Wireless headache

English Network/Internet
1

I’ve spent many long hours trying to figure it out myself what is wrong but all in vain.

Most of the time I can’t get past the authentication step but if I do it will then fail to obtain IP. If it does succeed, however, the connection is v. slow.

No problems on wired.

I have atheros Wifi card with Madwifi installed.
Modem requires Wep 64bit authentication key.

Here’s Wicd’s log from an attempt to go wireless:
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Connecting to wireless network O2wireless6DF832
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Putting interface down
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Releasing DHCP leases…
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Setting false IP…
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Stopping wpa_supplicant
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Flushing the routing table…
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Putting interface up…
2010/01/01 22:37:45 :: Attempting to authenticate…
2010/01/01 22:38:22 :: wpa_supplicant authentication may have failed.
2010/01/01 22:38:22 :: Running DHCP
2010/01/01 22:38:42 :: err, ath0: timed out
2010/01/01 22:38:42 ::
2010/01/01 22:38:42 :: DHCP connection failed
2010/01/01 22:38:42 :: exiting connection thread
2010/01/01 22:38:42 :: Sending connection attempt result dhcp_failed

Wicd settings:

WPA supplicant: wext
Most of the other settings: auto
Encryption: WEP (passphrase)

2

Why are you using Madwifi? It is obsolete. The Atheros people are no longer
doing anything with it. The appropriate athXk driver should work.

3

The reason why I was using madwifi is because I found elsewhere on the Internet that this is what I’m suppose to do if I have any problems with Atheros connection (in fact I had blacklisted ath5k!)

I’m now back on ath5k and the only difference is that I think I go through the authentication, but still can’t get IP.
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Connecting to wireless network O2wireless6DF832
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Putting interface down
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Releasing DHCP leases…
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Setting false IP…
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Stopping wpa_supplicant
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Flushing the routing table…
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Putting interface up…
2010/01/03 21:03:33 :: Attempting to authenticate…
2010/01/03 21:03:34 :: Running DHCP
2010/01/03 21:03:54 :: err, wlan0: timed out
2010/01/03 21:03:54 ::
2010/01/03 21:03:54 :: DHCP connection failed
2010/01/03 21:03:54 :: exiting connection thread
2010/01/03 21:03:54 :: Sending connection attempt result dhcp_failed

The Wifi card was called ath0 before, now it’s wlan0. Does it make any difference?

4

On 01/03/2010 03:16 PM, tomaszy wrote:
>
> The Wifi card was called ath0 before, now it’s wlan0. Does it make any
> difference?

The ath0 name was set by Madwifi. Wlan0 is more normal, but you can change it
with udev rules.

5

I’m still bound to a cable :/.
Any ideas how to make it running?
Or should I just change distro?

6

Hi,

tomaszy <tomaszy@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> writes:

> I’m still bound to a cable :/.
> Any ideas how to make it running?
> Or should I just change distro?

If another Linux distro works better for you, use it.

But you will learn more if you find out why it doesn’t work and try to
fix it.

–
Regards,
Barry Nichols