LinuxQuestions.org - DWL-650+ Not finding access points

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DWL-650+ Not finding access points

I'm having a problem with my DWL650+ on Slackware using the acx100 module. The module is fine and load properly now, despite earlier problems with it and the card, but the problem now seems to be getting an access point. I was here (in the open lab at school where I work) last night with the laptop and it got an access point and IP and worked fine. Now I am here with over 7 access points in range, the module is loaded and it can't get an access point when I run dhcpcd -t 10 wlan0 I'm not sure if theres anyhting I can do to force it to find one or what. iwconfig shows 00:00:00:00:00:00 for the access point with no signal levels. Any suggestions?

hi, could you post here what "iwconfig" and "ifconfig" say?

Code:

root@flux:/home/astro# iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.



sit0      no wireless extensions.



eth0      no wireless extensions.



wlan0    IEEE 802.11b+  ESSID:"xxx"  Nickname:"astro"

          Mode:Managed  Channel:1  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00  

          Bit Rate:11Mb/s  Tx-Power:20 dBm  

          Retry min limit:5  

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0



root@flux:/home/astro# ifconfig -a

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:90:F5:05:2F:69  

          inet addr:129.21.28.165  Bcast:129.21.28.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::290:f5ff:fe05:2f69/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:131 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:105 errors:18 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:18

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:12242 (11.9 Kb)  TX bytes:18390 (17.9 Kb)

          Interrupt:9 Base address:0x10e0 



lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:784 (784.0 b)  TX bytes:784 (784.0 b)



sit0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  

          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)



wlan0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:80:C8:02:3C:D9  

          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:112 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x4000

hi,
is "xxx" the name of the ap you 'want' to associate with? or is it the ap which was chosen by the card itself?

if you know the name of the ap ur trying to associate with, as root, "iwconfig wlan0 essid <ap_name>". then check your iwconfig.

Yeah the essid of all our access points are the same, I didn't want to give that out however. Yesterday I remember seeing two APs on channel 1, three on channel 6 and two on channel 11 but its not picking any up now.

what do you mean by "not picking it up"?
does your card support scanning (iwlist wlan0 scan)?

since you say your at school, and unless your school allows anyone in range to connect, maybe the AP you used yesterday was not the one the school is on.
for instance, i cannot connect to my school ap's as they require vpn clients to dialin, and i cant do that yet. so we had all these students walkin around saying they were connected to the school ap, while in fact they were actually using some guys' personal AP (and they would go sit near the AP's in the lab thinking it would get faster n stuff.)

if the connections are open, then it shouldnt be a problem. but i have a feeling, that cos ur getting all zero's in the MAC even after setting the essid, it might be closed to outsiders.

I am registered on the network, like I said before... the card worked yesterday at this very same spot with 100% signal strength and over 5 access points available. I have to set the sid to get on the network and my mac has to be registered.

Also...

root@flux:/home/astro# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Failed to read scan data : No data available

Also, when I said it's not picking up an AP there is none shown when I set the essid... when I try to run dhcpcd it doesnt find one either.

hmm, is "iwconfig wlan0 essid <ap_name>" what you are doing to set the essid?

what exactly are you entering when you;'re trying to associate urself with it?

u need to run "dhclient wlan0" , not dhcpd (the server daemon.)

I run `iwconfig wlan0 mode managed essid xxx`

and as far as dhclient, that doesn't work, I've tried it in the past.... and I didn't run dhcpd... I ran dhcpcd which is the client..................

root@flux:/home/astro# dhclient wlan0
Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client V3.0pl2
Copyright 1995-2001 Internet Software Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

wlan0: not found

If you did not get this software from ftp.isc.org, please
get the latest from ftp.isc.org and install that before
requesting help.

If you did get this software from ftp.isc.org and have not
yet read the README, please read it before requesting help.
If you intend to request help from the dhcp-server@isc.org
mailing list, please read the section on the README about
submitting bug reports and requests for help.

Please do not under any circumstances send requests for
help directly to the authors of this software - please
send them to the appropriate mailing list as described in
the README file.

exiting.

edit: btw wlan0 does exist as I showed you before..

ok, since connecting to your school ap isnt working, pop the card out, push it back in, and see if it connects to ANY ap (unless you have setup your wlan iface scripts to connect to the school ap first OR there are no other ap's in range.)

it's very strange dhclient gives that error. do not set ANYTHING with iwconfig (mode[default is client mode]/channel/mac) except the essid first.

Right I gave up. I've already taken the card apart... it absolutely has to be a card issue.... So any reccomendations on one that actually works in linux? and thats a good brand?

ok........... I took the card apart.... completely to look at it for no good reason other than I wanted to see the inside of a pcmcia card before I threw it away.... I put it back together, literally threw it in the garbage, a good 15 foot toss... and now I put it back in and it works..... ??? I have a feeling jesus hates me :-\ heh