Wireless troubles

clkmsc · 2007-09-12 18:12:51

I have an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG wireless network card in my laptop and I have had it working with arch linux with no troubles until now. I recently moved into a new house and one of my roommates is running a wireless network with what I assume is a linksys router, but I couldn't say for sure because it is in his locked bedroom. If it is necessary to know I can find out sometime when he gets off work.

Anyway, for some reason I can't connect to his router in arch linux. It has WEP, but I have connected to wireless routers with WEP enables before with no problem. I can't think of anything that could be causing the problem. I have KWifiManager, and when I "sudo iwconfig eth1 essid ntg3" (ntg3 is the name of his network), it changes in KWifi, but shows no connectivity. I can do the same with some other networks in the area and most of them will show at least some green bar, but some turn up like my roommates aswell. The commands I'm using are:

sudo iwconfig eth1 essid ntg3
sudo iwconfig eth1 key s:bigal99
sudo dhclient eth1

I've made sure the key is correct, but maybe the problem could be how I'm entering it.

Any help would be great, thanks.

murffatksig · 2007-09-12 18:19:04

Your roomate could be using MAC address filtering. In which case you would need to either spoof a valid MAC, or wait and have him add your MAC to the list.

Are you sure he's using DHCP? If you know the subnet, gateway and mask try statically setting the IP.

Moo-Crumpus · 2007-09-12 18:26:05

I had a lot of trouble, too. Worked a long time, then worked not without a change in configuration. Since I use WICD I had no more troubles. WICD does a perfect job, as far as I am concerned. You'll find it in AUR.

murffatksig · 2007-09-12 18:34:42

The other problem I've seen is some of the wireless routers use a passphrase, which is then hashed to the actual wep key. When using iwconfig, you would need the actual key not the passphrase.

clkmsc · 2007-09-12 19:51:07

murffatksig wrote:

Your roomate could be using MAC address filtering. In which case you would need to either spoof a valid MAC, or wait and have him add your MAC to the list.
Are you sure he's using DHCP? If you know the subnet, gateway and mask try statically setting the IP.

He isn't using MAC address filtering and he is using DHCP. I know this because I can connect fine with my Windows XP partition.

murffatksig wrote:

I had a lot of trouble, too. Worked a long time, then worked not without a change in configuration. Since I use WICD I had no more troubles. WICD does a perfect job, as far as I am concerned. You'll find it in AUR.

I'll give this a try.

murffatksig wrote:

The other problem I've seen is some of the wireless routers use a passphrase, which is then hashed to the actual wep key. When using iwconfig, you would need the actual key not the passphrase.

If this is true, that may be my problem. The key he gave me is "bigal999" (which is a passphrase, correct?), but it is my understanding that if I prefix that key with "s:" then it should work. I could very well be wrong, though. After adding the key with "iwconfig eth1 key s:bigal999" if I run "iwconfig" it shows the key as a series of numbers seperated by dashes, which I'm guessing is the actual key. I can't tell you the key exactly though because I'm on Windows right now.

Last edited by clkmsc (2007-09-12 19:54:51)

tomk · 2007-09-12 21:03:02

Last time I used an ASCII key in Windows, I was able to see the actual hex key it generated - although now that I think of it, that was in some Netgear config utility, not in Windows itself. It might be there somewhere, though.

murffatksig · 2007-09-12 21:10:31

You could also consider trying network profiles. This is what I use to go from my apartment to my girlfriends apartment. There's an article on the wiki http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_profiles

During bootup I get prompted for a profile and it works great.

clkmsc · 2007-09-12 21:15:52

I don't think the problem is with the key because in KWifi I should be able to see a green bar showing how good of a connection there is, whether I have the key or not. I can do this with many of the protected networks in my area, but my roommates and a few others show nothing. I forget what it says, but it says something like "No Signal" or "Out of Reach," even though it shows up in "Scan for Networks" as the healthiest network in range. It's like his router isn't compatible with my wireless card, but I know it is because it works in Windows.

clkmsc · 2007-09-12 21:16:29

I was considering trying network profiles, but I wasn't sure what that would help me with. I may give it a shot anyway.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-09-12 18:12:51

Wireless troubles

#2 2007-09-12 18:19:04

Re: Wireless troubles

#3 2007-09-12 18:26:05

Re: Wireless troubles

#4 2007-09-12 18:34:42

Re: Wireless troubles

#5 2007-09-12 19:51:07

Re: Wireless troubles

#6 2007-09-12 21:03:02

Re: Wireless troubles

#7 2007-09-12 21:10:31

Re: Wireless troubles

#8 2007-09-12 21:15:52

Re: Wireless troubles

#9 2007-09-12 21:16:29

Re: Wireless troubles

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