The wifi crusade.

[tchize]

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Hello,

Today, i decided to buy a wifi PCI card, to get rid of this nice wire
in the house. My laptop was already using wifi, it was time for my
upstair desktop to go wireless. I have a reflex when it comes to brand
new card when they do not seem automatically working on my linux box:
test how the manufacturer drivers behave on aimed OS (mainly windows
for most) to ensure the card is not defect.

Windows installation: put that awfull driver CD in tray, install
drivers, go to the wifi configuration panel just click 'scan' and then
give your password for the select wifi gateway (and specify the
encryption type). Total time of operation from install driver to use
browser: 5 minutes.

Kubuntu installation: Drivers is recognized immediatly by kernel
(rt2500 card) and loaded (great!). I go to kde network config panel
and .. Outh, forgot that panel is not working in breezy badger, so i
go to the net, find some tutorial and go by hand in
/etc/network/interface.

I add this:


iface ra0 inet dhcp
        pre-up iwconfig ra0 essid Ayato
        pre-up iwconfig ra0 mode Managed
        pre-up iwpriv ra0 set Channel=8
        pre-up iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
        pre-up iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP
        pre-up iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="<my key>"
        pre-up iwpriv ra0 set TxRate=0


Parameters AuthMode, WPAPSK, TKIP and the key is exactly the same i
used under window

Then i type
tchize at Urd:~$ sudo ifup ra0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.2
Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
Listening on LPF/ra0/00:08:a1:98:d4:c3
Sending on   LPF/ra0/00:08:a1:98:d4:c3
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on ra0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on ra0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
DHCPDISCOVER on ra0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
DHCPDISCOVER on ra0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on ra0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on ra0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.


Ok, i wasn't able to get a dhcp lease from wifi gateway. (note, i
tried with a static ip too, no help in getting connect)
to ensure driver is working properly , i issue a network scan:

tchize at Urd:~$ iwlist ra0 scanning
ra0       Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:11:50:7E:F5:68
                    Mode:Managed
                    ESSID:"Ayato"
                    Encryption key:on
                    Channel:8
                    Quality:61/100  Signal level:-65 dBm  Noise
level:-193 dBm

So the driver itself is working properly.


Total time: 3 hours work, attempting various config, i am still not
able to connect  to wifi gateway and no error message at all to
provide informations on what could be wrong, except the fact dhcp
don't get a lease! The wire cable is still there...


Conclusion: If you want to go wifi go windows or mac os x?


 I hope not! Does someone has a solution to this problem?


Thanks.
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