I have a Slackware 11 partition and a Slackware 12 partition on the same tower. It's a 200 MHz tower with 256 MB of RAM and a PCI Belkin Wireless G card that uses Driverloader and bcm43xx for modules in kernel 2.6.22.1 on both partitions. The /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf file on each partition is:

VERBOSE=1

case "$HWADDR" in

*)
INFO="Belkin Wireless G"
ESSID="LinuxNeighborhood"
MODE="Managed"
KEY="5882c0e45b11cb5e215fc308d5"
;;
esac


The iwconfig command on each partition shows an encryption key and ifconfig shows that it was assigned a static IP address from my router. Only in Slack 11 do I see link quality is > 0. In Slack 12 I need to disable WEP at my router and comment the KEY line for networking to work. Why?

Perhaps your router does not see that the password is meant to be in HEX and interprets it as an ASCII password?

Btw. WEP is really badly broken. It was just recently hacked in 1-2 minutes using a new method. If security is a concern, you should consider using some other encryption method on top of WEP (IPSec, SSHFS). Or you could upgrade to WPA2.

Hope this helps.

I know WEP is not that good, but that's all Verizon gives it's DSL customers. I have a Westell Versalink with 128 bit WEP. The router is ok and works fine in Slackware 10.2 and now Slackware 11. It's Slackware 12 that has the problem.

Hi,

Sure WEP is not the best. But it's just like any other key, 'keeps the honest people honest'. If someone wants into something, be it a house or a computer they can just break in. Either with a brick or a computer tool, the intruder will get in. You are the one who needs to setup the security at the level you feel is enough. Most home or SOHO are not really attacked that often, mostly by the 'script kiddy'. If your open then you will get hit.

A old but good article for WEP cracking.

I like to use Steve Gibson's 'ShieldsUp' to do a good general test of a site for posts and access. Just be careful, if your ISP uses a proxy then you should follow Steve's directions to test as such.

I still can only use Slackware 11 when 128 bit WEP is enabled on my router but cannot decipher WEP in Slackware 12. Do I need to configure a file other than /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf in Slackware 12 if I have WEP enabled?

I got Slack 12 to work with WEP by removing the Slack 12 wireless-tools package and installing the Slack 11 wireless-tools package:

removepkg wireless-tools
installpkg wireless-tools-28-i486-3.tgz

Then I copied my Slack 11 rc.wireless.conf with my WEP key to my Slack 12 partition and rebooted. Now hex WEP works fine!

Hi,

Alien_Bob should be able to answer as to the difference between the two versions. He is the author/programmer/developer for the wireless software packages.

Edit: Eric, what is the difference between Slack 11 & 12 wireless tools?

I con't seem any difference in the binaries apart from being recompiled with gcc4 - it is still the same version 28 of wireless_tools.
The Slackware 12.0 package has a newer version of my rc.wireless script but I know other people for whom WEP encryption works well in Slackware 12.0.

Maybe you can show us the output of "iwconfig"?

Eric

sure, here is the iwconfig output currently in Slack 12 and the Slack 11 wireless-tools package:

root@LinuxHippy:/home/huntz# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"LinuxNeighborhood" Nickname:"LinuxHippy"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:E0:98:CD:4D:66
Bit Rate=48 Mb/s Tx-Power:0 dBm
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption key:5882-C0E4-5B11-CB5E-215F-C308-D5
Power Managementff
Link Quality=7/94 Signal level=-68 dBm Noise level=-154 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:158354 Missed beacon:0

Yeah, but that was to be expected... Rather I'd have seen the output with the Slackware 12.0 original package of course.

Eric

Marty,

If you use VBCode you can remove those smiley faces from your output.