Problems with encoding: WEP key not accepted

tredegar · 05-17-2007, 01:46 PM

I am sorry to see you are still having trouble with your wireless.
Because it works when you do not use WEP or WPA, I think it is a key or authentication failure, not a driver problem.

Here's a link to quite a good page, perhaps it will help you:

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/w...ess_Networking

Are you using a hex passphrase / code? Maybe there is something basic wrong with this.

Perhaps you could post your /etc/network/interfaces file, including your real access codes (hey, they don't work anyway, and you can always change it, and I doubt any of us live within range, and we are just trying to help!)

Here is my interfaces file, it works well with WPA

Code:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
address 127.0.0.1
netmask 255.0.0.0

# This is my wired eth0 connection, I do not generally use it
# and if I do want to use it, I have to bring it up manually with
#  sudo ifup eth0
# as the auto eth0 on the next line is commented out
#auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
broadcast 10.255.255.255
address 10.0.0.8
netmask 255.0.0.0
# 10.0.0.2 is the address of my wireless and wired router (Netgear DG834)
gateway 10.0.0.2

# This is my wireless eth1 connection
# My distro identified my wireless conection as "eth1", other distros
# may identify it as "wlan0". Whatever.
#
# I want it brought up at boot, so we'll set it to "auto"
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
broadcast 10.255.255.255
address 10.0.0.8
netmask 255.0.0.0
# 10.0.0.2 is the address of my wireless and wired router (Netgear DG834)
gateway 10.0.0.2
wpa-passphrase todayisnotmygeburtstag
wpa-ssid TGsWireless
wireless-channel 11

SuSE_Lamer · 05-17-2007, 02:52 PM

Hello everybody!

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

I am sorry to see you are still having trouble with your wireless.
Because it works when you do not use WEP or WPA, I think it is a key or authentication failure, not a driver problem.

I fixed the issue. It was my fault - I used wrong SSID in the configuration.

The issue with WLAN is resolved.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me! I will post a solution in my blog.

Kind regards,
Andrey

tredegar · 05-17-2007, 03:38 PM

Quote:

I fixed the issue.- I used wrong SSID in the configuration.

At last! No kernel problem, no driver problem, no module problem ..... but user problem!

Quote:

I will post a solution in my blog.

Better to post it here, after all the effort we have all put in.

SuSE_Lamer · 05-17-2007, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

At last! No kernel problem, no driver problem, no module problem ..... but user problem!

You are not fair to me. If I did once a mistake, typing the name of my SSID, it doesn't mean that there are no issues with driver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Better to post it here, after all the effort we have all put in.

Ok, here is a text:

Quote:

Setting up WLAN costed me roughly a month. Actually, I spent too much time trying to set up my network with WEP encryption. Somehow the driver didn't want to work with WEP (I found several threads on the Internet reporting about it in different distributions and on different laptops). Finally, I decided to switch from WEP to WPA-PSK. It costed me a couple of hours (at maximum) to reconfigure my system.

So, when you set up your WLAN, do the following:
1) install ipw2200 driver using synaptic;
2) install "wireless extensions" - a set of utilities for WLAN-modules developed at "Hewlett Packard" for Linux;
3) install firmware in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware (first you must download it from http://ip2200.sourceforge.net and then follow the instructions);
4) install wpasupplicant package;

So, you are ready to configure your WLAN module. First, add "options ipw2200 hwcrypto=0" in your /etc/modules file and run "update-modules" command. Afterwards modify your /etc/network/interfaces file:

iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-essid NameOfYourNetwork
wpa-driver wext
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

and create /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file with following content:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
ssid="NameOfYourNetwork"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
psk="YourPSKAsASCIIText"
priority=2
}

Next use command "wpa_passphrase" to create the encrypted version of your PSK. When you get - long HEX-number -, comment out - with "#" - the ASCII representation of your key in the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and write there the HEX-representation - WITHOUT QUOTATION MARKS!!!

....
#psk="YourPSKAsASCIIText"
psk=YourPSKAsHEX
...

Finally, create file /etc/default/wpasupplicant with following content:

# /etc/default/wpasupplicant

ENABLED=1
OPTIONS="-w -D wext -i eth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

Please, note that driver "wext" must be used instead of "ipw".

That's all! In root terminal enter "ifup eth1". If everything is set up properly, you will see a message from "dhclient", saying that it is obtaining an IP address from your router, and - in a couple of seconds - a message saying that your IP address expires in <N> seconds.

Tip: on T43p FN+F5 must control BOTH WLAN and Bluetooth. Under Windows it work (thanks to the special utility from IBM), in Linux this combination activates Bluetooth only. Short search with Google told me, that with "ipw2200" driver the antenna of the laptop is permanently sending signals - so, it is permanently on. If you want to control it, you must create two scripts with following content:

to enable the radio: echo 0 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/*/rf_kill
to disable it: echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/*/rf_kill

Additionally, you need to add "options ipw2200 disable=1" in your /etc/modules file - in this way you disable the radio at start time.

Sources: the following resources were used
http://www.strangeparty.com/2006/10/...g-debian-etch/
http://www.downgra.de/x20/#wpa

Any feedback and comments are appreciated.

regards,
Andrey

tredegar · 05-18-2007, 10:58 AM

Thanks for the useful follow-up, which I expect will help others with the same problem(s)!

SuSE_Lamer · 05-18-2007, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Thanks for the useful follow-up, which I expect will help others with the same problem(s)!

You are welcome! If somebody finds some technical errors in the text, I would ask to inform me about them - I fix it.

Regards,
A.

P.S. My grammatical errors I have already found by myself! :-)