Problems with Belkin WiFi

[iD:0t]

Right, pump -i wlan0 did not work, so I manually applied an IP to the card, but it's still not going...

I think it must be Linux, since this card makes wireless LAN connections OK in WinXP, my modem/router is upstairs, and the signal strength is good under WinXP. It's this message that I think might be something to do with it...

Quality:0/100 Signal level:-78 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm

Whereas in WinXP the Signal Level is around 70 and the Noise Level is around 80 normally.

I notice the massively larger Noise Value under Linux.....

What could be the problem?

Alistair.

[tom p]

Right, pump -i wlan0 did not work, so I manually applied an IP to the card, but it's still not going...

I think it must be Linux, since this card makes wireless LAN connections OK in WinXP, my modem/router is upstairs, and the signal strength is good under WinXP. It's this message that I think might be something to do with it...

Quality:0/100 Signal level:-78 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm

Whereas in WinXP the Signal Level is around 70 and the Noise Level is around 80 normally.

I notice the massively larger Noise Value under Linux.....

What could be the problem?

Alistair.

I don't really know; iwconfig here shows Link Quality:98/100 Signal level:-80 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm, but I don't
believe it has much to say; so after manually setting your IP, what does "ifconfig wlan0" print out? And what exactly does
"but it's still not going..." mean? Was assigning an IP successfully? Do you have set a default route? What does "netstat -rn"
print out?

Ciao,
Thomas

[iD:0t]

Logged in as root, detected card.

Ok, when I have detected the card, I type:

iwconfig wlan0 essid (My ESSID) channel 11

now, iwconfig wlan0 returns

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-79 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:4 Invalid misc:12271 Missed beacon:0

and ifconfig wlan0 returns

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:50:08:9A:44
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:2736 (2.6 KiB)
Interrupt:17 Memory:e8114000-e8115fff

so now I type

ifconfig wlan0 (IP I want) netmask (Corresponding Netmask)

and an ip is assigned, and then i type

route add default gw (My Router's IP)

now, netstat -rn returns

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
192.168.2.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
0.0.0.0 192.168.2.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

So i presume i should now do the name server step? But where do I find the correct nameserver address to use?

And is all this OK so far??

[tom p]

Logged in as root, detected card.

Ok, when I have detected the card, I type:

iwconfig wlan0 essid (My ESSID) channel 11

now, iwconfig wlan0 returns

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-79 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:4 Invalid misc:12271 Missed beacon:0

hmm; from the ESSID setting and MAC address of the access point it doesn't seem
that you have a working connection to your access point yet; at least the ESSID you've
entered should be shown and the MAC address should be different from ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff.
I'd double check, if your access point requires entering a WEP key. Or maybe adding a
"key open" parameter to the iwconfig parameter list might help. (And I assume your
SSID doesn't contain any spaces? )

If this helps (and iwconfig now shows your SSID), you might now also be successful
issuing pump -i wlan0

and ifconfig wlan0 returns

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:50:08:9A:44
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:2736 (2.6 KiB)
Interrupt:17 Memory:e8114000-e8115fff

so now I type

ifconfig wlan0 (IP I want) netmask (Corresponding Netmask)

and an ip is assigned, and then i type

route add default gw (My Router's IP)

now, netstat -rn returns

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
192.168.2.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
0.0.0.0 192.168.2.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

the setting is definitely ok, but from the iwconfig wlan0 output I don't expect
a ping 192.168.2.1 to return an answer!?

So i presume i should now do the name server step? But where do I find the correct nameserver address to use?

And is all this OK so far??

The nameserver address is usually also distributed via DHCP, so you must have entered it while configuring
your router; then, your provider should have given to you that information. Maybe you can gather it when
working under XP from the networking settings? (Don't know exactly if you can find it there, I mostly work
with Linux )

Ciao,
Thomas

[iD:0t]

Ok, so I tried the SSID thing with the key open parameter, and, then I can see the SSID in the iwconfig screen, a step forward. But still pump -i wlan0 fails. And when I try to write a nameserver to /etc/resolv.conf, it fails, saying that I cannot write to the file... Help!!

Alistair.

[tom p]

Hi,

Ok, so I tried the SSID thing with the key open parameter, and, then I can see the SSID in the iwconfig screen, a step forward. But still pump -i wlan0 fails. And when I try to write a nameserver to /etc/resolv.conf, it fails, saying that I cannot write to the file... Help!!

Output of the steps you've done was usually helpful to debug what went wrong or doesn't work yet. So again guessing in the wild...

Assuming iwconfig wlan0 now displays the ESSID you've set and also the MAC address of your access point, you should now be able to continue setting up the networok connection by hand (as described before). Try

ifconfig wlan0 192.168.2.x netmask 255.255.255.0

(of course 192.168.2.x shouldn't be used already, x be a number). Then, does running ifconfig show the changed settings? If yes, you should now be able to ping your router: ping 192.168.2.1. If not, I'm out of ideas.

The reason you can't write to /etc/resolv.conf is, that /etc/resolv.conf is a symlink to the file on CD, and that is read-only. Try removing it before you write to it.

Setting up the network card (the whole steps of assigning IP, gateway, setting up nameserver addresses,...) can also be done by using the netcardconfig command (I'd run it as user root in a shell, not from the Knoppix menu), if iwconfig was successful.

Ciao,
Thomas

[iD:0t]

Okay, progress!

I manage now to connect to my Router control interface using Linux, however, I cannot get to the rest of the Internet. Why might this be? I cannot delete the resolv.conf file in order to create a new one, since I apparently do not have the rights to do it. I presume that I am logged in as root by default when Knoppix boots, since no login screen is presented...

Any help you can give?

Thanks very much so far!!!!

Alistair.

[tom p]

Okay, progress!

I manage now to connect to my Router control interface using Linux, however, I cannot get to the rest of the Internet. Why might this be? I cannot delete the resolv.conf file in order to create a new one, since I apparently do not have the rights to do it. I presume that I am logged in as root by default when Knoppix boots, since no login screen is presented...

Any help you can give?

Thanks very much so far!!!!

Alistair.

You have to add a default route to your network configuration; with the setup you've built now you can reach all computers on the same network, because somehow they're all connected to each other (well, oversimplified, but you get it )

You must tell your computer, whom to send network packages outside your net, to forward them for you (and receive answers for you, that it will forward to you). That machine is called router (ok, you knew that already ).

Just enter route add default gw 192.168.2.1, and now all packets not residing on your local network will be forwarded to your router, who decides what to do with them.

And no, you aren't logged in as root by default; you have to open a root shell (or enter "su -" in a normal console window become root).

If you fail to get DHCP working, you might want to add the following to your /etc/network/interfaces file:

iface wlan0 inet static
        wireless-essid <your-ssid>
        wireless-channel 11
        wireless-mode Managed
        wireless-keymode open
        address 192.168.2.x
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.2.0
        broadcast 192.168.2.255
        gateway 192.168.2.1

(this is totally untested and might or might not give you an automatic setup)

Ciao,
Thomas

[iD:0t]

Weird stuff happening now....

I did the route add default gw (IP) thing, and it line-fed to the next command prompt, so I presumed it had done something, but when I opened up Konqueror and went to www.knoppix.net as a test, it came back with an error, basically, It couldn't connect since it failed to find the host. Then, back in the Konsole, I found that the card had disappeared, iwconfig reported no netowrk devices. I didnt do anything but close the Konsole after setting the card up, open Konqueror, then reopen the Konsole to check settings, by which time the card had gone.

What is going on, do you think??

Alistair

[tom p]

Weird stuff happening now....
[...]
What is going on, do you think??

I have no clue; probably connection problems between pci card and access point?

I'd move the access point a little and retry the procedure...

Cica,
Thomas