Encrypted wlans - problems?

mr_angry

Hey everyone,

I've been having a few problems connecting my laptop to wlans running with encryption. Initially, I tried using WEP 64/128 and connecting using both SuSE 9.3 and WinXP, but neither would seem to associate. Then I switched to using WPA-PSK, and had no problem associating on XP. However, I still can't associate using SuSE. When I run ifup I get an error saying "The network was unreachable". I've also tried using KInternet where I can see the network in a scan, but rather annoyingly, when I try to connect, the KInternet GUI only allows me to enter a WEP key, not a WPA-PSK passphrase. Currently, I'm at a bit of a loss.

Has anyone encountered this problem before? Does anyone know a way to associate an interface with a wlan (and enter keys) via the command line?

Any help appreciated.

oscarBravo

You'll need wpasupplicant to use WPA-PSK. I'd tell you more, but I haven't fully figured it out myself yet.

Hotblack Desiato

What wireless chipset are you using? Is it natively supported by SUSE or are you using ndiswrapper?
I ran 9.1 on my laptop for a while, ACX111 chipset, it needed ndiswrapper and was hell to set up, but it worked (WEP only).
Then I upgraded to SUSE 10.0 which supports ACX111 natively, still WEP only but much easier to get going.
It would be worth giving 10.1 a go. 9.3 won't be supported for too much longer, 9.1 is being desupported very soon (still running it on my desktop, will have to upgrade, downloading 10.1 isos right now!)
Even without the better wireless support, going from 9 to 10 is well worthwhile anyway.

mr_angry

I have an Atheros chipset that is natively supported by SuSE 9.3 - I remember the lack of support in 9.1, and it was atrocious. However, wlan support was significantly better in both 9.2 and 9.3, although it would seem that one or two bugs remain.

I actually downgraded from v10.0 recently due to lack of application support on the YaST servers. It seemed to dis-improve markedly after 9.3. I'm much happier with the suite of tools available with this particular version. I checked the FTP sites for 10.1 just before I installed, and they seemed to be in a similar state as 10.0. Has anyone had a different experience, or does everyone install from source?

Stephen

Dunno about 9.3, but suse 10 has wpasupplicant built in, so you can fully configure your wpa-psk secured connection through the GUI. Handy.

nosmo

WPA support depends on the card too, but if it works under XP it should work under linux.
I have no idea if atheros cards are supported by wpa_supplicant, but you could try using wext (generic linux wireless extensions) like so:
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/home/user/wpa.conf
where wlan0 is your interface, and /home/user/wpa.conf is your config file along the lines of:

network={
        ssid="yourwlan"
        psk="yourkey"
        scan_ssid=0
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}