Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

DeeCodeUh · 2008-04-14 02:06:50

I'm having some trouble with my wireless I can't get it to connect to any wireless networks.

When I type in iwlist wlan0 scan, I get:

[coda@linux ~]$ iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:18:4D:8D:47:32
                    ESSID:"NETGEAR"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:50/100  Signal level:-64 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

So then I type in iwconfig wlan0 essid netgear followed by iwconfig and this is what I get.

[root@linux coda]# iwconfig wlan0 essid netgear
[root@linux coda]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"NETGEAR"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          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

No access point, and it says that the essid is off. Is that bad?
My wireless is not encrypted and everything is set to static on the zero subnet.
Also, my results for the iwconfig are random. Sometimes it puts the nickname:"NETGEAR" there, and other times, it doesn't do anything.
The only network related daemon I have running is network.
I run an Atheros AR5006EG wireless communication card.

Some other stuff...

[root@linux coda]# netstat -r
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags   MSS Window  irtt Iface
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U         0 0          0 eth0
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U         0 0          0 wlan0
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG        0 0          0 eth0\

[root@linux coda]# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:36:03:B3:02
          inet addr:192.168.0.7  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::216:36ff:fe03:b302/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4105 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3658 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:4283365 (4.0 Mb)  TX bytes:478424 (467.2 Kb)
          Interrupt:20 Base address:0x6000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:239 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:239 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:17318 (16.9 Kb)  TX bytes:17318 (16.9 Kb)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1F:3A:13:60:02
          inet addr:192.168.0.177  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:16 Memory:f2000000-f2010000

Thanks for any help in advance.

fed359 · 2008-04-14 02:17:01

It looks like you've got a valid address on wlan0, but I'll mention it anyway. Are you using dhcpcd, dhclient, etc to grab an address from dhcp?

DeeCodeUh · 2008-04-14 02:32:11

I don't think so.
I have typed "dchpcd wlan0" into the konsole before, and this is what I got.

[root@linux coda]# dhcpcd wlan0
err, wlan0: timed out
warn, wlan0: using IPV4LL address 169.254.173.170

I'm really new to wireless in Linux.

fed359 · 2008-04-14 02:46:46

iwconfig wlan0 essid NETGEAR
dhcpcd wlan0

I believe the essid is case sensative. If dhcpcd complains it's already running use "dhcpcd -x wlan0" to stop it

EDIT: I highly recommend using the netcfg2 scripts if you plan to connect from terminal often.

Last edited by fed359 (2008-04-14 02:49:00)

DeeCodeUh · 2008-04-14 03:48:54

Ok, thanks for the reply.
Here's what happened:

[root@linux coda]# iwconfig wlan0 essid NETGEAR
[root@linux coda]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"NETGEAR"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          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

[root@linux coda]# dhcpcd wlan0
err, wlan0: dhcpcd already running on pid 21789 (/var/run/dhcpcd-wlan0.pid)
[root@linux coda]# dhcpcd -x wlan0
[root@linux coda]# dhcpcd wlan0
err, wlan0: timed out
warn, wlan0: using IPV4LL address 169.254.173.170

any suggestions?

fed359 · 2008-04-14 03:58:01

I think I see the problem now. For some reason iwconfig is interpretting NETGEAR as the nickname for the network, not the essid. The essid is also left as off, and you don't have any Tx-Power ouput. This is my output:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Mushroom Kingdom"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          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

Which is quite different from yours (I do have a different card, but I wouldn't think it would make a significant difference)
Perhaps your wireless card is switched off?
EDIT: Now that I think of it you wouldn't get any scan results with the card off... hmph

Last edited by fed359 (2008-04-14 04:31:01)

Enfield · 2008-04-14 20:23:18

Hi there,

You need to set your ESSID to NETGEAR. I think it is case sensitive.

DeeCodeUh · 2008-04-14 23:35:59

Thanks for all of your help, I got it fixed.
Here is the solution.
1. I restarted. (I think I might have had some daemons running that I shouldn't have.)
2. iwconfig wlan0 essid NETGEAR
3. ifconfig eth0 down
4. route add default gw 192.168.0.1 wlan0

Wala! It works!

But what do I do if I'm on a network where I don't know what the gateway is?
Is there some way that I can scan for a gateway?

Misfit138 · 2008-04-15 00:37:53

Try:
iwconfig wlan0 essid NETGEAR

dhcpcd wlan0

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-14 02:06:50

Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#2 2008-04-14 02:17:01

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#3 2008-04-14 02:32:11

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#4 2008-04-14 02:46:46

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#5 2008-04-14 03:48:54

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#6 2008-04-14 03:58:01

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#7 2008-04-14 20:23:18

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#8 2008-04-14 23:35:59

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

#9 2008-04-15 00:37:53

Re: Wireless card working, but trouble connecting to wireless network

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