HOWTO: WPA2 with NETGEAR WPN111

[itsjareds]

This tutorial was written and tested for Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10. If you are using Ubuntu 9.04, please see this post.

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The NETGEAR WPN111 doesn't connect easily with Ubuntu. If you're reading this post, then you're probably having trouble as well.
This tutorial will let you connect to the internet with a WPN111 adapter using WPA2 encryption.


I was able to connect on two of my computers, both are running 32bit Ubuntu (sorry 64bit users, NETGEAR hasn't released a 64bit driver).

Step-by-step:

1. Install ndiswrapper-common, ndiswrapper-utils, ndisgtk, and wicd. I provided attachments to the versions that I used -- these have worked. Other versions may work but haven't been tested.

Download these packages here - ubuntu_packages.tar.gz

I provided only i386 versions of everything because NETGEAR hasn't released a x64 bit version of their driver. Only 32 bit Ubuntu will work.

Before installing wicd, you must uninstall networkmanager. Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. Search for "networkmanager".

Mark for complete removal. This will uninstall another package (I can't remember the name). Click OK. After this, you can install Wicd fine.


2. Install your driver in ndisgtk. Go to System -> Administration -> Windows Wireless Drivers. Click "Install Driver" and locate your .inf file in your Windows partition, if you are dual-booting. For me, it was located in /host/Program Files/NETGEAR/WPN111/Driver. If there are two .inf files, install both of them. Otherwise, just install the single one.

If you are not dual-booting, find another computer with internet to download the software from the NETGEAR site, if you do not have the software already. Alternatively, you can download my attachment of the same v2.0 driver I used - negear_v2.tar.gz

Select the 2.0 version of the driver if possible, this will allow you to re-plug your adapter if it ever gets unplugged on accident. The 1.1 version will not allow you to do this. The 2.0 version is also better because NETGEAR condensed their driver to one .inf file, rather than two. This just speeds up the process.


3. With any luck, you should see your adapter light blinking once you installed the driver. We're almost connected. Open Wicd (Applications -> Internet -> Wicd) and click "Preferences". Change "Wireless interface" to "wlan0". You can also optionally set your DNS servers -- mine are for OpenDNS. The server numbers are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.

Click OK, then click "Refresh". Your adapter should scan and display the list of networks nearby. Open your network tree, then open the "Advanced settings" tree. Look down to "Use Encryption". Check it, change the password type to WPA 1/2, and type in your ASCII password in the field. Once you have this done, you can click connect!

Here is what it says in my status when connecting (my ESSID is Charlotte Martin):

Charlotte Martin: Obtaining IP Address

If you see this, then you will connect. When you are officially connected, it will say "Connected to Charlotte Martin". Open up Firefox and go to Google, it will come up!


All attachments:

ubuntu_packages.tar.gz contains ndisgtk, ndiswrapper, and wicd

negear_v2.tar.gz contains the WPN111 driver files (Version 2.0)