Weird Wireless Problem

English Network/Internet
#1

So, my wireless works great at my home. Always connects, WPA secured, I use Synergy with it and have no problems. Last night I went over to my girlfriend’s place and tried to connect to her wireless network and couldn’t. I figured it was because her network was WPA2 secured, so I tried connecting to one of many unsecured networks around her place and couldn’t connect to any of those either. As soon as I got back to my place, I connected to my network just fine. Maybe I’m missing something here, but shouldn’t I have been able to connect to one of the unsecured networks? I tried 3 or 4 and none connected.

Thanks.

#2

What do you mean by “couldn’t connect”? Did you get any error message? Or did the dhcp request just time out?

#3

Well, I’m using Network Manager, so when I attempt to connect, the little gear icon spins and then it doesn’t connect. Here’s some output from my /var/log/messages.

kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Command timed out.
kernel: ipw2200: No space for Tx
kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SSID: Reason -16
kernel: ipw2200: No space for Tx
kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
kernel: ipw2200: No space for Tx
kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16

#4

crl0901 wrote:
> Well, I’m using Network Manager, so when I attempt to connect, the
> little gear icon spins and then it doesn’t connect. Here’s some output
> from my /var/log/messages.
>
>
> kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Command timed out.
> kernel: ipw2200: No space for Tx
> kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SSID: Reason -16
> kernel: ipw2200: No space for Tx
> kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
> kernel: ipw2200: No space for Tx
> kernel: ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16

For a number of reasons, the Intel wireless drivers are a mess. What I suggest
is that you post the output of the command ‘dmesg | grep ipw2200’ to the mailing
list at linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org with a brief description of your problem
and the output from ‘uname -r’.

The experts on the Intel hardware hang out there.

Larry

#5

Maybe the local wireless ‘expert’ setting them up with just mac filtering? (Not a very good way)

#6

I guess that’s always a possibility but this was in a college apartment complex, so I doubt it highly judging by the kind of people that lived there.

#7

I tried emailing that address and I keep getting it returned with an error about only use plain text. What do I need to do?

#8

crl0901 wrote:
>
> I tried emailing that address and I keep getting it returned with an
> error about only use plain text. What do I need to do?

Configure your mailer to use plain text - no html.

Larry

#9

Well…I have the exact same problem…but EVERYWHERE! I have an Atheros AR242x on a Toshiba Satellite A135 S4527 and it doesn’t connect neither with NetworkManager or ifup…

This is driving me crazy! I’ve wasted all day working on this and nothing worked!

I’m using openSUSE 11.1 with KDE 4.1 by the way…

When I use NetworkManager the freaking gear spins for a while and then the gray world comes back…

When I run “iwconfig” the wlan detects the network…and nothing else! No connection whatsoever…

So PLEASE help me! If you need any more info about my setup just ask! But I’ll be very grateful for any info about this…

And I also tried to install madwifi and it didn’t work…apparently it doesn’t work with openSUSE 11.1…

Thanks in advance!

#10

The problem I was having was that it usually works, but sometimes it doesn’t. I found that if it doesn’t work, I can put the laptop into the standby or hibernate mode, let it go all the way down, then bring it back by pressing the power button and when it comes all the way back up, I select the wireless network I want and it works. I don’t know what standby mode is doing to the wireless when it wakes, but I’m guessing there’s got to be a command that can emmulate whatever it’s doing.

BTW, doing this standby trick got wireless working on my parent’s network who use WPA2 security.