Does Orinoco Gold require SSID:ON when accessing Linksys WRT54G AP?

I've been pulling my hair out trying to add a new wireless laptop to
my home network. I have a Linksys WRT54G router that has worked great
talking to a workstation with a Linksys WMP54G PCI card in it. I had
the network configured to use WPA and turned off SSID. No problems
until I wanted to add a laptop to the network. This is an old laptop,
with the Orinoco Gold (classic) card in it. I managed to get it
working with WEP (unfortunately, I can't find a WPA supplicant for
that card). But when I disable SSID broadcast on the router, the
laptop can't establish a connection. (The workstation with the WMP54G
still works fine, though.)

I have downloade the latest drivers for the Orinoco and have flashed
the router to the latest version of the firmware. I'd appreciate any
advice. Thanks,

- Steve

When the router doesn't broadcast SSID, the client has to discover it by
active probe. If no SSIDs are preconfigured in the client, it should send
out a probe with the broadcast SSID (a zero-length string). The router may
or may not respond to this probe (for security reasons - this response may
have been disabled when you disabled SSID broadcast in beacons). I suggest
you configure the router's SSID explicitly on the client. It should send out
probes for that specific SSID, and the router should respond.

"Steve Hull" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been pulling my hair out trying to add a new wireless laptop to
> my home network. I have a Linksys WRT54G router that has worked great
> talking to a workstation with a Linksys WMP54G PCI card in it. I had
> the network configured to use WPA and turned off SSID. No problems
> until I wanted to add a laptop to the network. This is an old laptop,
> with the Orinoco Gold (classic) card in it. I managed to get it
> working with WEP (unfortunately, I can't find a WPA supplicant for
> that card). But when I disable SSID broadcast on the router, the
> laptop can't establish a connection. (The workstation with the WMP54G
> still works fine, though.)
>
> I have downloade the latest drivers for the Orinoco and have flashed
> the router to the latest version of the firmware. I'd appreciate any
> advice. Thanks,
>
> - Steve

Thanks for the reply, Gary. When the router is broadcasting its
SSID, the fact that the client connects seems to indicate that the
client IS configured correctly (e.g., matching SSID, encryption,
frequency, etc.). Nothing on the client side has changed. The only
change is that the router was set to disable broadcasting its SSID.
I'm confused by why the client would ignore its configured SSID and
think it needs to send out zero-length probes instead. Any ideas?

Thanks again,

- Steve

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 20:16:21 GMT, "gary" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>When the router doesn't broadcast SSID, the client has to discover it by
>active probe. If no SSIDs are preconfigured in the client, it should send
>out a probe with the broadcast SSID (a zero-length string). The router may
>or may not respond to this probe (for security reasons - this response may
>have been disabled when you disabled SSID broadcast in beacons). I suggest
>you configure the router's SSID explicitly on the client. It should send out
>probes for that specific SSID, and the router should respond.
>
>"Steve Hull" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> I've been pulling my hair out trying to add a new wireless laptop to
>> my home network. I have a Linksys WRT54G router that has worked great
>> talking to a workstation with a Linksys WMP54G PCI card in it. I had
>> the network configured to use WPA and turned off SSID. No problems
>> until I wanted to add a laptop to the network. This is an old laptop,
>> with the Orinoco Gold (classic) card in it. I managed to get it
>> working with WEP (unfortunately, I can't find a WPA supplicant for
>> that card). But when I disable SSID broadcast on the router, the
>> laptop can't establish a connection. (The workstation with the WMP54G
>> still works fine, though.)
>>
>> I have downloade the latest drivers for the Orinoco and have flashed
>> the router to the latest version of the firmware. I'd appreciate any
>> advice. Thanks,
>>
>> - Steve
>

Sorry I confused you. I wasn't sure you had actually typed the SSID into a
config menu, but since you added a WEP key you must have. The point about
0-length SSIDs is just that if no saved SSIDs are present, that's supposed
to discover any APs in range - but it usually won't work if SSID broadcast
is turned off.

In any case, you're not gaining much by disabling SSID broadcast. Your
protection, such as it is, comes from WEP (no WPA upgrade for the Orinoco?).
Anybody with a good sniffer can find your SSID, whether you disable
broadcast or not.

"Steve Hull" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the reply, Gary. When the router is broadcasting its
> SSID, the fact that the client connects seems to indicate that the
> client IS configured correctly (e.g., matching SSID, encryption,
> frequency, etc.). Nothing on the client side has changed. The only
> change is that the router was set to disable broadcasting its SSID.
> I'm confused by why the client would ignore its configured SSID and
> think it needs to send out zero-length probes instead. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> - Steve
>
> On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 20:16:21 GMT, "gary" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
> >When the router doesn't broadcast SSID, the client has to discover it by
> >active probe. If no SSIDs are preconfigured in the client, it should send
> >out a probe with the broadcast SSID (a zero-length string). The router
may
> >or may not respond to this probe (for security reasons - this response
may
> >have been disabled when you disabled SSID broadcast in beacons). I
suggest
> >you configure the router's SSID explicitly on the client. It should send
out
> >probes for that specific SSID, and the router should respond.
> >
> >"Steve Hull" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> >news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
> >> I've been pulling my hair out trying to add a new wireless laptop to
> >> my home network. I have a Linksys WRT54G router that has worked great
> >> talking to a workstation with a Linksys WMP54G PCI card in it. I had
> >> the network configured to use WPA and turned off SSID. No problems
> >> until I wanted to add a laptop to the network. This is an old laptop,
> >> with the Orinoco Gold (classic) card in it. I managed to get it
> >> working with WEP (unfortunately, I can't find a WPA supplicant for
> >> that card). But when I disable SSID broadcast on the router, the
> >> laptop can't establish a connection. (The workstation with the WMP54G
> >> still works fine, though.)
> >>
> >> I have downloade the latest drivers for the Orinoco and have flashed
> >> the router to the latest version of the firmware. I'd appreciate any
> >> advice. Thanks,
> >>
> >> - Steve
> >
>