[SOLVED] Prioritize Wireless Connections

[bill516]

OK, here is iwlist per your request.

Usage: iwlist [interface] scanning [essid NNN] [last]
[interface] frequency
[interface] channel
[interface] bitrate
[interface] rate
[interface] encryption
[interface] keys
[interface] power
[interface] txpower
[interface] retry
[interface] ap
[interface] accesspoints
[interface] peers
[interface] event
[interface] auth
[interface] wpakeys
[interface] genie
[interface] modulation

I confes I am too ignorant to know what iwlist should return, so I do not know how that looks or what it really tells me.

Meanwhile, I will get to work on your other requests.

[bill516]

And here is iwlist scan:

lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1 No scan results

not good, it appears.

[bill516]

New Information:

I decided on impulse to try Wicd again, ignoring the fact that there is no logical reason it should work. So I disconnected the cable and rebooted the machine. Wicd did not appear to work. It could not see my netowrk despite a wireless router sitting ten feet away.

Then I found "hidden network" on the Wicd menu and gave it my SSID. Wicd then seemed to behave as though it was attempting a connection, at least it thrashed around longer. But in the end it still could not connect.

Then I noticed a listing for an apparently unprotected router. I stifled my ethical sense and tried it. Sure enough, Wicd connected almost immediately and there I was with the New York Times, courtesy of somebody in the neighborhood! So I immediately disconnected.

This tells me that the Intel driver works and that Wicd works. The problem is with the hidden SSID/WPA combination?

So, next step is to let the SSID broadcast for a few minutes. I'll reboot and see what that does. My suspician: Despite multiple checks (and believe me they have been multiple!), the problem lies with my WPA password.

But one test at a time. Stand by while Doofus investigates.

[pytheas22]

Good to hear that you were able to connect to a wireless network. I didn't realize that your ESSID was hidden--it shouldn't matter, but it could.

Since you know that the driver you have now at least can get you connected, I'd disregard the stuff about compiling ipw3945. I think the way to go is to see if you can connect with the ESSID being broadcast and WPA, or with hidden ESSID but no encryption (also give WEP a shot; it tends to work better, although as far as securing your network, everyone knows that it's a joke).

[imdano]

You mentioned your wpa key is very long. How long, exactly? wpa_supplicant only supports up to 63 characters.

[bill516]

Pytheas22:

We have a WPA problem, no doubt about it. If I leave SSID set to "no broadcast" but remove WPA, I can connect almost immediately.

Imdano: My key is 64 characters long. I counted carefully. If you are right that WPA Supplicant can only deal with 63, we may have found our problem.

Friends I now have still another problem, or misunderstanding.

I have from time-to-time heard about WPA Supplicant, as in "Well, you need ..."

I know it is installed on this machine, so how do I find it in order to configure it? Is this a terminal-Vim operation? Fine if it is but I wish I knew. The command-line does not intimidate me, I just need to know what I am doing when I get there!

If it is true that WPA Supplicant will only allow 63 characters rather than 64, how am I or anyone else supposed to know that? 63 does not strike me as a logical computing number.

If that is true why did NM-Applet usually -- but not always -- connect to my wireless router with ESSID broadcasting off and my 64 character key in use?

Thank you, Imdano, for your possible solution to part of my initial puzzle.

Pytheas22, you have been a trooper.

Can one or both of you explain what is going on here?

Do either of you know of a way for me to set up a wireless client so that it will attempt to connect from a prioritized list of networks, each of which has its own WPA key? Each of them is sitting in Seahorse, in fact.

If I could manipulate the order of that list, which I do not seem to be able to do, and something like Wicd could work from it we would have a nifty little tool indeed.

If we could get to that I'd turn cartwheels, especially if I understood how it was done!

In the meantime I can only thank each of you for getting me this far.

I'll check back tomorrow.

P.S. My initial attempt to send this failed, because the wireless link had been dropped. I was able to reconnect and send.

[pytheas22]

Do either of you know of a way for me to set up a wireless client so that it will attempt to connect from a prioritized list of networks, each of which has its own WPA key? Each of them is sitting in Seahorse, in fact.

wicd would be one way to do that, of course--you tell it which network to connect to automatically and it will always choose that one first. Another way to do it would be to write a custom script, which would involve figuring out how to connect to your WPA network from the command-line.

I have from time-to-time heard about WPA Supplicant, as in "Well, you need ..."

I know it is installed on this machine, so how do I find it in order to configure it? Is this a terminal-Vim operation? Fine if it is but I wish I knew. The command-line does not intimidate me, I just need to know what I am doing when I get there!

A good guide to connecting manually is here. Basically to use wpa_supplicant, you have to write a file at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf for the network that you want to connect to; in this file, you tell wpa_supplicant the passphrase and other settings of the network. Then you run a command like:

sudo wpa_supplicant -w -D<something> -i<interface> -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

and wpa_supplicant negotiates the authentication and authorization to the network for you. After that, you get an IP address (if you use dynamic IPs) with dhclient, and you're online.

You can try writing a configuration file for your network and seeing if you can connect that way. It can be complicated to figure out all of the settings that you need to enter for your network, and you probably won't get it on the first or second tries. But fortunately wpa_supplicant gives good output when you run it to help you figure out what's going wrong (run with the argument '-vvv' for extra-verbose output).

As per imdano's suggestion, you may want to try changing your WPA password to something short and simple, like "password"--no spaces or weird characters--just to see whether you connect that way. That would help determine whether the length of your passphrase is a problem. Wikipedia does say:

The passphrase may be from 8 to 63 printable ASCII characters or 64 hexadecimal digits (256 bits)

so it may be the case that the whole problem is simply that you need to make your passphrase one character shorter.

[bill516]

OK, I am going to call this solved, since I think I know what to do. Sounds like some further work, but I ought to be able to figure it out. I'll post again if I cannot.

My apologies for not catching the problem with the length of the password. I have been using these passwords for some time and that had just never surfaced.

Take away message: Overlook nothing. The gremlins lie well hidden in our assumptions.

You've done a terrific job, my friend, and the people on this forum ought to know it.

One day I might know enough to return the favor to someone.

[TBKDan]

I've been searching a bit to find the answer to a similar issue, and thought I'd post some input: you need to run 'iwlist scan' via sudo.

sudo iwlist scan

Just in case someone else stumbles along and tries to troubleshoot