Cannot connect to Open WEP Wifi point

[DiBosco]

I've got myself a Macbook Pro which I can connect to at home with encryption (it's WPA2). I've gone to a friend's house and just cannot connect with Open WEP. If I turn off encryption it connects, so I am guessing it's something to do specifically with Open WEP. His access point does not have WPA so I can't test this for sure.

If I run drakconnect from the command line I get this:

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run-parts: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/hostname.d/avahi exited with return code 1
Interface "eth1" is already disabled.
Reloading vnstatd configuration:                                     [  OK  ]
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device eth1 ; Invalid argument.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device eth1 ; Invalid argument.
Waiting for network to be up                                         [FAILED]
[root@macbook17 robertw]

Does that help at all and if not, does anyone have any suggestions please?

The old Mandriva DHCP issue is not the problem, even with a fixed IP address it won't connect. Booting into OS X it connects fine.

Thanks.

[DiBosco]

Actually, I tried a pre shared key, wasn't sure what that was and that does actually work. Drakconnect comes up with claiming it's WPA/WPA2. So, that suggests it really is an Open WEP issue. Is this a known issue?

[doktor5000]

Actually WPA is referred to often as WPA-PSK, which means pre shared key.
That's the common usage for WEP/WPA/WPA2 encryptions, using a password, which is the pre shared key.

And actually there is no such thing as Open WEP, it's either WEP (encrypted) or open. I've seen that
in drakconnect before, just wondered about it. I think it means Open System authentication with WEP.

But in any case, you should strongly advise your friend to exchange his hardware for something that is
at least capable of WPA. WEP is broken in minutes easily!

[DiBosco]

Fair comment about the lack of security. I have changed it now for him. I suppose, long term, I am worried about when I am out and about and there is only WEP.

[DiBosco]

As if to prove a point, am on site at a supplier, open WEP., can't connect.

If the info above would help track down the problem, I'd be most grateful.

[doktor5000]

Ahhm, out of curiosity, could it be that you are using the Network Center (draknetcenter)?
There are multiple reports which date back to Mandriva times where some connections identified as WPA/WPA2
after rebooting or after some reconnects are incorrectly referred to as WEP/Open WEP.

That might be your problem currently. When you look using

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iwlist wireless-interfacename scan

what does it show for the network in question? You should see something like the following (here WPA2-only with CCMP)

IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK

[DiBosco]

Code: Select all

iwlist wireless-interfacename scan
wireless-interfa  Interface doesn't support scanning.


However, this is, as was the one at my friend's house, most definitely WEP.

[doktor5000]

iwlist wireless-interfacename scan

I thought it was obvious that the bold part is only a placeholder for the real interface name,
like wlan0 or eth1 or whatever is used. You can easily see it from iwconfig output,
the interface which does NOT display: "no wireless extensions." will be your wifi interface.

[DiBosco]

I do apologise. I'm trying to get a high voltage motor running at the same time as debugging this and I didn't read your post properly.

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iwlist eth1 scan
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1B:2F:96:29:86
                    ESSID:"BTBusinessHub-279"
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.432 GHz (Channel 5)
                    Quality:1/5  Signal level:-83 dBm  Noise level:-92 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:24:56:4F:0D:BC
                    ESSID:"BTOpenzone"
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:2/5  Signal level:-77 dBm  Noise level:-92 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s


Cell 01 is the one of interest.

As a matter of interest, my old laptop (which I have as a just in case - until the new one works properly - and which connects OK) gives this:

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iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1B:2F:96:29:86
                    Channel:5
                    Frequency:2.432 GHz (Channel 5)
                    Quality=40/70  Signal level=-70 dBm 
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"BTBusinessHub-279"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=0000011c28709181
                    Extra: Last beacon: 130ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00114254427573696E6573734875622D323739
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C183048
                    IE: Unknown: 030105
                    IE: Unknown: 0706415420010D14
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32041224606C
                    IE: Unknown: DD2D000CB4012801020005001B2F9629860090100000140000001B2F96298600000000000000000000000000000000
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:24:56:4F:0D:B9
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=46/70  Signal level=-64 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"BTBusinessHub-279"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000002a272e8186a
                    Extra: Last beacon: 4320ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00114254427573696E6573734875622D323739
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
                    IE: Unknown: 03010B
                    IE: Unknown: 0706474220010D14
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0102
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
          Cell 03 - Address: 00:24:56:4F:0D:BC
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=46/70  Signal level=-64 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    ESSID:"BTOpenzone"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000002a272e94181
                    Extra: Last beacon: 4300ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000A42544F70656E7A6F6E65
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
                    IE: Unknown: 03010B
                    IE: Unknown: 0706474220010D14
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0102
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101830003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00


[doktor5000]

Seems the wireless access point in question does not properly broadcast information about the encryption used,
or your wifi receivers can't interpret it properly. But looking at the output you should be able to connect to other network,
because it seems without encryption.

Otherwise you can only try if https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi ... nual_setup helps you somehow.

Also you didn't answer my above questions related to which program you use to connect.

[DiBosco]

I tried both right clicking on the network icon and choosing Configure Network and also left clicking to go into Network Centre. I'll give the Arch link you sent me a try tomorrow. Back at the hotel now. Thanks very much for your help and patience.

[doktor5000]

FYI: right clicking on the network icon and choosing Configure Network = drakconnect

No problems. Just reminds me i need to write a MAQeia for wireless setup AND troubleshooting.
Anyone got some spare time to spare?

[DiBosco]

OK, going through the Arch wiki and I get stuck on this:

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iwconfig eth1 essid "BTBusinessHub-279" key s:xxxxxxxxxx
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :x
    SET failed on device eth1 ; Invalid argument.

I've tried key xxxxxxxxxx as well, but keep getting the same error.

Googling this, one suggestion on linuxquestions was to install wlan_wep modules, but that doesn't seem to be in our repository.

There are billions of people out there with this error and I can't find any answer to the problem!

[DiBosco]

Further stuff in case it might help:

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dhcpcd eth1
dhcpcd[29325]: version 5.2.7 starting
dhcpcd[29325]: eth1: broadcasting for a lease
dhcpcd[29325]: timed out
dhcpcd[29325]: allowing 8 seconds for IPv4LL timeout
dhcpcd[29325]: eth1: probing for an IPv4LL address
dhcpcd[29325]: eth1: checking for 169.xxx.yyy.zz
dhcpcd[29325]: eth1: using IPv4LL address 169.xxx.yyy.zz
dhcpcd[29325]: forked to background, child pid 30196

dhcclient eth1 just seems to hang and do nothing.

[doktor5000]

wobo is currently having the same problem, trying to do the wireless setup on-foot, manually
because drakconnect crashes at his box for some reason. He seems to have found out why that is,
but needs to do some testing. Will keep you posted.

For the dhcp thing, if you're not associated with the network, you won't be able
to do a dhcp request, that's expected, that's why you get an link-local APIPA(zeroconf) ip adress assigned.

[wobo]

First thing: to do it manually you have to install wpa_supplicant which handles the encoding. I worked through the Arch wiki but there are many differences, so I did not follow that route. Honestly said I am not inclined or eager to find out how to do it totally "barefoot". I know how to setup normal "cable" by editing /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 but the problem with wifi is the encryption, so it seems I'd have to read up on wpa_supplicant some more.

I will go back to drakconnect.
Yeah, I know, I'm a pussy!

[DiBosco]

It's not WPA I have a problem with (WPA supplicant is instaled), it's WEP with encryption. WPA works fine and WEP works fine without encryption.

[DiBosco]

It seems I can associate to the netowrk assiming iwconfig essid = blah does that. This line enters and reports no error. It's the key part that says no!

[wobo]

Yes, that's what I wrote, I received the same error message. For you it is WEP with encryption, for me it is WPA.

[doktor5000]

@DiBosco: Dou you have any other operating system where you can definitely confirm that this is on WEP,
not on some rare ocassion WEP with AES encryption, for which you'd still need wpa_supplicant, i think,
and which also might not be supported directly through iwconfig ...

[DiBosco]

My other Mageia laptop and a few Wndows laptop confirm it is WEP. If I boot into OS X this does too. WPA Supplicant is definitely installed on the Macbook (the problem machine). I can connect to WPA networks without a hitch.

[DiBosco]

Bah, the simple solution is to install the open source driver from the Broadcom website rather than the proprietary one. Which begs the questions, when there is an open source official Broadcom driver why is the proprietary one the only one in the repository?!

[doktor5000]

Because it's not? You can either use the wl driver (proprietary) the b43 driver which comes with the kernel, just needs a firmware (contained in b43-openfwwf package, or can be extracted from broadcom driver via b43-fwcutter) and somebody told me recently there's also the brcm80211 driver, which also comes with the kernel. Only depends on which device you've got, not every driver supports every device to the same extent.

Check http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211