WEP not working, but able to connect if encryption not on

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi,
I just installed OS 11.1. Love it. everything seems to be working fine except my wireless internet connection. The OS is picking up all the wireless signals in my neighborhood, including my own. However linux will only connect to it, if I have wep turned off. I have tried both 64 bit and 128 bit encryption, but it just wont connect.
I cant turn off the encryption so I would really appreciate it, if someone would please let me know how I can fix this problem.
Thanks

#2

HorTorLinux wrote:
> Hi,
> I just installed OS 11.1. Love it. everything seems to be working fine
> except my wireless internet connection. The OS is picking up all the
> wireless signals in my neighborhood, including my own. However linux
> will only connect to it, if I have wep turned off. I have tried both 64
> bit and 128 bit encryption, but it just wont connect.
> I cant turn off the encryption so I would really appreciate it, if
> someone would please let me know how I can fix this problem.

Are you entering a WEP passphrase or a hex key? If the former, you must use the
latter. Use Google to see why WEP passphrases fail.

Larry

#3

this has been mentioned before

Use Google to see why WEP passphrases fail.

I entered in google

why WEP passphrases fail.

and found this as perhaps the best shot …

If you use the standard interface for WPA key entry and provide a text passphrase that uses words found in dictionaries of fewer than 20 characters, a cracker passively intercepting initial key exchange messages can employ an offline dictionary attack and extract the encryption key, gaining access to the network. Key exchange messages occur at the beginning of a connection between an adapter (station) and an access point; that exchange can be forced to repeat by a cracker sending a disassociate message which forces a new exchange within about 30 seconds. So a cracker can be on and off the network in a couple of minutes with the information they need. This is actually much worse than WEP, but easily solved.

The solution is also quite simple: choose a key of at least 96 bits or a passphrase that includes gibberish that’s more than 20 characters long. So far, of all the WPA interfaces that I’ve seen, only Apple’s allows you to enter raw hexadecimal and they require 64 hex characters (32 bytes or a full 256 bits).

but I think this suggests why a passphrase may not be ideal

I can’t say that any of the ten posts I got, really clarified why

WEP passphrases fail
?

(I also tried linux why WEP passphrases fail and didn’t get any clearer replies …)

#4

I am using a key that looks like
ABCDEFGHIJ1234567890ABCDEF.

When i enter it in windows, the wireless connection happens without a problem.

But enter the same key in OS, no connection takes place. The enter key dialog box keeps coming back up after trying to connect for a few minutes.

#5

HorTorLinux wrote:
> I am using a key that looks like
> ABCDEFGHIJ1234567890ABCDEF.
>
> When i enter it in windows, the wireless connection happens without a
> problem.
>
> But enter the same key in OS, no connection takes place. The enter key
> dialog box keeps coming back up after trying to connect for a few
> minutes.

The reason WEP passphrases fail is because there are at least two different
methods to convert a phrase to a key. If your AP and your computer use the same
method, then everything is OK. If they do not, it behaves just as you describe
because the key is what is important.

The key above has the right number of digits to be the key for 128-bit WEP
encryption, assuming the GHIJ characters are not in the real one. If you were
using that key, then recheck your typing.

As that one reference you found with Google stated, WEP encryption is very
easily broken. You should consider at least WPA. WPA2 is even better.

Larry

#6

Actually, the entire key show below is made up. But the real key is of course of a similar format and length.

And as I said it works fine when I enter in windows. for some reason Linux seems to be having a problem connecting.
Oh, and I have repeatedly made sure that I am typing it correctly.

It’ll be a real pity if I have to go back to using windows simply because OS cant connect to my wireless signal.

My base station is pretty old, and does not support WPA encryption.

#7

Informing us of what hardware you are using may help. Some drivers don’t work with encryption and networkmanger, while some don’t work with encryption at all. Have you tried not using networkmanager?

#8

HorTorLinux wrote:
> Actually, the entire key show below is made up. But the real key is of
> course of a similar format and length.
>
> And as I said it works fine when I enter in windows. for some reason
> Linux seems to be having a problem connecting.
> Oh, and I have repeatedly made sure that I am typing it correctly.
>
> It’ll be a real pity if I have to go back to using windows simply
> because OS cant connect to my wireless signal.
>
> My base station is pretty old, and does not support WPA encryption.

What desktop are you using? There are reports of encryptio0n not working with
KDE4. Personally, I do not use it. AFAIK, KDE3.5 works fine with WEP.

What hardware do you have? Perhaps there is a driver problem.

Larry

#9

Sounds like wpa_supplicant problem.
Verify that you have wpa_supplicant installed.
If you type
wpa_supplicant --help
you will be given nice command line how that will configure it.

you may also make your own configuration file. Here is how my looks for WPA2


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
#ap_scan=1
network={
	ssid="my_network_name"
	scan_ssid=1
	proto=WPA
	pairwise=TKIP
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	psk="Some_Long_Passphrase"
}

I have configured it with line:
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -cwpa_supplicant.conf

#10

Oh silly me… too tired… I have seen now that you have WEP problem, not WPA…

Sooooory