MA401 New Problem (aleady searched forum)

After searching this forum and trying different combinations of configurations, I settled on sing linux-wlan-ng to set up my Netgear MA401 wireless card. I am unable to get it to work however, iwconfig does list wlan0 as a wireless device.

That said, I am unable to get on the internet.
1. wlan0 device does not appear to be getting an IP address from the WAP.

2. I need to implement a 64 bit encryption key somwhere in this mess, though every where I have found to enter it has not seemed to work since the iwconfig still comes back saying that key is off.

please help.

below are what i believe to be relevant files.

thanks!!!

iwconfig:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11-b ESSID:"2WIRE309" Nickname:"2WIRE309"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:60:00:B0:BD:11
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power:2346 dBm
Retry min limit:8 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:78/92 Signal level:-41 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


network.opts looks like:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,*,*,*)
INFO="2WIRE309"
# Transceiver selection, for some cards -- see 'man ifport'
IF_PORT=""
# Use BOOTP (via /sbin/bootpc, or /sbin/pump)? [y/n]
BOOTP="n"
# Use DHCP (via /sbin/dhcpcd, /sbin/dhclient, or /sbin/pump)? [y/n]
DHCP="y"
# If you need to explicitly specify a hostname for DHCP requests
DHCP_HOSTNAME=""
# Host's IP address, netmask, network address, broadcast address
IPADDR=""
NETMASK=""
NETWORK=""
BROADCAST=""
# Gateway address for static routing
GATEWAY=""
# Things to add to /etc/resolv.conf for this interface
DOMAIN=""
SEARCH=""
DNS_1=""
DNS_2=""
DNS_3=""
# NFS mounts, should be listed in /etc/fstab
MOUNTS=""
# If you need to override the interface's MTU...
MTU=""
# For IPX interfaces, the frame type and network number
IPX_FRAME=""
IPX_NETNUM=""
# Extra stuff to do after setting up the interface
start_fn () { return; }
# Extra stuff to do before shutting down the interface
stop_fn () { return; }
# Card eject policy options
NO_CHECK=n
NO_FUSER=n
;;
esac


wlancfg-essid looks like:

=======USER MIB SETTINGS=============================
# You can add the assignments for various MIB items
# of your choosing to this variable, separated by
# whitespace. The wlan-ng script will then set each one.
# Just uncomment the variable and set the assignments
# the way you want them.

#USER_MIBS="p2CnfRoamingMode=1 p2CnfShortPreamble=mixed"

#=======WEP===========================================
# [Dis/En]able WEP. Settings only matter if PrivacyInvoked is true
lnxreq_hostWEPEncrypt=false # true|false
lnxreq_hostWEPDecrypt=false # true|false
dot11PrivacyInvoked=false # true|false
dot11WEPDefaultKeyID=0 # 0|1|2|3
dot11ExcludeUnencrypted=true # true|false, in AP this means WEP is required.

# If PRIV_GENSTR is not empty, use PRIV_GENTSTR to generate
# keys (just a convenience)
PRIV_GENERATOR=/sbin/keygen # nwepgen, Neesus compatible
PRIV_KEY128=false # keylength to generate
PRIV_GENSTR=""

# or set them explicitly. Set genstr or keys, not both.
dot11WEPDefaultKey0=03:02:03:02:01:01:00:00:00:02
dot11WEPDefaultKey1= # xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
dot11WEPDefaultKey2= # e.g. 01:20:03:40:05 or
dot11WEPDefaultKey3= # 01:02:03:04:05:06:07:08:09:0a:0b:0c:0d
#=======SELECT STATION MODE===================
IS_ADHOC=n # y|n, y - adhoc, n - infrastructure

#======= INFRASTRUCTURE STATION ===================
# What kind of authentication?
AuthType="opensystem" # opensystem | sharedkey (requires WEP)

#======= ADHOC STATION ============================
BCNINT=100 # Beacon interval (in Kus)
CHANNEL=6 # DS channel for BSS (1-14, depends
# on regulatory domain)
BASICRATES="2 4" # Rates for mgmt&ctl frames (in 500Kb/s)
OPRATES="2 4 11 22" # Supported rates in BSS (in 500Kb/s)


wlan.conf looks like:
#======= INFRASTRUCTURE STATION ===================
# What kind of authentication?
AuthType="opensystem" # opensystem | sharedkey (requires WEP)

#======= ADHOC STATION ============================
BCNINT=100 # Beacon interval (in Kus)
CHANNEL=6 # DS channel for BSS (1-14, depends
# on regulatory domain)
BASICRATES="2 4" # Rates for mgmt&ctl frames (in 500Kb/s)
OPRATES="2 4 11 22" # Supported rates in BSS (in 500Kb/s)


wireless.opts looks like:

case "$ADDRESS" in

# NOTE : Remove the following four lines to activate the samples below ...

# Here is an example of scheme matching
# Activate with "cardctl scheme essidany"

# Pick up any Access Point, should work on most 802.11 cards
essidany,*,*,*)
INFO="BOMILE"
ESSID="2WIRE309"
MODE="Integrated"
CHANNEL="6"
RATE="auto"
KEY="00:02:39:02:00:00:00:00:02"
;;


cardctl ident:
Socket 0:
product info: "NETGEAR MA401RA Wireless PC", "Card", "ISL37300P", "Eval-RevA"
manfid: 0x000b, 0x7300
function: 6 (network)

Weazy,
What kernel driver are you using? The Netgear MA401RA uses the orinoco_cs driver. Also, what distro are you using? I have my card running on SuSE 8.2. Do a search on my login-zvandiver and also check my web page at http://pages.sbcglobal.net/zvan (look toward the bottom). The SuSE database article I have linked on my page may also help.
Zane

thanks for the reply. i am using the prism2_cs driver on 2.4.x on a gentoo install. i will chec the database article you posted. wlan-ng chose to use the prism2 drivers. do I just modprobe the orinoco drivers?

during boot, the system stalls when it tries to assign an IP address, I assume that is because I do not have a 64 bit key enabled which is required to get on my network .... where would I add that?

whenever I try to use iwconfig to set a parameter (in this case essid) I get:

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Function not implemented.

i actually think one of the big issues at this point is getting the system to use the 64 bit wep key since none of my windows computers could get on the network until that was set. does anyone have any insight on this?

weazy,

The Netgear card uses the orinoco_cs driver. Check the troubleshooting section of the SuSE wireless LANs article about commenting out references to the prism drivers and how to add the orinoco_cs driver.
I do not have my card set up as pcmcia, but simply as wireless. It is assigned to eth1. In SuSE the file /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1 contains the EESID, STARTMODE, and WEP values. That is where I specified those variables. I set the STARTMODE to hotplug and not onboot. My system initializes the ethernet connections before starting the pcmcia services, so eth1 can't get an IP until the card is recognized. After the system is booted up, I issue as root "ifconfig eth1 up' then 'dhcpcd eth1' and the card is up and runnning.

where did you set your WEP key?

There is a value in the ifcfg-eth1 file for WIRELESS_KEY where you set the WEP. I am not using it, but I have my router restricted to only recognize the MAC addresses of my computers.
Zane