ok, this is my first cry for help.
I've been killing myself, trying to get my netgear wg311v2 working.

So I'm using:
Suse 9.3 Professional
Netgear WG311v2 pci
128 bit WEP
I updated the firmware for my card through Yast Online Update (used ethernet to get *that* much working)
I set up the essid, wep key, tried a variety of other settings . . .

And the result is:
KWifiManager says I have excellent connection to my network (although a connection speed of 1 MBit/s), gives what looks like a MAC address for the access point
Chooses the right channel
says that encryption is active

BUT

Local IP is unavailable!!!!
I've tried ifdown and ifup, rcnetwork restart, and they both report that it's connecting, but can't get an IP, and says it's backgrounding it.

I've also tried using other tools that people have recomended for Knoppix, but (of course) those tools weren't available here.

PLEASE HELP ME; without connectivity, there's no point in me having linux at all.

Note: this is a shared wireless router for the house, and I cannot dictate whether there will be WEP or not.

Thank you in advance

Welcome to LQ. Please post the output of "iwconfig" (no quotes), that's the equivalent of ifconfig for wireless. Depending on which interface is active, it may simply be a matter of starting DHCP, eg, you may need to run (as root) something like "dhcpcd eth1" (or whatever interface is appropriate)

Thank you so much for your quick reply

iwconfig gives :
lo no wireless extensions.
sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b+/g+ ESSID: "SMC" Nickname:"linux"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:04:E2:FD:96:86
Bit Rate: 1 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=1/3
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff
Encryption key: (this is correct) Security modepen
Power Managementff
Link Quality=42/100 Signal Level=19/100 Noise Level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

I just ran "dhcpcd wlan0" . .. there's no output and I don't have control of the prompt yet. Going to ctrl-c it soon.

Update: "dhcpcd wlan0" finally finished with:

/sbin/modify_resolvconf: line 245: /etc/init.d/lwresd: No such file or directory

If dhcpcd generated some messages and then just sort of stayed there, press Enter. If you get back to the command prompt (which is good) then try to ping a site like Yahoo. If you get a response, you're set. You can also check ifconfig to see if you got an IP address

Unfortunately It only gave that error message like I said before. Still no IP address.
I did notice something odd though (not to do with dhcpcd) . . . The logs on my router said that my mac address DID connect properly, BUT the DHCP list has my windows name registered with that mac address. SO I changed thelinux hostname to the same, and cahnged the domain to MSHOME (like the windows) . . . but still no luck.

So Suse recognizes my card, upgraded the firmware, makes a connection with the router, but doesn't recieve its ip address?

still floundering if anyone can help me . . .


Thank you again helping thus far

Can you try assigning it a static ip address following the addressing scheme the router is handing out via DHCP just to check if you give it an address manually whether or not you end up with network connectivity?

I tried that right after my last post.
The router logs that the ip address failed to connect 2ce, then said it was succesful, but still no connectivity.

I also noticed it listed a *second* mac address with this box's old name. I tried with that IP address too. (even though the mac address was wrong)

This is getting so frustrating. I'm at the point of breaking this wireless card and buying one that's more linux friendly. (They really should put a little penguin on the box)

Whoa . . . ok - new update.

I reset my configuration through Yast again ( nothing different or weird about it this time )

only *this* time, when I opened KWIFIManager, it reported a local ip address identical to what I was trying to statically assign before. But right now I told it to dynamically retrieve it.

It still says AccessPoint: UNKNOWN in the status bar, and I can't even ping the router, but it claims I have an IP address???

ok, so I tried ifdown and up, and lost it.

blargh!

I know it's possible . . .there's a livecd called Auditor that works with my card upon booting. Just have to set the WEP key.
Is there any way I can steal information from Auditor?

Were you ever able to figure this out? I have a similar problem with ubuntu.

I'm connecting to an ap at home, and another one at school (I'm a teacher). Both have the same settings, I can connect to both, but I cannot get the one at achool to assign an IP address to my laptop. So frustrating.

If I plug into the one at school, I can configure eth0 without a problem. But I cannot seem to get online through wlan0. I would love to get this working so Ic an stop booting into windows.

Any thoughts or suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

Unfortunately, I quit the battle shortly after I got to my previously posted stage. Otherwise I would have posted the answer.
I have the feeling that with my particular situation, it was a WEP problem. That would explain having a strong signal with no connectivity or ip address.

I tried to follow "Craig's ACX100-111 Guide for Linux", but everything was failing on this system. If Those drivers would have compiled on my system, I'm fairly certain I could have gotten it to work.

Alas, sometimes it feels like if something takes too much effort, it's not meant to be. I purchased the DWL-G520 rev B card, installed Suse 10 OSS, and installed the rpm for the non-GPL'd kernel modules, and I now have far better connectivity than in windows.

Luckily for me, I was pretty new into the previous distro, so it wasn't too tough to move over to a whole new system. But I'm still watching over this thread if anyone else has any insight . . . I now have this card in an older windows system and want to kick that one to a full linux development box.

I'm being a tad more stubborn for this one because I'm willing to bet the solution is easy (for someone). I have 2 APs configured the same for a dual boot machine. Win2k works on both. Ubuntu only works on one. So strange.

Glad you found a solution you can live with. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to do the same. If I knew that getting a new card would sole it, no prob, but I don't want to unnecessarily throw money at it.