Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

Bonner · 2009-02-03 17:02:05

I have the strangest wireless problem. I got the card working fine and installed a couple of different wireless managers (One at a time) to test which one I preferred. Every one will pick up all other wireless networks in the vicinity (Even ones across the road) but they won't pick up my home network from the router three feet away. The router itself is fine, it happily connects to my Ubuntu install and to another laptop running Win Xp. I'm assuming it's a driver problem or something, but I really haven't a clue. Any ideas?

lspci:

I Controller (rev 03)
10:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11a/b/g (rev 02)
bash-3.2#

iwconfig:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:""  
          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: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

I'm currently using the b43 driver. I would try using the BCM43XX driver, but pacman can't find the bcm43xx-fwcutter package...

Last edited by Bonner (2009-02-04 19:04:12)

celthunder · 2009-02-03 17:20:45

Did you try adding it without scanning? I had to do that for mine.

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "yourrouters ssid"

and see if it connects.

Bonner · 2009-02-03 17:25:51

celthunder wrote:

Did you try adding it without scanning? I had to do that for mine.
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "yourrouters ssid"
and see if it connects.

Nope, no effect.

koko · 2009-02-03 17:32:37

Got the same problem, just with an other adapter.
Didn't work it out yet. If you have KDE, install wlassistant, that worked for me.
Now i'm trying without an X to configure my network.

Bonner · 2009-02-03 17:41:22

koko wrote:

Got the same problem, just with an other adapter.
Didn't work it out yet. If you have KDE, install wlassistant, that worked for me.
Now i'm trying without an X to configure my network.

I'm currently trying wlassistant and it's not working through that either. I also tried it using a non-GUI method, but it still couldn't find the damn network

koko · 2009-02-03 19:06:49

in which way do you have obtain the external IP?
with dhcp or manually ?

Bonner · 2009-02-03 19:53:57

koko wrote:

in which way do you have obtain the external IP?
with dhcp or manually ?

dhcp, why?

R00KIE · 2009-02-03 23:16:03

Check your router settings, make sure it's broadcasting the network ESSID and that the ESSID isn't empty and go from there.
I think I had a card like yours (not sure if it was 4312 or 4318) and I used to have problems when the ESSID wasn't broadcasted. Also you want to use the b43 driver, the bcm43xx is old and wasn't that good.

koko · 2009-02-04 10:33:13

Try to set up your connection manually. Maybe your router doesnt assign a local IP, maybe DNS servers aren't working. Don't know. I would try this stuff too.

Bonner · 2009-02-04 16:49:41

R00KIE wrote:

Check your router settings, make sure it's broadcasting the network ESSID and that the ESSID isn't empty and go from there.
I think I had a card like yours (not sure if it was 4312 or 4318) and I used to have problems when the ESSID wasn't broadcasted. Also you want to use the b43 driver, the bcm43xx is old and wasn't that good.

Well I just went and checked (again) and the ESSID is being broadcasted and is there. My Ubuntu box connects fine to the network and so does the Win Xp laptop, so no problems are with the router.

Bonner · 2009-02-04 19:03:21

Managed to solve the problem thanks to a helpful someone in the #archlinux IRC channel. I had my router channel set to 12, but in the U.S the channel is limited to 11. I'm in Europe but the wireless card didn't know that so didn't display the network. I simply knocked the channel down to 4 and it found and connected fine. Cheers to anyone that posted suggestions!

Many thanks

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-03 17:02:05

Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#2 2009-02-03 17:20:45

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#3 2009-02-03 17:25:51

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#4 2009-02-03 17:32:37

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#5 2009-02-03 17:41:22

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#6 2009-02-03 19:06:49

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#7 2009-02-03 19:53:57

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#8 2009-02-03 23:16:03

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#9 2009-02-04 10:33:13

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#10 2009-02-04 16:49:41

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

#11 2009-02-04 19:03:21

Re: Curious Wireless Problems [SOLVED]

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