Trying to connect to home network in backtrack 4 final.
 

Hi guys, I'm new here so I apologies if this is in the wrong place and/or a generally stupid question. I've been using linux for about a year (Linux Mint 6-8, Ubuntu 8.10-9.10, Debian 5, et cetera.) but I've always used debian-based distros with gnome gui's that are relatively easy to find your way around in.

I've started fiddling around with the new backtrack 4 final and am hopelessly befuddled. I'm trying to connect to my home network with WPA security. I'm not trying to hack into it, or do any sort of penetration testing, I just want to connect to it so I can open a web browser and look up information on some of the more advanced tools.

My wireless card is listed when I input iwconfig, but I get some sort of error when I: "Iwconfig key s:password" after already "iwconfig essid NetworkName"

Sorry if this is post is a jumbled pile of convoluted thought, I've been going at this a few hours and can't seem to think straight. Could anybody give me a brief tutorial on how to connect to my home network?

Here's some more info:

Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

network is wireless b/g/n with WPA (tkip) security

Any help would be unfathomably appreciated, and a welcome stress-reliever. Sorry for the n00bishness of this post.

You got this error because to connect to secured AP you have to give it a password

And in according to man page for "iwconfig" it should look like: "iwconfig essid NetworkName key s:password"

tried that, got an error msg. I don't know what it was at the moment as I don't have my backtrack disk on me but I'll update later with the exact error message.

iwconfig (interface) mode managed key (pw) essid (essid) is for WEP encryption only.

I had some problems connecting to WPA too, but got it working last night.
Start by creating a file wpa_supplicant.conf and place it in your /etc/ folder.
Then enter in:

network={
essid="essid"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
psk="preshared"
}

essid is the name of your AP and preshared is your preshared key.

Save the file then open konsole and type wpa_supplicant -i(your interface) -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext

For example my interface is wlan0, so I would type
wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext


Good luck

Thanks for correction.

But, in that case
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.20.20 up

then
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

then
iwconfig essid NetworkName

then
dhclient wlan0

Backtrack 4 has networking off when 1st booted up. Once you login do the following:

1) test a wired connection on the laptop and if it fails to connect do the following:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking start

at that point you should be able to configure your wireless with iwconfig etc.