wireless issues

jacopastorius82 · 2010-10-31 15:56:39

I have a broadcom chipset wireless card. I installed b43 firmware and my card goes up with iwconfig wlan0 up but when i try to assign an ip with dhcpcd it sends a timeout error

# dhcpcd wlan0
dhcpcd[2214]: version 5.2.8 starting
dhcpcd[2214]: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[2214]: timed out

With my eth0 no problems

ewaller · 2010-10-31 16:09:10

Lets make sure all the prerequisites are covered.

Could you post the output of
iwconfig
and iwliist scan
??

jacopastorius82 · 2010-10-31 16:12:02

[root@arch du]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off



[root@arch du]# iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-24 dBm  
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:"dlink"
                    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
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=00000002f0b0fc4b
                    Extra: Last beacon: 1040ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 0005646C696E6B
                    IE: Unknown: 010882840B162430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180201F4000000

Moderator edit: Edited out your MAC address, you don't want that out in the open .

Last edited by .:B:. (2010-10-31 16:22:42)

ewaller · 2010-10-31 16:27:26

With wireless networking, you must first associate with a wireless access point. It is kind of analogous to to plugging in the cable

Your card sees a dlink router that has no encryption set (It is probably the out-off-the-box set up) The good news is that it is really easy to associate with the router. The bad news is that it is so easy, anyone can do it. The power level indicates it is probably in the next room

It looks like you are not using any of the tools to handle this automatically (wicd, networkmanager, network, etc...) We will get back to that later.

For now, try the command:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "dlink"
Then see if it associates using iwconfig
And if so, then try:
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo dhcpcd wlan0

If this all works, we should move on to automating this.

edit:fixed typo

Last edited by ewaller (2010-10-31 16:34:44)

jacopastorius82 · 2010-10-31 16:31:52

thats really strange...i already tried to associate to my router and it didnt work, but now seems to work lol! thank you ewaller.

Now i think i have to install network manager gnome applet?
And what have i to do when i move to a house with a new router? Just use network manager?

ewaller · 2010-10-31 16:55:33

jacopastorius82 wrote:

Now i think i have to install network manager gnome applet?
And what have i to do when i move to a house with a new router? Just use network manager?

network-manager-applet should do the trick. Personally, I use wicd. Six of one, half dozen of the other...

Now, about security. There are three types you will encounter on 802.11:

WEP : The original 802.11 protocol, cracking tools were developed years ago so it should not be considered as secure. It does keep every iphone or android passing by from using your connection. Connection can be handled directly by iwconfig by just setting a key.

WPA, WPA2: Much stronger encryption (WPA2 much more so ... it uses AES encryption)

To deal with WPA encrypted links, take a look at and install wpa_supplicant. It integrates with network manager.

So with networkmanger, the aplet, and wpa_supplicant, your system should have an applet that tells you about the available networks, manages their pass keys, and allows you to associate with them.

Is the Dlink router yours? If so, you really should look at locking it down. Use its management interface to set the password, change the ESSID, enable encryption (at least WEP). If you are paranoid, go with WPA. If you are really paranoid, hide the access point by disabling the ESSID broadcast (Although it will no longer show up on your scans)

If you leave your access point open, you are just inviting script kiddies from using your connection for something you may not condone (spam, porn, music downloading, etc...)

edit fixed typo

Last edited by ewaller (2010-10-31 16:57:29)

jacopastorius82 · 2010-10-31 17:53:12

Thank you for your great help and for the exhaustive explanation! regarding to security i think it is not nedeed in my case because i live in a house far from other houses, at least..more far than wifi range!

EDIT

installed networkmanager applet for gnome, rebooted but it does not appear to the apps to add to panel..where is it located?

EDIT2

solved! found solution in the wiki page

Last edited by jacopastorius82 (2010-10-31 18:16:03)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-31 15:56:39

wireless issues

#2 2010-10-31 16:09:10

Re: wireless issues

#3 2010-10-31 16:12:02

Re: wireless issues

#4 2010-10-31 16:27:26

Re: wireless issues

#5 2010-10-31 16:31:52

Re: wireless issues

#6 2010-10-31 16:55:33

Re: wireless issues

#7 2010-10-31 17:53:12

Re: wireless issues

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