Cant get wireless network working

[trant]

My laptop crashed and I could not run the Windows XP setup CD (it hangs when booting). So basically my only option left is to boot Knoppix from dvd and try to salvage my files. So I do that and I can see all my files on the hard drive but I cannot do anything with it. I have no USB flash driver here, and the only network available is a secured wireless network. I have been desperately trying to connect to it but being a complete linux newbie let alone a knoppix newbie I am just getting frustration

I am trying to use this Kwlan utility but it's so confusing. I am really just fumbling around. I think I have to activate this WPA Supplicant thing but it gives me this big list of interfaces to choose... I have no idea what to pick so I'm just picking one at random. Then it pops up with something which appears to be an error message. I dont recall what it is and cant bring it up right now because this Kwlan program froze up and now I cant run it anymore.

I just know my wireless card is the Intel 2200bg and the secured network is WEP encrypted. Is there an easier way to do this than deal with this bug ridden Kwlan program which keeps crashing?

ps in case someone is going to mention it I already looked in the Network FAQ and it offers no help. Chip's entry is un-doable because my laptop crashed so I cant boot windows to see what drivers were being used.

Is there some data saved by Kwlan somewhere? I am guessing it saved some bad data and is trying to load it when I try running it, which is why it keeps failing to launch (it shows the little animated icon bouncing as it loads then it just goes away) I would like to try and clear this possible saved data thinking maybe then it can launch properly

edit: ok i just found out the kwlan thing left a bunch of defunct processes and i learned how to find them and kill them which allowed me to run the program again. the message it gives me when i choose an interface and click Start it says "Could not find network in wpa_supplicant configuration". I am going down the list and each interface seems to give me this error

edit2:
I found an interface which seems to work because it did not spit an error at me. I think it was called atwin? but now, how does this thing work? in windows i would scan, click on my network, enter in the password/key in a single field and that was it. here there are so many options and settings i dont know what to use.

in the scan result my network has the flag [WEP] so i choose plaintext with WEP and the only fields not greyed out are 4 key fields on the right. what is that? i put the key i used in windows on the first line and tried it but in the event log I keep seeing "Trying to associate with (some max address) (SSID= ... freq= ... )"
followed by
"Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out."
over and over again

why is it timing out? I tried the IEEE authentication but now it has like 10 fields i can fill in and i have no idea where to fill in my key and what to put in all the other fields. So i just put it in the password field and tried it but i get same result as above.

ugh this is hopeless

[chip.ling]

I just know my wireless card is the Intel 2200bg and the secured network is WEP encrypted. Is there an easier way to do this than deal with this bug ridden Kwlan program which keeps crashing?

ps in case someone is going to mention it I already looked in the Network FAQ and it offers no help. Chip's entry is un-doable because my laptop crashed so I cant boot windows to see what drivers were being used.

I went to Intel support web site and download the Intel 2200bg driver zip file. (http://support.intel.com/support/wir...lan/pro2200bg/)

There are 5 driver files with extension ".sys" inside the zip file. They are w29n50.sys, w29n51.sys, NETw4k32.sys, NETw4x32.sys and NETw4x64.sys.

Try to mount to your c: drive with read only mode, check to see if any of those files is in your drivers directory.

 $ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /media/hda1 -o ro,umask=000
 $ cd /media/hda1/windows/system32/drivers
 $ ls w29*.sys
 $ ls NETw4*.sys

If you are lucky, you might be able to find the sys file.

Then do some digging on /media/hda1/windows/inf directory and see if you can find the corresponding .inf file. Check to see if there is file with the same name .inf.

You probably need to open those inf file one by one and it could be a painful one too. On my laptop they are all in unicode format. (i.e. if you open those files with vi, you will see a lot of null value "^@" before each character.)

Be-aware that your c: drive may not be /media/hda1 (i.e. could be /media/sda1).

Rgds,
Chip

[chip.ling]

edit2:
I found an interface which seems to work because it did not spit an error at me. I think it was called atwin? but now, how does this thing work? in windows i would scan, click on my network, enter in the password/key in a single field and that was it. here there are so many options and settings i dont know what to use.

in the scan result my network has the flag [WEP] so i choose plaintext with WEP and the only fields not greyed out are 4 key fields on the right. what is that? i put the key i used in windows on the first line and tried it but in the event log I keep seeing "Trying to associate with (some max address) (SSID= ... freq= ... )"
followed by
"Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out."
over and over again

why is it timing out? I tried the IEEE authentication but now it has like 10 fields i can fill in and i have no idea where to fill in my key and what to put in all the other fields. So i just put it in the password field and tried it but i get same result as above.

ugh this is hopeless

The 4 keys are the 4 keys that you specified on the wireless router on the wireless security setting section. I guess the timeout means the key you input is not recognized by the wireless network. Try to enter the key in hex. It might help.

If you have full access to your network, you may consider direct hook up the machine to the network through Cat 5 cable and avoid the wireless complication. Or either disable the WEP on the wireless for a while and until you finish all your files transfer to another machine and activate it again.

Rgds,
Chip

[chip.ling]

edit2:
I found an interface which seems to work because it did not spit an error at me. I think it was called atwin? but now, how does this thing work? in windows i would scan, click on my network, enter in the password/key in a single field and that was it. here there are so many options and settings i dont know what to use.

in the scan result my network has the flag [WEP] so i choose plaintext with WEP and the only fields not greyed out are 4 key fields on the right. what is that? i put the key i used in windows on the first line and tried it but in the event log I keep seeing "Trying to associate with (some max address) (SSID= ... freq= ... )"
followed by
"Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out."
over and over again

why is it timing out? I tried the IEEE authentication but now it has like 10 fields i can fill in and i have no idea where to fill in my key and what to put in all the other fields. So i just put it in the password field and tried it but i get same result as above.

ugh this is hopeless

Hi, I just did a test on WEP and I successfully connect Knoppix 5.1.1 to my old wireless network. I wrote a FAQ on the Network FAQ. You can check it out there.

Basically there is nothing new on this one but you have to issue a command like

iwconfig wlan0 key 6162636465

to specify the key value.

Make sure you are root and also you know the key in hex. i.e. 6162636465 means "abcde"

Hope it can help.

Rgds,
Chip