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Wireless Noob!!! Loosing faith on Linux!

Ok I'm a complete idiot when it comes to Linux. I'm a hardcore Windows XP user and I'm trying Mandrake 9.2 download edition for the first time.

I installed Mandrak 9.2 Download distro on a Toshiba Portege 3015CT laptop just to give it a test run. The installation went well until I started configuring the wireless. I have an SMC2632W PCMCIA card and the OS detects the card fine. When I set the wireless access without the WEP encryption it works fine. Although this may be fine, I don't want my neighbors to accidently access my WAP.

When I do configure the wireless access to point to use the WEP. It doesn't work at all. Can anyone help me out?

PS. I'm starting to loose faith on Linux if I don't get the wireless working properly.

Thanks.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Wireless Networking and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Maybe if you explained what you have already tried it would help......

In general, you can set your WEP key at any time with the iwconfig command:

iwconfig wlan0 key PutYourWEPKeyHere

Of course you would replace wlan0 with whatever device name your wireless card actually has.

first of all go into control center and make sure that the ssid is set to "linksys" or whatever u hav goin on there. just to be sure that worked go into terminal and su and type "iwconfig" and see if it piks up the correct information. if not then thye iwconfig wlan0 essid (name of essid without parenthesis here) where wlan0 is the name of your wireless card

if still not able to get it to work go in terminal and su type killall dhcpcd when thats done type "dhcpcd -d wlan0" (where wlan 0 is the name of your networking card)

hope this helps and happy linuxing!

Ok thanks for responding! I will try this iwconfig. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

Oh by the way, what format does the WEP key look like: do I have to put it HEX or just like it is and is it case sensative? I'm trying to configure the card to use 128 Bit WEP. I have the 26 alphanumeric characters.

Quote:

Oh by the way, what format does the WEP key look like: do I have to put it HEX or just like it is and is it case sensative? I'm trying to configure the card to use 128 Bit WEP. I have the 26 alphanumeric characters.

Those 26 characters are probably the hex key and you should use that. Don't use a "passphrase" (regular words that then get converted to a hex key) as not all software converts to hex the same way. Two different devices given the same passphrase can come up with different hex keys. Weird, but it happens. I'm pretty sure that the hex key is not case sensitive.

I'm getting the following error now when I try to use " iwconfig eth0 enc"

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)
SET failed on device eth0; Operation not supported.

LOL! I tried everything and it's still says Operation not supported. ?? I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas?

On ifconfig i have

lo
eth0
eth0:9 <- I don't know what adapter this is..

Please post the output of both iwconfg and ifconfig. I'm curious as to what device has actually been assigned to your wireless card. Since most computers these days have a built-in ethernet card and those are frequently assigned eth0, I want to make sure that we are looking at the right device.

Quote:

iwconfig eth0 enc

While your error message suggests another problem, what might be part of the problem is that this command is incomplete. You need to enter your WEP key after the end.

IFCONFIG DUMP

[root@localhost victor]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:E2:1A:EF:69
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:4 dropped:4 overruns:0 frame:4
TX packets:15 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:3684 (3.5 Kb)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100

eth0:9 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:E2:1A:EF:69
inet addr:127.255.255.255 Bcast:127.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:45 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:45 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2992 (2.9 Kb) TX bytes:2992 (2.9 Kb)

[root@localhost victor]#

[IWCONFIG DUMP]

[root@localhost victor]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"vmrodriguez.com" Nickname:"Prism I"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.447GHz Access Point: 00:50:18:09:D1:8E
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity:1/3
Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:41/92 Signal level:-61 dBm Noise level:-149 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:4 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

[root@localhost victor]#

---------------------------------

[root@localhost victor]# iwconfig eth0 enc s:d542239e4fb99d68d4d113ff1f
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported.
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]# iwconfig eth0 enc d5:42:23:9e:4f:b9:9d:68:d4:d1:13:ff:1f
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported.
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]# iwconfig eth0 enc 0xd542239e4fb99d68d4d113ff1f
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
invalid argument "0xd542239e4fb99d68d4d113ff1f".
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]# iconfig eth0 enc s:0xd52239e4fb99d68d4d113ff1f
bash: iconfig: command not found
[root@localhost victor]# duh!!!
bash: !: event not found
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]#
[root@localhost victor]# iwconfig eth0 enc s:0xd52239e4fb99d68d4d113ff1f
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported.
[root@localhost victor]#

On the last commands I know the encryption key is not correct, but it still does not work anyway. As you can see I tried several formats. I have a SMC2632w card witht he original base SMC Baricade.

If you're concerned about other people getting on your network (like your neighbors) and WEP encryption is giving you a problem, do what my buddy here has to say...

Quote:

Wireless Network Access: I recommend that you set up a MAC filtering table. This is really the most effective way to keep unwanted guests off your network. The quickest way to do this is to have all your computers turned on. Select Restrict Access, and then click Edit Access List, and then click Wireless Client MAC List. Here listed are the MACs that are currently recieving service from the router. Check the ones you want to have access, and save the changes. Now only those MAC addresses will be served by the access point. MAC addresses can easily be spoofed, but looking up which MACs are allowed takes a bit of know-how, and quite a lot of traffic monitoring. Highly time-consuming and not much fun, so it discourages people from even trying to break in, unlike WEP, which is a joke. Click Apply, let the changes take effect, and things should be dandy, as far as your router's configuration goes.

If you have this setup, you shouldn't have to worry about an encyption key for your network and it'll keep your neighbors from using your network.

MAC addresses are easy to spoof, especially in Linux. The MAC of each client and that of the AP are sent in the open each time a probe request occurs. MAC address filtering is an extremely weak layer of security, especially if you believe that it's protecting you and take no other precautions.

A reasonable analogy is using a combination lock to secure a door, writing the combination on a Post-it and sticking it next to the lock.

Victor,
The command should be:
iwconfig ethx key 1233456778 ...
To make it stick, use the Mandrake network GUI or edit the script file (probably something like /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0) to include your WEP key. The syntax for the file in Red Hat was 12:34:56:78 ... Should be the same in MDK 9.2.