Linksys WRT54G and Cisco Aironet 350 on Mandrake 10.1

I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router connected to my Mandrake 9.0
tower PC. I have a Cisco Aironet 350 wireless PCMCIA card in my Compaq
Armada E500 laptop running Mandrake 10.1. The two PCs communicate very
fine with wireless security turned off.

Until I can get wireless security turned on, and maybe even afterward,
I've configured the router to only accept connections from the MAC
address of the wireless card. I also use OpenSSH between the two
machines.

I'd like to enable some security over the wireless link. The router
supports WPA and WEP. Mandrake's "Manage Connections" in MCC lets me
set the SSID and the pre-shared key. When I turn WPA on in the router
and set the password the same on both ends, then the two machines can't
communicate anymore. I've tried both TKIP and AES algorithms in the
router.

Is this supposed to work? Google seems to say so. How can I do it?
Google didn't really say.

Thanks....

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On 01 Apr 2005 17:33:07 GMT
(E-Mail Removed) (Kevin the Drummer) wrote:

>
> I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router connected to my Mandrake 9.0
> tower PC. I have a Cisco Aironet 350 wireless PCMCIA card in my
> Compaq Armada E500 laptop running Mandrake 10.1. The two PCs
> communicate very fine with wireless security turned off.
>
> Until I can get wireless security turned on, and maybe even afterward,
> I've configured the router to only accept connections from the MAC
> address of the wireless card. I also use OpenSSH between the two
> machines.
>
> I'd like to enable some security over the wireless link. The router
> supports WPA and WEP. Mandrake's "Manage Connections" in MCC lets me
> set the SSID and the pre-shared key. When I turn WPA on in the router
> and set the password the same on both ends, then the two machines
> can't communicate anymore. I've tried both TKIP and AES algorithms in
> the router.
>
> Is this supposed to work? Google seems to say so. How can I do it?
> Google didn't really say.
>

My wrt54g only supports wep. If yours supports wpa, you'll need a
seperate program to use it. What firmware are you using?

"Linux WPA/WPA2/IEEE 802.1X Supplicant"
You can get it at
http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

Your wireless card may or may not work, depending on the driver you use.
I haven't played with this yet, so let us know how you make out.

If it turns out your problem is wep related, remember, you need to
insert your default hex key in mcc, not the password. You can search
this ng for "ifcfg-wlan0" and create the file you need by hand. This
works better for some cards than mcc.

Good Luck

ghaze <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> My wrt54g only supports wep. If yours supports wpa, you'll need a
> seperate program to use it. What firmware are you using?
>
> "Linux WPA/WPA2/IEEE 802.1X Supplicant"
> You can get it at
> http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/
>
> Your wireless card may or may not work, depending on the driver you use.

The wireless card module is airo_cs.

> I haven't played with this yet, so let us know how you make out.
>
> If it turns out your problem is wep related, remember, you need to
> insert your default hex key in mcc, not the password.

I wondered about that when I read about the hex key in one of the iw*
manual pages last night. The mcc screen wasn't too clear, and the
"help" for it didn't help at all (not enough detail).

> You can search
> this ng for "ifcfg-wlan0" and create the file you need by hand. This
> works better for some cards than mcc.

I'll look for that.

Thanks!

--
PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)!
Show Windows & Gates to the exit door.
Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal
opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 15:51:54 -0500, ghaze wrote:

> My wrt54g only supports wep. If yours supports wpa, you'll need a
> seperate program to use it. What firmware are you using?

If you wrt54g only supports WEP then I would suggest that you upgrade.
The wrt54g can and do support WPA plug a lot more.


--

Regards
Robert

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On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:33:07 +0000, Kevin the Drummer wrote:

> I have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router connected to my Mandrake 9.0
> tower PC. I have a Cisco Aironet 350 wireless PCMCIA card in my Compaq
> Armada E500 laptop running Mandrake 10.1. The two PCs communicate very
> fine with wireless security turned off.

I used the same hardware here. Only difference is I use FC3 and the
Laptop is XP.

> Until I can get wireless security turned on, and maybe even afterward,
> I've configured the router to only accept connections from the MAC
> address of the wireless card. I also use OpenSSH between the two
> machines.

MAC Filtering is good I do that too.

> I'd like to enable some security over the wireless link. The router
> supports WPA and WEP. Mandrake's "Manage Connections" in MCC lets me
> set the SSID and the pre-shared key. When I turn WPA on in the router
> and set the password the same on both ends, then the two machines can't
> communicate anymore. I've tried both TKIP and AES algorithms in the
> router.

Why are you using Mandrake's "Manage Connections"? You should be able to
web into the router and setup everything that way.

I would suggest that you web into the router and setup the wireless
security first. Use WPA and set a pre-shared key. Use TKIP for the
Algorithms. Then see if you can get to the internet using these settings.

Because you are doing too many things at once you don't know where the
hangup is. You need to do this one step at a time so that you will know
what is not working where.

I'm here to help you if you need it.


--

Regards
Robert

Smile... it increases your face value!


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On Sat, 02 Apr 2005 10:35:51 -0500
Robert <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 15:51:54 -0500, ghaze wrote:
>
> > My wrt54g only supports wep. If yours supports wpa, you'll need a
> > seperate program to use it. What firmware are you using?
>
> If you wrt54g only supports WEP then I would suggest that you upgrade.
> The wrt54g can and do support WPA plug a lot more.
>

I guess mine is too old for wpa. I have a ver 1.1 with the newest
firmware.

If you are using wpa, I'd be interested in knowing how you configure
your linux box to connect. Are you using the wpa supplicant?
It looks pretty simple to implement.
Wep is fine for my current setup.
Someone trying to access my network would literally stick out like a car
in a bean field. I'd might go buy a new router just to play with
wpa, though.

Thanks

Robert <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Why are you using Mandrake's "Manage Connections"? You should
> be able to web into the router and setup everything that way.
>
> I would suggest that you web into the router and setup the
> wireless security first. Use WPA and set a pre-shared key.
> Use TKIP for the Algorithms. Then see if you can get to the
> internet using these settings.

The desktop pc is hardwired to the internet. My wireless
router connects to the hardwired pc. My laptop connects to the
hardwired desktop via its pcmcia wireless network card and the
wireless router.

I configured the wireless router on the desktop pc via the web
interface to the router. I configured the wireless network card
on the laptop via MCC.

> Because you are doing too many things at once you don't know
> where the hangup is. You need to do this one step at a time so
> that you will know what is not working where.

Well, I'm trying that. At this point the step is to get WEP
or WPA working. I have to enable that on the wireless card in
the laptop (not working yet) and in the wireless router on the
desktop (working I think). With wireless security turned off
in the wireless router all net access works just fine.

Someone suggested that the pre-shared key needs to be entered
in hex via MCC. I haven't gone through the exercise of doing
that. I'm not certain what basis hex would be used. The machine
is 32-bit. Characters are 7 or 8 bit. Hex by itself is 16 bit.
That would be one hex digit per character, right?

If you're using Windows on your laptop, then maybe you get to
enter your pre-shared key just by typing it directly.

FWIW, I looked at the suplicant stuff. My pcmcia Cisco Aironet
350 uses the airo_cs driver and doesn't appear to be chip
compatible with the suplicant.

> I'm here to help you if you need it.

Thanks!

--
PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)!
Show Windows & Gates to the exit door.
Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal
opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.

On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 20:47:04 +0000, Kevin the Drummer wrote:

>> I would suggest that you web into the router and setup the
>> wireless security first. Use WPA and set a pre-shared key.
>> Use TKIP for the Algorithms. Then see if you can get to the
>> internet using these settings.
>
> The desktop pc is hardwired to the internet. My wireless
> router connects to the hardwired pc. My laptop connects to the
> hardwired desktop via its pcmcia wireless network card and the
> wireless router.
>
> I configured the wireless router on the desktop pc via the web
> interface to the router. I configured the wireless network card
> on the laptop via MCC.

I am using Odyssey here to configure my wireless card. Works very well
too.

>> Because you are doing too many things at once you don't know
>> where the hangup is. You need to do this one step at a time so
>> that you will know what is not working where.
>
> Well, I'm trying that. At this point the step is to get WEP
> or WPA working. I have to enable that on the wireless card in
> the laptop (not working yet) and in the wireless router on the
> desktop (working I think). With wireless security turned off
> in the wireless router all net access works just fine.

Which would point to a miss configuration on the AP or your laptop.

> Someone suggested that the pre-shared key needs to be entered
> in hex via MCC. I haven't gone through the exercise of doing
> that. I'm not certain what basis hex would be used. The machine
> is 32-bit. Characters are 7 or 8 bit. Hex by itself is 16 bit.
> That would be one hex digit per character, right?

You shouldn't need to enter it in HEX and that might be the problem.

> If you're using Windows on your laptop, then maybe you get to
> enter your pre-shared key just by typing it directly.

Yes this is a XP laptop that I use to connect to the home network.

> FWIW, I looked at the suplicant stuff. My pcmcia Cisco Aironet
> 350 uses the airo_cs driver and doesn't appear to be chip
> compatible with the suplicant.

You get on irc much? Maybe we could work through this? I am usually on
freenode.

>> I'm here to help you if you need it.
>
> Thanks!

Anytime


--

Regards
Robert

Smile... it increases your face value!


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