Selfish Wireless Card Problem

Hello All,

I wanted to get some input regarding a wireless problem I'm having. I
haven't found any existing posts that have helped out, so I am posting
a new topic in an effort to help out.

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop running FC3 running kernel,
2.6.9-1.667,
dhclient 3.0.1
Netgear wg511V1 wireless card with the prism54 driver
iwconfig version 27

The problem I have is that I am able to connect to my home Linksys G
router, but when I travel I am unable to connect to any other open
wireless connection. I remove my settings from ifcfg-eth1 and create a
generic configuration, then I run 'ifup eth1' and I just get loads of
DHCPDISCOVERS in the messages log file:

Jul 1 06:10:08 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
Jul 1 06:10:21 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Jul 1 06:10:29 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Jul 1 06:10:37 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
Jul 1 06:10:46 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 1
Jul 1 06:10:47 warehouse dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.


I have tried releasing the dhclient cache with dhclient -r with no
results, also I have shutdown iptables while running dhclient, but that
hasn't helped either.

Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris.

(E-Mail Removed) writes:

>Hello All,

>I wanted to get some input regarding a wireless problem I'm having. I
>haven't found any existing posts that have helped out, so I am posting
>a new topic in an effort to help out.

>I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop running FC3 running kernel,
>2.6.9-1.667,
>dhclient 3.0.1
>Netgear wg511V1 wireless card with the prism54 driver
>iwconfig version 27

>The problem I have is that I am able to connect to my home Linksys G
>router, but when I travel I am unable to connect to any other open
>wireless connection. I remove my settings from ifcfg-eth1 and create a
>generic configuration, then I run 'ifup eth1' and I just get loads of
>DHCPDISCOVERS in the messages log file:

This may mean that you have not connected at all to the wireless access
point. Use iwconfig eth1 to tell you if you are connected at all-- ie if
you are connected to an access point.

Please post your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 file here. Do
you for example have and ESSID or a wireless key statement in there?



>Jul 1 06:10:08 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
>255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
>Jul 1 06:10:21 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
>255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
>Jul 1 06:10:29 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
>255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
>Jul 1 06:10:37 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
>255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
>Jul 1 06:10:46 warehouse dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to
>255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 1
>Jul 1 06:10:47 warehouse dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.


>I have tried releasing the dhclient cache with dhclient -r with no
>results, also I have shutdown iptables while running dhclient, but that
>hasn't helped either.

>Any input would be appreciated!
>Thanks,
>Chris.

Here is my ifcfg-eth1 config file I use for connecting to sites other
than my home network:
ifcfg-eth1:
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=no
TYPE=wireless
MODE=Master
ESSID=

I run 'iwlist eth1 scan' to search for open connections, then I usually
add one of those ESSIDs to my config and run 'ifup eth1'. But I am
never able to get a DHCP offer it seems other than on my own home
network.

Regarding the iwconfig eth1. I always use that to verify that my
changes to the ESSID and APs. I have noticed though that the Access
Point doesn't always change and sometimes just stays locked onto some
MAC address that it picks from the scan list, but either way, for the
most part, I am able to set the ESSIDs for the wireless APs I want to
connect to, and even the channels at times if they are not using
channel 6, but still no go...

(E-Mail Removed) writes:

>Here is my ifcfg-eth1 config file I use for connecting to sites other
>than my home network:
>ifcfg-eth1:
>DEVICE=eth1
>BOOTPROTO=dhcp
>ONBOOT=no
>TYPE=wireless
>MODE=Master
>ESSID=

Try removing these last three.

On mine I have
HWADDR=00:0e:35:33:ac:2f
METRIC=10
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=yes
WIRELESS_MODE=Auto
WIRELESS_ESSID=any

Now I am running mandrake so do not know if the Fedora ifup environment
variables are the same.


>I run 'iwlist eth1 scan' to search for open connections, then I usually
>add one of those ESSIDs to my config and run 'ifup eth1'. But I am
>never able to get a DHCP offer it seems other than on my own home
>network.

>Regarding the iwconfig eth1. I always use that to verify that my
>changes to the ESSID and APs. I have noticed though that the Access
>Point doesn't always change and sometimes just stays locked onto some
>MAC address that it picks from the scan list, but either way, for the
>most part, I am able to set the ESSIDs for the wireless APs I want to
>connect to, and even the channels at times if they are not using
>channel 6, but still no go...

Well, I gave it one try so far with limited results. I was able to grab
an IP from an open wireless other than my home network, but it quickly
faded away. I think the signal was just too low.

where can I find all of the options for the ifcfg files? When I tried
subsequently, having the ESSID = any seems to always lock onto my home
network since the signal is the strongest. I should try again with the
wireless turned off on my router, but either way, I want to specify to
connect to unencrypted sites because this will be a problem anywhere is
a locked down site has a higher signal strength than the open ones.

Thanks.

(E-Mail Removed) writes:

>Well, I gave it one try so far with limited results. I was able to grab
>an IP from an open wireless other than my home network, but it quickly
>faded away. I think the signal was just too low.

>where can I find all of the options for the ifcfg files? When I tried
>subsequently, having the ESSID = any seems to always lock onto my home
>network since the signal is the strongest. I should try again with the
>wireless turned off on my router, but either way, I want to specify to
>connect to unencrypted sites because this will be a problem anywhere is
>a locked down site has a higher signal strength than the open ones.

I did not realise that you were trying to connect to other sites while at
home. Yes, if you want to connect to a specific site, you will need teh
ESSID set. But also remember that just because you have an iwlist response
does not mean that you can connect. You need an adequate signal strength.
So go out, and get close to a strong source and try there. You may simply
be battling weak signals.


>Thanks.

I usually don't connect to other sites while at home, but I was just
trying to test out your configuration to see if it helped with my
situation. There are plenty of open connections around here to test
with though, so I gave it a shot from inside.

Either way, your settings showed a glimmer of hope. At least I didn't
get a timeout and actually obtained an IP address, so I'll try again
while not at home.
Thanks for your input. This has been a nagging problem for a while now,
so I hope to have more success when I travel so I can actually use my
laptop outside of my house!
Thanks.
Chris.

(E-Mail Removed) writes:

>I usually don't connect to other sites while at home, but I was just
>trying to test out your configuration to see if it helped with my
>situation. There are plenty of open connections around here to test
>with though, so I gave it a shot from inside.

>Either way, your settings showed a glimmer of hope. At least I didn't
>get a timeout and actually obtained an IP address, so I'll try again
>while not at home.
>Thanks for your input. This has been a nagging problem for a while now,
>so I hope to have more success when I travel so I can actually use my
>laptop outside of my house!

It certainly is possible since I do it all the time.
Note that I use dhclient as my dhcp client if that makes any difference.