentication method, whereas dhcp is a protocol to assign an IP. Two completely different, unrelated things.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-01-05 20:58:43)

genusr · 2012-01-05 21:05:45

Thanks for the quick reply! I did ask my school, but they had no idea. Your netcfg file looks promising but I don't think the network is wpa since iwlist says "CCMP". In this case, do you know what I should put down for security? Thanks so much!

Gusar · 2012-01-05 21:11:21

CCMP is an encryption method, TKIP being the other. This is handled automatically, you don't need to care about it.

genusr · 2012-01-05 21:26:25

Edit: Wait! I think I have it except for one thing! How do I specify a certificate file?

Last edited by genusr (2012-01-05 21:34:11)

Gusar · 2012-01-05 21:34:22

If they're using mschap authentication, it's highly unlikely that WPA-PSK is the correct setting. The problem is, we're playing a guessing game here, the chance of getting a proper result are very low. No one at your school knows anything about Linux, none of your friends use it or anything?

Interesting isn't it, my school provides instructions for Bada of all things, while yours is clueless about even Linux.

Ok, saw the edit. Hmm, certificate settings, let's see...

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE="wlan0"
SECURITY="wpa-configsection"
ESSID="eduroam"
IP="dhcp"
DHCP_TIMEOUT="30"
CONFIGSECTION='
	ssid="eduroam"
	key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
	eap=PEAP
	phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
	ca_cert="/path/to/certificate/cerfiticate.crt"
	identity="username_Here"
	password=password_here'

Now the problem is which certificate you need and where to obtain it.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-01-05 21:36:40)

genusr · 2012-01-05 21:50:43

Edit: About the linux, I know! It's not like its a small college, there are 40,000 undergrads, but no linux support! All my friends use macs...

Anyway, it worked the 2nd time I ran it. It's connected! Your help has been invaluable! But one last question: when I unplug the eth0, it it doesn't switch over to wlan0. Is there a command to switch which interface that is being used to get data?

Last edited by genusr (2012-01-05 22:01:06)

Gusar · 2012-01-05 21:57:55

We're close, it seems we're connected to wireless.

No idea how to go further though, the only thing I have in mind is try a different dhcp client: install dhclient and add DHCLIENT="yes" to the profile file. And increase the DHCP_TIMEOUT setting.

genusr · 2012-01-05 22:03:50

I ran netcfg a 2nd time, and it worked! But I'm not sure how to switch the interface being used to receive data from eth0 to wlan0. Do I need to add wlan0 to /etc/rc.conf like “interface=(eth0 wlan0)” or something? Or is there a command? Thank you so much for your help!

Gusar · 2012-01-05 22:10:44

Nope, the interface= stuff is for wired only. For wireless, use NETWORKS=(profile_name), then add "net-profiles" to DAEMONS.

Edit: However, this will *always* start wireless at boot. You can do what tomk suggests, or you can create a profile also for wired, then simply launch the profile you want depending on the situation.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-01-05 22:18:21)

tomk · 2012-01-05 22:14:31

Have a look at ifplugd.

genusr · 2012-01-05 22:57:11

Sorry it took so long (rebooting takes some time). Thanks so much for your patience.

Huh. Ifplugd is running, and it's totally connected to the network. But whenever I unplug eth0, I get "ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable" so I think it still isn't switching. The story is: "rc.d start network" works, “rc.d start net-profiles” exits with no errors (and says [DONE]), but ping doesn't work. Is there a way I can manually force it to switch? Thanks again!

Gusar · 2012-01-05 22:59:27

I'd say remove all network stuff from rc.conf (including the interface= stuff), and remove ifplugd too. Then create a profile for wired. That way you'll have no network whatsoever at boot, and you'll have to manually start either the wired or the wireless profile.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-01-05 23:00:02)

genusr · 2012-01-05 23:06:45

A wired profile would be the same as a network.d profile, but with eth0 instead of wlan0, right? and I would start it with netcfg?

i.e. the one in the examples file?

CONNECTION='ethernet'
DESCRIPTION='A basic dhcp ethernet connection using iproute'
INTERFACE='eth0'
IP='dhcp'
## for DHCPv6
#IP6='dhcp'
## for IPv6 autoconfiguration
#IP6='stateless'

Gusar · 2012-01-05 23:08:23

Exactly.

genusr · 2012-01-05 23:20:27

Yep. I did that, and netcfg works for turning both profiles on/off. But when only the wireless is on, I can't receive data. It seems to be connected, iwconfig says wlan0 is connected to the network, but I can't receive data (from ping or otherwise). Any ideas? Thanks so much!

genusr · 2012-01-05 23:56:50

This is looking like a different kind of problem, so I'm going to look around for answers before maybe starting a new thread. Thanks so much for your help and patience! I love arch linux!!

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-05 20:49:57

ms-chaps school routers?

#2 2012-01-05 20:56:59

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#3 2012-01-05 21:05:45

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#4 2012-01-05 21:11:21

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#5 2012-01-05 21:26:25

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#6 2012-01-05 21:34:22

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#7 2012-01-05 21:50:43

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#8 2012-01-05 21:57:55

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#9 2012-01-05 22:03:50

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#10 2012-01-05 22:10:44

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#11 2012-01-05 22:14:31

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#12 2012-01-05 22:57:11

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#13 2012-01-05 22:59:27

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#14 2012-01-05 23:06:45

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#15 2012-01-05 23:08:23

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#16 2012-01-05 23:20:27

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

#17 2012-01-05 23:56:50

Re: ms-chaps school routers?

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