Wireless Passphrase

[dhoeschen]

I just converted my Acer Aspire One netbook over from Windows to KDE Fedora. So far everything has been working well but I can't figure out how to connect to an encrypted wireless network that uses a passphrase.

The passphrase I have was for a Windows machine and I have been able to use my wireless on open networks. I tried converting the passphrase to hex and other X-bit hex with no luck.

Could it be WEP or does Network Manager auto-detect the encryption type?

How do I convert the passphrase into the WPA-Personal "password"???

P.S. I have used Debian and Gnome in the past so Fedora and KDE are both new to me...

[stoat]

Hello dhoeschen,

I don't know the answers. Sorry. But I thought I would just mention what works with NetworkManager for me. For WPA, I use in NetworkManager the same ASCII passphrase that I use in Windows and that I entered in my router's setup utility. Behind the scenes, NetworkManager will use that ASCII passphrase and the SSID to generate a long hexadecimal pre-shared key. That long hex key supposedly also can be directly entered in the dialog box when NetworkManager asks for a password (or whatever), but I never needed to try it. For WEP which I occasionally use for special reasons, I enter one of the hexadecimal keys that my router generates from that same ASCII passphrase. Anyway, it all works. It all also works outside of NetworkManager when I occasionally use terminal commands to connect. No answers. Just FYI. No harm done to read this.

[dhoeschen]

Yes, it should work that way...and that is what I assumed. Could the key converter not be working?

I've been typing the passphrase directly into the box when asked and when editing the connection. I've tried both the ASCII and hex versions but it's not working. Coming from Debian I thought their might be a "trick" hiding somewhere...???

I've found 3 different online key converters - each gave me different answers!

[stoat]

No, there is no trick. I use that same passphrase with NetworkManager in Debian and Ubuntu. Something else is wrong. What is happening when you enter the passphrase? Is it asking for it again and again? Try deleting all existing connections in the NetworkManager panel applet and try again. If that didn't help, try connecting by wire long enough to yum update the system.

[Iron_Mike]

Another thing you might look at, does your passphrase contain any of the higher or extended ascii characters? Sometimes Fedora wil choke on certain characters.

[Gödel]

can you connect directly to the route via cable and check whcih type of encryption is enabled. It should be straightforward in NetworkManager to connect to WEP or WPA. Are you using broadcom wifi?

lspci -k | awk '/Ether|Net/,/Kern/'

will tell you your network devices and drivers in use. I have had a prolem with the broadcom-wl driver and wpa passphrases in F11.

[dhoeschen]

I have it working now!

It's a strange thing, the Windows passphrase is entered with spaces, I tried again this morning, leaving the spaces out and it works! Either that and/or the yum update from last night???

It's all good!!!