ath0 is activated and I can ping host BUT

[hnt]

still no internet access. Wireless is my only mode on linux. So, I'm posting from Windows.

Details: Madwifi on FC5 was finally working as ath0 until I moved and switched ISPs. DHCP isn't working. dhclient does not dhdiscover any addresses.

Had to get IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address from Windows XP Pro side of my Opteron to set static IP addressing, using ipconfig /all.

So, now I can iwlist scan or wlanconfig ath0 list scan for hosts and they come up with signal strengths but I still can't connect except just ping my own ESSID.

Odd item: iwlist key shows a 16 digit WEP key for my host, which seems to imply an 80/104 digit key. Yet, my ISP sent a 10 digit ASCII key with the router box, which my Windows XP side found completely acceptable. But setting iwconfig ath0 key s:10ascii digits doesn't do the trick on the linux side.

Could the seeming WEP key mismatch be a problem or do you folks see any other possibilities?

[xula_1983]

you can install madwifi-0.9.3
goodlucky!

[Iron_Mike]

I can't understand why an ISP would send you an WEP key, this 10 digit code sounds like the "mac address" for your cable/dsl modem. Is your wireless router setup for static or dhcp addressing?? Does your windows side use static or dhcp for network configuration. Go to System, ->Administration ->Network and verify your card is listed and configured.

[hnt]

from Hnt:

Well, Iron Mike, to respond, my wife bought the Qwest (the ISP) 2Wire DSL modem/wireless router before I ever got here. She plugged the ethernet cable in her Mac, popped the install CD, and went "live". Meanwhile, I'm 50 ft. downstairs with an Opteron linux/XP Pro and an old Win98SE athlon. Both Win systems DHCPd to the 2wire router and went "live" almost immediately.

However, I can only activate my D-Link WDA1320 Atheros card in FC5 Linux (in the System/Admin/Network/Network Configuration/ tool when I use static addresses (that I obtained via the "ipconfig /all" command on the Opteron's XP Pro side. If I switch to DHCP in network config, then ath0 goes inactive OR I get: Determining IP info for ath0 ...FAILED

either in Network Config tool or on reboot. This happens whether or not I've specified the proper static addresses in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-ath0. "dhclient ath0" fails to dhdiscover the IP address.

Also, whether I use the Qwest/2Wire supplied 10 digit ASCII WEP key or 16 digit ASCII key displayed via "iwlist key" doesn't seem to matter. Yet, I can easily ping 2wire632.

Now, I suspect that whatever's confounding dhcp is the real culprit.

Any ideas?

By the way, on the XP Pro side, ipconfig /all yields hostname: myname-eb811fde, instead of 2wire632. I don't know why the diff.

[Iron_Mike]

Check the configuration of the router, open the web browser and type 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in the address pane, not sure what qwest uses on their modems/wireless.

[hnt]

In the end it was an idiot's error, as usual. Phoned Qwest tech support (not trained for linux). So went to Qwest online, www.hsihelp.com, downloaded a PDF, which said their WEP key is 64 bit (who the heck still uses 64 bit WEP?) hex, not decimal (there were no letters in their WEP).

So, in System/admin/network/network config/Hardware-Edit/Wireless Settings/ just prepend a "0x" in front of the wep address. In the General tab, used DHCP + auto obtain DNS info, which on "activate" immediately found all addresses, including Hostname, Primary DNS and DSN search path - so immediate web access.

RED HERRINGS: "iwlist ath0 key" seems to yield encryption keys for the internal wireless network card, not the external modem/router. Also, "ifconfig ath0" yields an inet6 addr: in IPV6 format - tricky to decipher and entirely unneeded if DHCP works for you.

Even as a noob, I know the following issue was posted in other threads, but just for some value
instead of stupidity added, here's a fix for people still having problems with older versions of
MadWIFI confusing your wireless card for an ethernet, or even adding a third non-existent device.
After failing miserably with ndiswrapper, linuxant, and BCM43xx, it still took me many days to get the following issue worked out the first time with MaxWIFI.

Initially, after carefully installing MadWIFI in FC5, PING still did not work. The system/network/network configuration/devices tab did not show the wifi device, ath0. The System/network/network configuration tool/hardware tab showed wifi0 as an ethernet device, not a wireless device. Maybe 0.9.3 works, but there's a “bug” in at least madwifi 0.9.1 and 0.9.2.1-1, that fails to deploy wireless devices (ath0), at least for my type of WIFI card (D-link wda1320, based on an atheros chipset).

However, from http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=2338466#post2338466,
I found the following fix, which I then had to amend slightly.

1. In /etc/modprobe.conf, add

alias wifi0 ath_pci
alias ath0 ath_pci (However, this line crashed my FC5 X11 GUI or added a non-existent hardware
device. So, I put # in front of it. Until I removed this line, I couldn’t activate
the network in the system/network/ network configuration tool box. The error
message showed some lines in a file in /sbin/. Once I removed this line, the
network configuration activated itself.

By the way, to reboot my crashed system (dual FC5/Win XP Pro):
At the GRUB boot page, I move to Fedora and hit the “e” key for edit. Move
cursor to the kernel line and hit “e” again to get to the end of that line.
Add one space and insert a 1. Hit “b” to get back to the boot page and
hit ENTER to continue the boot process. This stops the X GUI from
booting and puts you in single user mode, from whence you can use the
normal terminal commands to delete or nullify the highly offensive changes
you made to your system, hopefully)
options ath_pci autocreate=sta

2. Meanwhile, in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-ath0

IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=yes
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=ath0
HWADDR=00:0f:b5:ee:e3:43 (replace with your own hardware mac)
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
ESSID=ap54g (replace with your access point id)
CHANNEL=1 (leave at 1 and it should pick up the correct channel for the above ap)
(I used CHANNEL=6, or if you can, "iwlist scan" will provide the correct channel)
MODE=Managed (Once Tried "ad hoc", which yielded a Set Mode error).
RATE=Auto

Obviously don't place the () comments in the files!

3. /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/keys-ath0

KEY=your encryption key (in hexadecimal, or put it in the Network Configuration Tool, as above)

Now you should be able to use either the gui or cli to manage the ath0 interface as fedora's scripts will parse these configuration files and call iwconfig for you.
Also, it seems that one should be sure to leave blank both IPADDR= and DOMAIN= .

Apparently, once ifcfg-ath0 or keys-ath0 or any other files are created or edited in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices, the system will automatically add or edit these files in the /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/ and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directories, as well.