Dell TruMobile 1300 "Invalid WEP Key Specification"

[dvryknopper]

Well, I am running Kanotix 2005-04 and I finally got my Dell TruMobile 1300 (broadcom chipset) running with ndiswrapper and the Linuxant driver loader. I used only the bcmwl5.inf driver file and the wi-fi card was detected fine (I haven't used the .SYS file do I need that one somewhere on the machine aswell?) but when I try to connect to the network, I find that I am unable to connect because kwifimanager informs me that there is no valid wep key specification, any suggestions?

[dvryknopper]

Well sorry to double post but I am hoping that this added post will bring attention to my post again in case it has fallen into obscurity from being pushed down to the second page of this thread. I did get some help via private messaging chipyoung who had a similar problem and manged to solve it; however, I was unable to implement his solution very well because 1. I'm a networking rookie and 2. while his answers are very helpful they assume dhcp on the router which I could implement on my own router, but not on routers that I do not own, so are they any suggestions on how to do this with my wi-fi card? Is the problem with DHCP? Or is the problem with the driver for my router? I am really not sure because I can detect the wi-fi card and the local network, but I still get the "Invalid WEP key specification" error does my card not have the ability to support DHCP? I'm quite lost and I need help

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:58 pm Quote message

Well it looks like your making a little progress.

I would first disable wep on your router. I have an older linksys router that gives the choice of 'mandatory' or 'disable', you need to disable it and not just remove the key. Before I changed my network file I first got everything working through the program 'Kwifimanager' which you can find at your bottom panel if you select the penguin, then Network Internet then Wifimanager. This is the program that I added the line pump -i wlan0 to.

Be sure to do the auto detect in this program to make sure your wireless card is 'wlan0' and not eth0.

In this program you need to create a config1 for your wireless card. My first post describes how to modify this program. Just select 'Settings' then configuration editor. After filing this out you will then need to hit the activate button.

Make sure the WEP is disabled on your router. Once you get everthing working, you can then work on the Wep. First you need to get an IP address. I assume you have dhcp turned on at the router.

Hope this makes sense. I have a screen print of my configuration in Wifimanager that I am not able to add to this message. I can e-mail it to you if you would like.

Let me know how it goes!

Chip
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:46 pm Quote message

I'll try my best to help you get your wireless connection running. I know it's a pain when it doesn't work.

If you are using the windows driver bcmwl5 you will need the .inf and the .sys in order to make ndiswrapper work. If you need one or both of these files I would be gland to e-mail them to you.


Are you using kwifimanager to put in your ESSID and your WEP key and also adding the 'pump -i wlan0' or eth0 in the script section. You also need to check the box that says Execute script on connect.

I am able to get all this running at boot time by just modifying my /etc/network/interfaces file with the following lines...

i face wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid xxxxxxxx
wireless-key yyyyyyyyy
auto wlan0

The xxx's and yyy's you would fill in with your essid of your network and your wep key.

Are you running from a knoppix hard drive install?

If you want you can e-mail me directly at

Hope this works,
Chip

[dvryknopper]

I know that broadcom (the chipset manufacturer for the Dell TruMobile 1300) doesn't support Linux, but I managed to get the card detected, it is just that WEP will not work on it and it won't connect, can anyone explain how wi-fi cards process WEP encryption? Perhaps with an understanding of what the card should be doing with WEP, I can figure out a way for the card to detect WEP while under Linux. I am just having trouble understanding what about running the driver under Linux makes it detectable to the computer, but unable to use WEP encryption unless in Windows.