Problem connecting the LaFonera router

English Network/Internet
#1

I am experiencing problems in connecting the router LaFonera+ provided by Fon (FON).
I have a PCI Broadcom 4318 AirForce One 54G, regularly installed using the firmware etc. I think the card is working because it connects without problem to my other router Siemens Gigaset SE551. Instead it cannot connect to La Fonera, neither on the protected SSID nor on the open SSID (the Fonera has two separate networks to allow freely sharing one).
I am posing the question here because another PC running WinXP can connect to LaFonera without problems, therefore I suspect the problem is due to Linux’s management of the B43 card. As a matter of fact the air scanning is returning ever-changing results: sometimes both networks are detected, sometimes only one, sometimes none.

Does anyone have any idea on how to solve the problem?

Thx, Luca:confused:

#2

lucamanu wrote:
> I am experiencing problems in connecting the router LaFonera+ provided
> by Fon (‘FON’ (http://www.fon.com)).
> I have a PCI Broadcom 4318 AirForce One 54G, regularly installed using
> the firmware etc. I think the card is working because it connects
> without problem to my other router Siemens Gigaset SE551. Instead it
> cannot connect to La Fonera, neither on the protected SSID nor on the
> open SSID (the Fonera has two separate networks to allow freely sharing
> one).
> I am posing the question here because another PC running WinXP can
> connect to LaFonera without problems, therefore I suspect the problem
> is due to Linux’s management of the B43 card. As a matter of fact the
> air scanning is returning ever-changing results: sometimes both
> networks are detected, sometimes only one, sometimes none.
>
> Does anyone have any idea on how to solve the problem?

What does dmesg have to say about the connection? I don’t know anything about
that router and it may have some funny requirements. Are you running 11.0?

The way to troubleshoot router/adapter mismatches is to use kismet or wireshark
to capture the traffic. Is that a possibility?

#3

Hi lwfinger,
thanks for replying. Let’s go with order:
dmesg cannot say much as I simply do not manage to establish a connection.
The command
#iwlist scan
reports unstable results, sometimes it reports no networks present, some other times it returns the open network:

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:18:84:A3:FC:55
ESSID:“FON_AP”
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=70/100 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-43 dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=00000000f523b835

As to Kismet, everything here is mine, so I can do whatever I want. I installed KISMET but don’t have a clue of how to use it. Suggestions?

#4

lucamanu wrote:
> Hi lwfinger,
> thanks for replying. Let’s go with order:
> dmesg cannot say much as I simply do not manage to establish a
> connection.

On the contrary- dmesg logs failures as well. When I connect, I see things like

wlan1: authenticate with AP 00:1a:70:46:ba:b1
wlan1: authenticated
wlan1: associate with AP 00:1a:70:46:ba:b1
wlan1: RX AssocResp from 00:1a:70:46:ba:b1 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
wlan1: associated

When it fails, I see timeout messages.

> The command
> #iwlist scan
> reports unstable results, sometimes it reports no networks present,
> some other times it returns the open network:

Are you running iwlist as root? As root, it does an active scan, i.e. it sends
out a probe on each channel and looks for a response. As an unprivileged user,
it merely returns whatever is in the buffer.

> As to Kismet, everything here is mine, so I can do whatever I want. I
> installed KISMET but don’t have a clue of how to use it. Suggestions?

Actually, kismet is a lot easier to use if you have a second computer on which
to use it. Is that possible?

Larry

#5

OK, so here’s the #dmesg output:

device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input13
b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::assoc
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

Before it reported something different:
wlan0: authentication frame received from 00:18:84:a3:fc:55, but not in authenticate state - ignored
wlan0: authentication frame received from 00:18:84:a3:fc:55, but not in authenticate state - ignored
wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55
wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55
wlan0: authentication with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55 timed out

I confirm that I run iwlist scan as a root user, so it performs everytime a complete scan. Just to see how unreliable it results, it just responded like this:
wlan0 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Operation not supported

Finally, I installed Kismet and started monitoring the situation. It did not have any difficulty in monitoring the two networks emitted by LaFonera. I even started the other PC (the one with WinXP) and connected to the protected network and Kismet detected the clients connected) including the wired ones (how did it do it?).

Now it is the big question: if Kismet can detect and monitor the networks, why NetworkMonitor (and, as we saw, iwlist) cannot do it? Or does it in an unreliable fashion?

Any idea?

#6

errata corrige: Where I mentioned NetworkMonitor I obviously meant NetworkManager.

#7

lucamanu wrote:
> OK, so here’s the #dmesg output:
>
> device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
> input: b43-phy0 as /devices/virtual/input/input13
> b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::assoc
> Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
> ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

This message is because you have the BCM43xx in promiscuous mode. It doesn’t
work in the regular manner because of that.

> Before it reported something different:
> wlan0: authentication frame received from 00:18:84:a3:fc:55, but not in
> authenticate state - ignored
> wlan0: authentication frame received from 00:18:84:a3:fc:55, but not in
> authenticate state - ignored
> wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0
> wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55
> wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55
> wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55
> wlan0: authentication with AP 00:18:84:a3:fc:55 timed out

Ah, it is having trouble authenticating. Is this the encrypted or unencrypted ssid?

> I confirm that I run iwlist scan as a root user, so it performs
> everytime a complete scan. Just to see how unreliable it results, it
> just responded like this:
> wlan0 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Operation not supported
>
> Finally, I installed Kismet and started monitoring the situation. It
> did not have any difficulty in monitoring the two networks emitted by
> LaFonera. I even started the other PC (the one with WinXP) and
> connected to the protected network and Kismet detected the clients
> connected) including the wired ones (how did it do it?).

Obviously the router is sending traffic from the wired side out to the wireless
side.

> Now it is the big question: if Kismet can detect and monitor the
> networks, why NetworkMonitor (and, as we saw, iwlist) cannot do it? Or
> does it in an unreliable fashion?

The wext interface into wireless, which is the code behind iwconfig and iwscan,
is a little flaky.

I did some research into the LaFonera router. It runs a special version of
OpenWRT and should be compatible. There is something messed up in your
configuration, but I don’t know what it is.

Perhaps you should go into YaST / Network Settings / Network Devices and delete
the wireless interface. After you reboot, the system should recognize the device
and allow you to configure again.

Larry

#8

Hi Larry,
I tried to delete the device, but in fact it only deletes the configuration, the device remains there. :confused:

I would like to remove everything, both firmware, drivers etc. Could you suggest me how to do it? I would not want to reinstall suse from scratch…:eek:

#9

lucamanu wrote:
> Hi Larry,
> I tried to delete the device, but in fact it only deletes the
> configuration, the device remains there. :confused:

That is normal. I was the one that was confused.

> I would like to remove everything, both firmware, drivers etc. Could
> you suggest me how to do it? I would not want to reinstall suse from
> scratch…:eek:

It is not necessary to remove the firmware or the drivers. Neither of them has
been corrupted. You should now go back into YaST, select the wireless device
that is now unconfigured, and reconfigure it. I would use NetworkManager. When
you do the Add Connection, be careful not to select the “Connect and Save” until
the “Next” button is no longer active. I think there is a bug in the applet. One
other thing - if you are using WEP, be sure to enter the hex key, not the
passphrase. There are several, incompatible ways to convert a phrase to a key.
It is OK to use one at the AP, but after you do, copy the key and use it
everywhere else.

Larry

#10

I opened YaST, but I could not find NetworkManager among the options. The only way I have to setup the devices is Network Settings. Is there a way to show NetworkManager in YaST?

Ok, I’ll take it into account.

#11

It’s right there, inside the ‘Global Options’ tab.
[You can examine its log file ‘/var/log/NetworkManager’ and there is
a ‘nm-tool’ cmd to check the state of things.]

#12

Maybe I misunderstood: I have NetworkManager working, it is right there on the applications bar, but with that I cannot configure a wireless device. I only know how to do it with YaST->Network Settings. So far my problem with the router LaFonera isn’t changed at all…:frowning:

#13

I just discovered that in order to create two SSIDs using one transceiver, La Fonera transmits one SSID, then puts that signal to sleep and transmits the other SSID, repeat. This seems to drive several wifi adapters insane.

I was suggested to disable any “sleep” or “power save” feature of the wifi adapter to improve stability, any suggestion on how to do it?:confused:

#14

Hello,

I am using Batcktrack 4 Pre-Final release and I was having the same problem with NetworkManager. I believe the program has also a bug.

When using NetworkManager, type your password for the router select then select save. Then go to the NetworkManager icon and select target router.

Review:
Click on…
NetworkManager icon
New connection
Waln0 (device)
Select router
Next
Type “password” in Shared Key
Save (this will close window)
NetworkManager icon
Target Router (target router will show under wlan0)
YOU are connected

Thank you guys for all your help.