WiFi, WPA and DHCP

Just bought a BT Voyager router, it works fine on the wired portion of
the network, everything gets an IP address and can access the 'net.
On the wireless side, it works as well, that is, right up to the point
where I try to use WPA-PSK, I can connect to the network but my laptop
never gets an IP address via DHCP, if I assign a static address and use
WPA-PSK it works fine, thereby proving, to my mind, that the encryption
is set up correctly.

The router is a Voyager 2100, the laptop is a Toshiba Sat Pro using XP
Pro SP2, a Broadcom Mini PCI 802.11G card (BCM4306/BCM2050 Chipset) with
driver version 3.100.65.2, I've tried letting the Windows Zero
configuration do the work and I've also used the Broadcom utility to
manage the card with exactly the same results. I've also swapped the
card out with another one of the same model with no success.

Does DHCP work over a WPA enabled link? Should it? What have I done
wrong?


--
Clint Sharp

"Clint Sharp" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Does DHCP work over a WPA enabled link?

yes

>Should it?

yes

>What have I done wrong?

???
perhaps someone with a BT Voyager will have some suggestions.

bob

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005, Clint Sharp wrote:

> Just bought a BT Voyager router, it works fine on the wired portion
> of the network, everything gets an IP address and can access the
> 'net. On the wireless side, it works as well, that is, right up to
> the point where I try to use WPA-PSK, I can connect to the network
> but my laptop never gets an IP address via DHCP, if I assign a
> static address and use WPA-PSK it works fine, thereby proving, to my
> mind, that the encryption is set up correctly.

That's curious, I'm getting just the same symptoms on my home setup,
although with a completely different wifi box. OS is Windows/2K.
The WPA-PSK link comes up fine, but by the time it's up, the OS seems
to have decided to pick one of those silly MS auto-configure IP
addresses, and I can't seem to persuade it to re-register for DHCP at
all. If I try ipconfig/release, it says it can't release (sorry, I
don't have the exact wording here in the office), and if I try
ipconfig/refresh it just sits there glaring at me, and nothing
seems to be happening.

(It can do DHCP just fine on an open AP, on the other hand. It's
setting it to WPA-PSK that has provoked the problem.)

As you say, it can be made to work by configuring the host with a
static address, but this isn't the preferred solution, I'd much rather
work out how to get DHCP operating.

[But this is really a wifi-specific problem - I'm not sure it's really
on-topic for the broadband group...]

When I read, on the other hand, about getting wpa_supplicant working
in linux, there seem to be tips on making things happen in the right
sequence so that DHCP isn't attempted until the link is properly up.
I think I'm going to fiddle with that first, and worry about Win/2K
later.

> Does DHCP work over a WPA enabled link? Should it?

It certainly should!

"Alan J. Flavell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). gla.ac.uk...
> On Mon, 31 Oct 2005, Clint Sharp wrote:
>
>> Just bought a BT Voyager router, it works fine on the wired portion
>> of the network, everything gets an IP address and can access the
>> 'net. On the wireless side, it works as well, that is, right up to
>> the point where I try to use WPA-PSK, I can connect to the network
>> but my laptop never gets an IP address via DHCP, if I assign a
>> static address and use WPA-PSK it works fine, thereby proving, to my
>> mind, that the encryption is set up correctly.
>
> That's curious, I'm getting just the same symptoms on my home setup,
> although with a completely different wifi box. OS is Windows/2K.
> The WPA-PSK link comes up fine, but by the time it's up, the OS seems
> to have decided to pick one of those silly MS auto-configure IP
> addresses, and I can't seem to persuade it to re-register for DHCP at
> all. If I try ipconfig/release, it says it can't release (sorry, I
> don't have the exact wording here in the office), and if I try
> ipconfig/refresh it just sits there glaring at me, and nothing
> seems to be happening.
>
> (It can do DHCP just fine on an open AP, on the other hand. It's
> setting it to WPA-PSK that has provoked the problem.)
>
the settings i've got which work are WPA-PSK (not WPA) with the encryption
set to TKIP (not AES, if available, or WEP).
this is on an (elderly) Belkin AP.
are there any firmware upgrades available for the equipment? WPA was often
made available as an upgrade.
bob

On Tue, 1 Nov 2005, Bob Lawn wrote:

> "Alan J. Flavell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed). gla.ac.uk...
> >
> > That's curious, I'm getting just the same symptoms on my home
> > setup, although with a completely different wifi box. OS is
> > Windows/2K. The WPA-PSK link comes up fine, but by the time it's
> > up, the OS seems to have decided to pick one of those silly MS
> > auto-configure IP addresses, setting it to WPA-PSK that has
> > provoked the problem.)
> >
> the settings i've got which work are WPA-PSK

which is what I said I was using, yes.

> (not WPA)

"WPA" seems to be the overall concept, with lots of options, of which
WPA-PSK is just one. WPA-PSK is the one which we have both said we
are using. So let's not go wandering off on other possibilities,
unless you have a specific proposal of something else known to solve
the DHCP problem, OK?

> with the encryption set to TKIP

yup, same here.

> are there any firmware upgrades available for the equipment?

The problem isn't with the WPA-PSK, but with DHCP. But no, my box is
too new, the web site with firmware upgrades doesn't have anything for
this model yet.

> WPA was often made available as an upgrade.

That's as may be, but the wifi link is working fine. As both of us
have said: setting the host to a static IP is successful, proving that
there's nothing wrong with the wifi link as such. It's getting it to
jive with DHCP that's the issue.

Alan J. Flavell wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Nov 2005, Bob Lawn wrote:
>
>> "Alan J. Flavell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed). gla.ac.uk...
>>>
>>> That's curious, I'm getting just the same symptoms on my home
>>> setup, although with a completely different wifi box. OS is
>>> Windows/2K. The WPA-PSK link comes up fine, but by the time it's
>>> up, the OS seems to have decided to pick one of those silly MS
>>> auto-configure IP addresses, setting it to WPA-PSK that has
>>> provoked the problem.)
>>>
>> the settings i've got which work are WPA-PSK
>
> which is what I said I was using, yes.
>
>> (not WPA)
>
> "WPA" seems to be the overall concept, with lots of options, of which
> WPA-PSK is just one. WPA-PSK is the one which we have both said we
> are using. So let's not go wandering off on other possibilities,
> unless you have a specific proposal of something else known to solve
> the DHCP problem, OK?
>
>> with the encryption set to TKIP
>
> yup, same here.
>
>> are there any firmware upgrades available for the equipment?
>
> The problem isn't with the WPA-PSK, but with DHCP. But no, my box is
> too new, the web site with firmware upgrades doesn't have anything for
> this model yet.
>
>> WPA was often made available as an upgrade.
>
> That's as may be, but the wifi link is working fine. As both of us
> have said: setting the host to a static IP is successful, proving that
> there's nothing wrong with the wifi link as such. It's getting it to
> jive with DHCP that's the issue.

Sorry I can't see aproblem here, if you run DHCP then the IP's allocated
are 'sticky' anyway (the same IP gets allocated to the same machine), or
they appear to be on my sysytem (a mixture of hardwired & wifi) so if it
works with a fixed IP use it. It would be more useful for running
services over anyway..

On Tue, 1 Nov 2005, Kraftee and MISSINGkrafteeTERMINATOR wrote:

> Alan J. Flavell wrote:

> > That's as may be, but the wifi link is working fine. As both of us
> > have said: setting the host to a static IP is successful, proving that
> > there's nothing wrong with the wifi link as such. It's getting it to
> > jive with DHCP that's the issue.
>
> Sorry I can't see aproblem here, if you run DHCP then the IP's allocated
> are 'sticky' anyway (the same IP gets allocated to the same machine), or
> they appear to be on my sysytem (a mixture of hardwired & wifi) so if it
> works with a fixed IP use it.

That works, in the one place - although it also needs DNS servers to
be manually configured.

As for your "Sorry I can't see aproblem here", sorry, but I can: the
laptop, configured for DHCP - and picking up DNS server details via
DHCP, works everywhere else that I need to use it. So if it can only
work at home with this manual configuration, I would have to select a
special network configuration for home than for anywhere else, which
would be a drag.

> It would be more useful for running services over anyway..

Hmmm? I'm not running any services.

Further web searching has produced this frightening hit:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13640889
I might work my way down some of those suggestions.

cheers

--

Since XP XP2, you have the option: of having your Windows dangerously
open, or uselessly shut. -- Richard Bos in the Monastery

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:44:38 +0000, Clint Sharp
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Just bought a BT Voyager router, it works fine on the wired portion of
>the network, everything gets an IP address and can access the 'net.
>On the wireless side, it works as well, that is, right up to the point
>where I try to use WPA-PSK, I can connect to the network but my laptop
>never gets an IP address via DHCP, if I assign a static address and use
>WPA-PSK it works fine, thereby proving, to my mind, that the encryption
>is set up correctly.
>
>The router is a Voyager 2100, the laptop is a Toshiba Sat Pro using XP
>Pro SP2, a Broadcom Mini PCI 802.11G card (BCM4306/BCM2050 Chipset) with
>driver version 3.100.65.2, I've tried letting the Windows Zero
>configuration do the work and I've also used the Broadcom utility to
>manage the card with exactly the same results. I've also swapped the
>card out with another one of the same model with no success.
>
>Does DHCP work over a WPA enabled link? Should it? What have I done
>wrong?

Not an identical setup, but we have Toshiba L10 laptops using XP Pro
SP2, WPA-PSK and DHCP connecting to a D-Link DWL-2000AP+ (MAC
filtered). All fired up and ran first time. Also works first time with
a Dell D600 (after upgrading the drivers!).

This could suggest a Voyager problem, as stated elsewhere.

However, the AP is not used for providing the DHCP service, as there
is a server on the main (wired) network to do this.

Alan J. Flavell wrote:
<snip>
> As for your "Sorry I can't see aproblem here", sorry, but I can: the
> laptop, configured for DHCP - and picking up DNS server details via
> DHCP, works everywhere else that I need to use it. So if it can only
> work at home with this manual configuration, I would have to select a
> special network configuration for home than for anywhere else, which
> would be a drag.
>
<snip>

Can you not set it up as an alternate configuration in the
properties of your wireless card? Instead of automatic private
addressing you can put all the static details in which will be
used when no DHCP server is available.

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>, PeeGee
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Not an identical setup, but we have Toshiba L10 laptops using XP Pro
>SP2, WPA-PSK and DHCP connecting to a D-Link DWL-2000AP+ (MAC
>filtered). All fired up and ran first time. Also works first time with
>a Dell D600 (after upgrading the drivers!).
Which Wireless card does it have and which version drivers?
>
>This could suggest a Voyager problem, as stated elsewhere.
>
Nope, borrowed a brand new Dell Inspiron today, it connected and picked
up an IP address just fine using WPA so I think the Voyager is OK. I'm
about to flatten the laptop (not something I'd normally do but....) as
it's a new build with nothing but XP Pro on it, I'll use the drivers off
the Dell machine (Broadcom family WiFi) and report back.
>However, the AP is not used for providing the DHCP service, as there
>is a server on the main (wired) network to do this.
Well, I thought about setting up a DHCP server somewhere on the network,
it might actually happen when I finish all the other jobs I have to do.
--
Clint Sharp