Wireless laptop configuration problem

Christoph Georgi christoph.georgi at web.de
Tue Aug 2 07:03:24 UTC 2005


hi,

you're using WEP?! well, try to establish the wlan first without wep
encryption, as this might cause the whole thing to not work; but don't
ask me why.. this way you'd rule out dirver or h/w problems (and as far
as i can see your problem isn't h/w or driver related...):

> wjc at trotter:~$ ifconfig
> ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:09:5B:C4:0B:C6
>           inet6 addr: fe80::209:5bff:fec4:bc6/64 Scope:Link
>           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:493 errors:25041 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:25041
>           TX packets:595 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
>           RX bytes:81801 (79.8 KiB)  TX bytes:212868 (207.8 KiB)
>           Interrupt:9 Memory:c8ae0000-c8af0000

and

> ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"vSystems"
>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:09:5B:C9:D5:00
>           Bit Rate:36 Mb/s   Tx-Power:50 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3
>           Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality=52/94  Signal level=-43 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
>           Rx invalid nwid:51578  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

suggest that something is "wrong" with the packages you receive.. but it
seems to be a network id problem: 'Rx invalid nwid:51578' (not a
encryption problem, but nevertheless, first run the thing plain, then
add all the fancy stuff ;) )

have you checked whether you're wireless card is recognised by your
wireless access point?? (check the logs on the access point; somewhere
it should say that the MAC - of your wlan card - accessed the ap)

hth,
christoph


William Chapman wrote:
> On 8/1/05, kleeman <ulist at gs1.ubuntuforums.org> wrote:
> 
>>OK superficially it looks like the driver is working OK but that you are
>>unable for some reason to get an ip address from your router (the
>>dhclient command does that). A few followup questions and some
>>suggestions:
>>
>>
>>
>>If you do
>>
>>dmesg | more (check the whole log!)
>>
>>do you see anything like 'HAL status 13' If so you need a newer version
>>of the madwifi driver
>>
> 
> #########################
> No.  The only lines with 'hal' in the entire file were those that
> included 'ath' and which were so grep'ed:
>     ...
>     ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
>     ath_hal: 0.9.12.14 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212)
>     ...
> #########################
> 
>>
>>If you move your laptop right next to the router does the
>>
>>sudo dhclient ath0
>>
>>command give any different results?
>>
> 
> #########################
> No.  I was already close to the router for all this testing.
> #########################
> 
>>
>>Is vSystems your routers essid? and is the frequency 2.437Ghz correct?
>>Is your router in mode managed?
>>
> 
> #########################
> Yes, vSystems is my router's essid, and the frequency appears to be
> what the router is using.
> I don't know about "mode managed."  I don't see any reference to that
> term in the router configuration web pages, with which I have become
> quite familiar.  I need to Google this.
> #########################
> 
>>
>>What does
>>
>>sudo iwlist ath0 scanning
>>
>>give? This command scans for wireless access points near you
>>
> 
> #########################
> Perhaps because I have WEP configured, I didn't see any other access
> points in the scan.  However, there is generally another one nearby
> that I have seen (under Windows) before I set up WEP.  That unit's id
> is "Linksys"; it belongs to one of my neighbors!  Would you believe
> Windows people!?
> #########################
> 
>>
>>It may be that the wired nic is interfering with the ath0 still. To
>>make sure it isn't check in /etc/network/interfaces and comment out
>>(temporarily) lines like
>>
>>auto eth0
>>
>>iface eth0 inet dhcp
>>
>>i.e. anything involving eth0
>>
>>(do this by putting a # in front of the line)
>>
>>Reboot and check the set of commands I gave in the previous post.
>>
> 
> #########################
> I did this and there was no significant change in the output of the
> commands, or the wireless behavior.
> #########################
> 
>>--
>>kleeman
>>
> 
> 
> Kleeman,
> 
> Note responses in-lined with your message above.
> 
> When eth0 is disconnected or deactivated, I noticed in the boot
> messages, right after the network is configured (which takes a long
> time if eth0 is disconnected), there is a red FAIL indication that
> says something about the resolver.  Seeing this is a sure sign there
> will be no networking until eth0 is activated.  A lot of clues suggest
> a DNS problem, but I suppose this stems from DHCP as well.  Something
> is preventing the kernel from using the wireless interface, even
> though it is being - I believe - sucessfully configured and activated.
>  I swear, nothing ever goes out the wireless port.  Monitoring the
> router's log supports this.  (Would bringing up a packet sniffer help?
>  I could get Ethereal going.)
> 
> Do you think the problem could be related to APCI or PCMCIA?  (ath0 is
> a PCMCIA card)  I've seen a lot of threads discussing problems with
> these areas.
> 
> ???
> 
> Still, thanks for your help!!
> 
> Bill Chapman
> 

-- 


Christoph Georgi
-----------------------------
email.  christoph.georgi at web.de
fon.	+49 (0)160 9790 3488

registered linux user #380268
ubuntu 5.04 (ubuntu.com)




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