[SWLUG] Wireless USB Dongle Help

[Mike Martin]

2009/7/29 P.G. Richardson <p.g.richardson at phantomjinx.co.uk>:
> Could have done with viewing your iwconfig but no worries ;)
>
> Well if iwconfig shows the ESSID, Access Point MAC Address then good.
>
> Next stop encryption key...
> Have you tried connecting without encryption?
>
> If that works then ...
>
> Havent picked up your distro but most seem to use wpa_supplicant for
> encryption.
>
> Is wpa_supplicant running? Check by ps -ef | grep wpa_supplicant
> Its normally run in the background using the -B switch. This is the
> command run by the startup scripts on mine:
>
> /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -D wext
>
> You can remove the -B to run in the terminal and view its output and
> increase debugging by adding -d or -dd or -ddd (increases amount of
> debugging)
>
> See how far that gets you...
>
> Oh does your router indicate what machines are connected to it? Does it
> consider your computer connected?
>
> PGR
>
>
>> Hiya,
>>
>> Running iwconfig (as I have already tried) does indeed show up my
>> network just like in your example below. everything 'seems' to be
>> working as it should. But it just won't quite get there when I tell it
>> to connect.
>>
>> But hopefully you are able to suggest some further investigative methods
>> for me to try so we can narrow down th problem as this is where my
>> knowledge runs dry...
>>
>> Have you seen my previous postings about what I have done so far?
>>
>> Thanks for your input!
>>
>> Jon Reynolds
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 08:20:18PM +0100, P.G. Richardson wrote:
>>> I am gonna recommend the command line at this point ...
>>>
>>> The wireless tools of iwconfig, iwlist and wpa_supplicant will tell you
>>> more about where the problem lies than any of the gui tools imho.
>>>
>>> Firstly, as root (su to root or use sudo depending on your distro), run
>>> iwconfig.
>>>
>>> This will display text like the following if connected:
>>> wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"BUZZARD"
>>>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point:
>>> 00:EE:EE:EE:EE:BA
>>>           Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm
>>>           Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
>>>           Encryption key:EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-EEEE [2]
>>> Security mode:open
>>>           Power Management:off
>>>           Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-23 dBm
>>>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>>>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
>>>
>>> If failing to connect then ESSID maybe unknown/blank, Access Point will
>>> say "Not Associated" and Encryption Key may lack a value.
>>>
>>> Lets start there ...
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> PGR
>>>
>>> > Hiya,


one idea (had some issues with puppy not getting right info from hub)
is something like this


modify /etc/wpa_supplicant file for your login details (auth pk etc)

then wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant -dd

then in another term
dhcpd wlan0

(you can specify with conf file to use)