access point not recognized

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi all,

I decided to change my DSL internet connection to cable and WiFi.
So far so good, and under Windows, the system is very well working.

I use openSuse 11.1 but I can’t establish contact between my computer and the new Wireless N acces point.

I have a Ralink network card, which functions under Windows.

/usr/bin/lsusb gives this result :
bus 001 device 006 ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501 Wireless adapter

dmesg | less gives (amongst others !) - so my card is recognized :

usb 1-1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=2573
usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11 bg WLAN
usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Ralink

iwconfig gives this result (ESSID: Acacia is the name of the wireless router that is attached (by means of wires to the ethernet port) to the computer, so this system is not used as wireless

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:“Acacia”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:21:29:77:74:BB
Bit Rate=5.5 Mb/s Tx-Power=14 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality=72/100 Signal level:-44 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

The wireless access point I bought from the cable company is a D-Link Model DIR-615 which should be capable of IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. I have its MAC ID.

When in YAST, I want to make my computer “hook on” to my D-Link router (my new access point), I go to YAST – Manage Network – Wireless and I want to fill in BSSID, I get stuck.

The system asks for a series of numbers and I do not know where to get these from.

Can anyone help me please ?

Thank you very much,

W

#2

What I forgot to add :
after issueing the command :
sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan,

I got reception of three stations, a.o. my old one (which is seen to be broadcasting, but there is no wireless connection) and my new one with this report for the latter :

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: F0:7D:68:55:08:00
ESSID:“My new WiFi”
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=50/100 Signal level:-60 dBm
Encryption key:on
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
IE: Unknown: (here comes a low row of hex ciphers)
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
18 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=0000002bdfdbce1e
Extra: Last beacon: 780ms ago

So I do seem to be receiving it, but alas, for the moment I have no connection with it.

W

#3

Wouldn’t it be much easier to reconfigure networking to use the network manager? Then all you have to put in is your key once you select the network.

#4

Thanks very much for your answer.
This is what I tried to do, but I keep getting stuck on the BSSID-thing.
The network manager does not accept an empty field.
It might have something to do with the encryption mode, I think.

W

#5

Of course it doesn’t accept a blank BSSID. It has nothing to do with the encryption mode. How else would you identify which network you’re connecting to? In that field, put in whatever name you gave your router when you configured it.
In other words, I think you’re confused. The BSSID it’s asking for isn’t an encryption key. It’s just the name of your network. You shouldn’t even have to enter it, it should be selectable from a list of available networks.

#6

As far as I understood, it should be a hexadecimal number. Which one, I do not know. I did not configure my modem, my cable company did.

I understood BSSID is not asking for an encryption key, that is in the other screen. I don’t seem to be able to connect to my wireless access point, although openSuse recognizes it, and although, in Windows XP, it works a treat.

I’m baffled.

W

#7

Are you talking about the router’s MAC address? That can be found in the router.

#8

Thanks for your answer.
Unfortunately I can’t copy & paste the print-screen of openSUSE’s WiFi manager; there you could have seen what seems to be necessary.

Actually, I already tried with the MAC address, but to no avail.

So my question remains : what should I fill in for the BSSID ?

W

#9

Honestly, you shouldn’t need anything in there. This is from my working network connection. I’m sure it would also work fine if I put my router’s MAC address in there as well, but it’s not necessary.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/308542/Screenshot.png

Here’s the wikipedia link explaining BSSID.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSSID#Basic_service_set_identifier

#10

You shouldn’t be using YAST to try to input your wireless network config. Just use yast to change to networkmanager by going here.
Yast > NEtwork SEttings, and under Network Setup Method select "User Controlled with NetworkManager.
Then you’ll have the wireless network icon down by the clock where you can select your network.

#11

I’ll try this.
But : one other point that’s bothering me : I have a Ralink wireless adapter and somewhere in e.g. bootmessages I get a line :
firmware: requesting rt73.bin

So I downloaded a zip.file from Ralink with te rt73.bin-file in it.

But where to I copy that bin-file ?

Thanks for your answer.

Btw : network still down.

W

#12

If you use the following command it should install the firmware rt73.bin into /lib/firmware/

 zypper install kernel-firmware

Or you can copy the one you downloaded into there.

#13

[QUOTE=rodhuffaker;2225871]Honestly, you shouldn’t need anything in there. This is from my working network connection. I’m sure it would also work fine if I put my router’s MAC address in there as well, but it’s not necessary.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/308542/Screenshot.png

Well, I did (tried to do) what you suggested, but I end up with this screen, where you see te wireless is never online. How can I change that please ?
I’d like to join a screen-shot but I do not know how to do that either.

W

#14

Can you please give me more detail when responding? Did you install the firmware? Did the firmware message in dmesg go away or say it loaded successfully? Also now, we need to see if your module is loaded.

modprobe -l |grep -i rt73

You should see your module in the list. If not, you need to load it with the following command…

modprobe rt73usb
#15

To do a screenshot press PrtScrn. A dialog should pop up asking you if you want to save the file. Save it. Then crop it in gimp so we only get the relevant part. I think you have to have the file online somewhere to post the url here. I use dropbox to accomodate that, as it has a public files option that has a public link.

#16

Hah, OK, thank you.

#17

Sorry, sir. Message understood.

I had the firmware, which is in the correct directory. It does not load automatically however.
I’ll give your commands a try and I’ll keep you informed.

Thanks a lot for your advice.

Wim

#18

When I type :

sudo /sbin/modprobe -l |grep -i rt73

I get the answer :

/lib/modules/2.6.27.48-0.2-default/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt73usb.ko

So, whether it is loaded or not, I do not know …

I have a Windows XP computer but I can’t go from Windows to Linux.

W

#19

I do not know what happens now, but this is what I get while I try to configure my WiFi access point :

802.11 bg WLAN (not connected)
BusID : 1-1.2:1.0
Unable to configure the network card because the kernel device (eth0, wlan0) is not present. This is mostly caused by missing firmware (for wlan devices). See dmesg output for details.

dmesg output gives me :
…:…
usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
usb 1-1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=148f, idProduct=2573
usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11 bg WLAN
usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Ralink
…:…

I have these lines too :

…:…
phy0 → rt2500usb_init_eeprom: Error - Invalid RT chipset detected.
phy0 → rt2x00lib_probe_dev: Error - Failed to allocate device.
…:…

The network card being a Ralink, I thought this might be cause of an error ? Note that in Windows XP, I can access the internet at full speed.

In my hardware info I get these lines :
…:…
119: udi = ‘/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_148f_2573_noserial’
info.subsystem = ‘usb_device’
usb_device.linux.sysfs_path = ‘/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1.2’
usb_device.device_revision_bcd = 1 (0x1)
linux.subsystem = ‘usb’
usb_device.configuration_value = 1 (0x1)
info.product = ‘RT2501USB Wireless Adapter’
usb_device.max_power = 300 (0x12c)
usb_device.num_configurations = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.num_ports = 0 (0x0)
info.udi = ‘/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_148f_2573_noserial’
usb_device.num_interfaces = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.linux.device_number = 7 (0x7)
usb_device.device_class = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.device_subclass = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.speed = 480.000
linux.sysfs_path = ‘/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1.2’
usb_device.device_protocol = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.version = 2.00000
info.parent = ‘/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_424_2602_noserial’
usb_device.vendor_id = 5263 (0x148f)
info.vendor = ‘Ralink Technology, Corp.’
usb_device.is_self_powered = false
usb_device.product_id = 9587 (0x2573)
usb_device.can_wake_up = false
info.linux.driver = ‘usb’
usb_device.vendor = ‘Ralink Technology, Corp.’
usb_device.bus_number = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.product = ‘RT2501USB Wireless Adapter’
linux.hotplug_type = 2 (0x2)
linux.device_file = ‘/dev/bus/usb/001/007’
…:…

Quid ?
W

#20

The BSSID is the router’s MAC address and may have to be manually configured.
You may be confusing with the SSD which is the router’s broadcast name which can be empty.

BTW - There is little reason to leave the SSID empty today. If this is your personal WiFi router, I’d recommend giving your router a custom name (do not use the default manufacturer’s name) to make your configuration easier and possibly automatic.

Why is an empty SSID ineffective? Common wireless cracking tools will find your router anyway and then typical hacking methods will leave your wireless no less vulnerable than an advertising router.

HTH,
Tony