Proxim Orinoco 11 a/b/g on Kubuntu not working

taahtheold · 06-08-2006, 05:47 PM

I am running Kubuntu on my laptop and wanted to be able to connect to my wireless network. I can connect over a wired connection without a problem but I am unable to get an IP over wireless. This wireless AP is working fine as I can use another laptop with windows xp running on it. I'm thinking the issue is my lack of knowledge.

My card is a PCMCIA Proxim Orinoco 11 a/b/g gold card (ath0)
My AP is a Netgear WPN824: it is set for g and b with a 128-bit shared key and not to broadcast the SSID

iwconfig ath0

Code:

ath0      IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"doodad"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.68 GHz  Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
          Bit Rate:6 Mb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/94  Signal level=-95 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

sudo iwlist ath0 key

Code:

ath0      3 key sizes : 40, 104, 128bits
          4 keys available :
                [1]: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX (104 bits)
                [2]: off
                [3]: off
                [4]: off
          Current Transmit Key: [1]
          Security mode:restricted
          Authentication capabilities :
                WPA
                WPA2
                CIPHER TKIP
                CIPHER CCMP

I set the essid, AP MAC, and key using iwconfig. When I "sudo dhclient ath0" it fails to get any DHCPOFFERS. Any advice would be greatly appreciate as I'm the typical Linux newbie.

osor · 06-08-2006, 10:36 PM

Your first snippet shows a lot of bad stuff (seems like there's barely a signal). Are you sure you iwconfiged correctly. It seems like your laptop is in 802.11a mode whereas your AP is in b/g mode. Maybe you misspelled something?

For more debugging, one thing I would suggest is to disable encryption (temporarily) on both the access point and laptop. If it's still not working, we know it's not the encryption. Then, try to set your ip manually (without dhcp) and see if you can ping the AP.

Tell us if this works for you.

taahtheold · 06-08-2006, 11:36 PM

I set my AP to use no encryption and I "sudo iwconfig ath0 key off". I tried the following this time:

Code:

sudo iwconfig ath0 essid doodad
sudo iwconfig ath0 ap xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
sudo iwconfig ath0 channel 6

Worked fine. (seems I forgot to set the channel the first time around) I got an IP running "sudo dhclient ath0".

I then tried WEP and WPA-PSK. Neither of these seemed to work. What I do to enter the key is "sudo iwconfig ath0 key s:thisismykey" or "sudo iwconfig ath0 key 1234abcd5678efgh1234abcd5678ef".

I suppose it is the encryption then.

2Gnu · 06-08-2006, 11:53 PM

Turn the SSID broadcast back on. Some configurations will not work with it off and it provides no security advantage to do so.

taahtheold · 06-09-2006, 01:09 PM

Turning on broadcasting is helping some, thank you for that tip. This is what I've found so far.

AP: no encryption, broadcasting SSID - works
AP: no encryption, no broadcasting SSID - does not work
AP: encryption, broadcasting SSID - does not work
AP: encryption, no broadcasting SSID - does not work

It really seems that the overall issue is with encryption. This is the command I run to set the encryption.

Code:

sudo iwconfig ath0 key xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

2Gnu · 06-09-2006, 03:51 PM

Try setting the encryption mode to open, and make sure you're entering a 26-digit hex key that matches the hex key in use by the router (not an alpha-numeric passphrase).

taahtheold · 06-11-2006, 09:27 AM

My router has a section where you enter a passphrase then hit a generate button. A 26-digit key shows up, it looks to be in hex. This is what I'm using. I tried both of the following:

sudo iwconfig ath0 key open 1234ABCD5678EFAB9012CDEF34
sudo iwconfig ath0 key restricted 1234ABCD5678EFAB9012CDEF34

Neither will allow me to get an IP using dhclient. I've tried setting the IP manually but the laptop still won't see the network.

sudo iwconfig ath0 essid doodad
sudo iwconfig ath0 ap 00:11:22:33:44:55
sudo iwconfig ath0 channel 6
sudo iwconfig ath0 key open 1234ABCD5678EFAB9012CDEF34

Those are the new commands I type it after I insert my PCMCIA card. (with things like essid, ap mac, and key being the real values

)

taahtheold · 06-11-2006, 10:12 PM

Not exactally sure why but updating the router's firmware made it work.