New to wifi and it's not working [solved]

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-25 02:08

I'm using my first wifi card, a PCMCIA connected D-Link DWA642 (802.11n, 300 Mb/s capable, running in my Gateway Solo 2500). As far as I can tell, the hardware is fine; the system can detect an ad hoc network I'm attempting to use, and the other computer involved (which has a wired internet connection being shared, at present, from Windows 7) can detect my own if I create one, but every time I try to connect to"robert" the connection fails to obtain an IP address. He can connect to his computer from his smartphone, so we believe his setup is correct.

Given seeming good hardware on both ends, I presume there's a setting amiss somewhere, but since I have no experience with wifi and the person whose computer I'm attempting to connect to has none with Linux, we're a little lost. Where should I lookin wicd, and for what settings?

Machine specs:

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System:    Host: (none) Kernel: 3.7.10-antix.5-486-smp i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.1) 
           Desktop: Fluxbox 1.3.5 Distro: antiX-13.2_386-full Luddite 4 November 2013
Machine:   System: Gateway product: Solo2500 version: Rev 1
           Mobo: Gateway model: Solo2500 version: Rev 1.0 Bios: Gateway version: 10.09 date: 04/23/99
CPU:       Single core Celeron (Mendocino) (-UP-) cache: 128 KB flags: (pae) bmips: 601.38 clocked at 300.691 MHz 
Graphics:  Card: Neomagic NM2160 [MagicGraph 128XD] bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.14.3 drivers: neomagic (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A Direct Rendering: N/A
Network:   Card: Linksys 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet driver: tulip ver: 1.1.15-NAPI port: 1800 bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 16.0GB (20.5% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Name n/a size: 16.0GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 9.7G used: 3.1G (34%) fs: ext2 ID: swap-1 size: 1.07GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 73 Uptime: 3:15 Memory: 157.9/278.3MB Runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.2.45) inxi: 1.9.16

rokytnji · posted: 2013-11-25 02:14

Go to youtube and see if D.O. videos are any help first.

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Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-25 02:18

Oh, sorry, here's the spec list with the wifi card in the slot (can't have both at once, they have extra thickness end pieces).

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System:    Host: (none) Kernel: 3.7.10-antix.5-486-smp i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.1) 
           Desktop: Fluxbox 1.3.5 Distro: antiX-13.2_386-full Luddite 4 November 2013
Machine:   System: Gateway product: Solo2500 version: Rev 1
           Mobo: Gateway model: Solo2500 version: Rev 1.0 Bios: Gateway version: 10.09 date: 04/23/99
CPU:       Single core Celeron (Mendocino) (-UP-) cache: 128 KB flags: (pae) bmips: 601.38 clocked at 300.691 MHz 
Graphics:  Card: Neomagic NM2160 [MagicGraph 128XD] bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.14.3 drivers: neomagic (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A Direct Rendering: N/A
Network:   Card: Qualcomm Atheros AR5416 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5008 802.11(a)bgn] driver: ath9k bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 16.0GB (20.5% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Name n/a size: 16.0GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 9.7G used: 3.1G (34%) fs: ext2 ID: swap-1 size: 1.07GB used: 0.01GB (1%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 77 Uptime: 3:57 Memory: 164.2/278.3MB Runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.2.45) inxi: 1.9.16

rokytnji · posted: 2013-11-25 02:26

Ifconfig -a will show wireless which is probably wlan0 and needs to be typed tnto the blank box in wicd wireless preferences and then hit the refresh button. Then connect. D.O. has a video on that in youtube.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-25 02:28

I got the wlan0 (found that command in another thread on wireless in 13.2), else I wouldn't be able to detect the ad hoc network I'm trying to use. I'll head off to YouTube and see what D.O.'s videos can tell me...

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-25 02:48

Okay, just looked at D.O. video on setting up wireless -- aside from Global DNS (which wouldn't help anyway until I've been able to get an IP address), I've got what he had, though at present the only network I'm detecting is the ad hoc I'm trying to use -- apparently I have few neighbors with strong enough routers to pick up, or my wireless card isn't being boosted to 802.11n spec for range; I don't get a couple networks the Windows system does get (especially if the wireless power is boosted manually to 100%). It looks to me as if I've got a DHCP failure, either because the serving Windows machine isn't providing DHCP or because it isn't being passed through from my wired router's internal DHCP service (which has been working perfectly for, counting the router before this one, almost ten years). I'd presume I can't use the wired router's address for DHCP since it'll get transleted by the connection sharing in the machine serving the ad hoc -- right?

SamK · posted: 2013-11-25 09:44

With the given description of your goals, you might have more success using fixed IP address(es) for your wireless network adaptor(s) rather than using dynamically allocated ones.

If you go in this direction it will also be worthwhile reserving a range of IP addresses in the DHCP server of your wired router. The reservation will prevent those addressess being issued via the DHCP server. Each fixed address you manually allocate should correspond to an address within this reserved range. In this way the risk of conflicting IP addresses is reduced.

You mention trying to connect to"robert". If this is the name of the remote system, connecting in this way is likely to fail unless your LAN includes some means of resolving names to addresses and vica versa (DNS). The chances of success are increased (during the setup phase) by explicitly using the IP address rather than a name. This in turn is helped by using fixed (and therefore known) addresses.

The Debian wiki has information that might be helpful.

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Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-26 02:56

My wired router is already set up to provide DHCP for up to 100 addresses. It looks like I need to know the MAC address of the adapter to reserve an address, which I can get from the laptop's wicd, I think. There shouldn't be a conflict, however, with six computers getting addresses from a range of 100, and I can see wicd reporting removing and IP address sometimes when I initiate a connection attempt (the first few steps go by pretty fast even on the 300 MHz laptop).

The"robert" name is that of the ad hoc network I'm trying to use; when I try to connect to it it's already running with one computer sharing its wired connection and a smart phone (this is the setup the ad hoc host always uses to connect his phone). That is, I'm just selecting a network that detects in wicd, which has the name"robert" assigned by the creator of the ad hoc network. I shouldn't need to use an IP address to connect to an existing wireless network, else I'd never be able to use (for instance) a Starbuck's hotspot.

I don't have a"goal" of using this only on an ad hoc (though I've considered doing that more permanently for in-home use, since a USB wifi for one of the desktop machines costs no more than the Cat 5e cable I'd need to connect the laptop, in its usual location, to the wired router). I have a"goal" of being able to connect to whatever network I find when I'm using the laptop as a portable machine -- restaurants, hotels, libraries, etc. offer wifi these days, and often give no other means of connecting to the internet (short of dial-up, which is a little iffy on hotel phone systems in my experience besides being painfully slow for modern web surfing). In other words, I want wireless to"just work".

Now, I just looked at the wiki entries you linked -- if that's the process required to connect (vs. using wicd), I'll never get any use out of this card (which, BTW, is the"completely free" Atheros chipset -- lucky accident, I had no idea hardware manufacturers were closing up wifi). I can accept some command line tweaking and manual file editing to get to the point where I can connect routinely, but I can't be editing files as su when I'm on battery (maximum life about three hours on a fresh charge), sitting in a cafe with a cup of coffee and a pastry, and want to check my e-mail or read some headlines. My"goal" is to be able to use 802.11n range and data rate, on an antique machine, without having to hack my own system every time I connect.

rokytnji · posted: 2013-11-26 03:54

It looks like I need to know the MAC address of the adapter to reserve an address

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ip addr show

and

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ip link show

or

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inxi -n

or

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inxi -F

should spit out enough info for you to work with I think. Your wireless requirements seem more complicated than mine on my encrypted wireless n router at home and any free hotspots I find while traveling with wicd.
Even with encrypted wpa hookups at hotels and motels and dairy queen. Plus Truck stops and Texas rest areas with wifi. I have no problems connecting with AntiX, Puppy Linux, Solydx, Mint 14, etc................
on any of those situations. So I am kinda confused about your wireless setup requirements.

Good Luck though.

Edit: I guess maybe my home network may get complicated in the future though as my wife gets her new
iPhone 5 while I get her older Motorla Atrix 2 and we switch over to 4G wireless with a
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Verizon Jetpack for the home wireless router that can travel and pick up satellite wireless anywhere.
The wife makes enough money to pay the monthly fee cuz her job gets her a break/cut on the rates
for that. Generally means I can surf while driving the motorcycle or car anywhere on the planet.

I aint sure how that is going to work out yet but she has one of these things already and runs her Windows
7 laptop off of her jetpack given to her at work. If she knew the password. I might be able to hack into that
connection also if I knew the pass phrase for it.

2nd edit: how the jetpack shows up in wicd (this is my wifes work router). The one we buy for home use should show the same and we will have the pass phrase for it. 10 wireless computers should be able to connect.

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2013-11-26 15:12

Silent Observer

I set up a windows 7 internet connection sharing /ad-hoc wireless network, which I infer is what your friend is using. i can confirm at the moment that at least the the intel wireless in my laptop, i cannot connect to the system. Failure at dhcpdiscover. With the same system running I can connect from a windows laptop but NOT from my android phone. it seems verizon has disabled ad-hoc mode on my phone.

at this time I have not been able to connect to a ad-hoc/ics network via any method (ceni, wicd, or manual commands).

**edit*** also doesn't work with a static ip. I've ready that the way windows does its ad-hoc/ics setups is a little weird and may not work with non-windows systems particularly well. Apparently network manager and ubuntu have the same issues. I've also read that the driver/firmware for the intel wireless driver may not accept going into ad-hoc mode. I certainly couldn't set it with mine.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-27 03:28

D.O., I think you've hit it on the head -- the host I'm trying to connect through is a Win7 laptop sharing a wired internet connection via ad-hoc. However, here's the weird bit -- last night after I logged off here, I went and tried things again, and instead of the"failed to get IP address" message, I got"connection done" -- and even though the scan bar was still going back and forth, mousing over the wicd icon indicated"not connected", and even after clicking"cancel" on the scan, I was able to load web pages and check for updates via synaptic through the connection. Disconnected and reconnected, and it did the same thing again. Haven't had a chance to try again (the laptop belongs to a youth who's staying with us, and he doesn't keep the ad-hoc up all the time, though his T-Mobile phone connects to it just fine -- Verizon is notorious for keeping stuff locked up).

Can't say it would be surprising for Windows to have a not-quite-standard setup on wireless; after all, Linux doesn't exist for the purposes of most wireless hardware makers and Microsoft has been actively trying to kill Linux for several years (after learning that ignoring it wasn't going to let them win). Further, Windows isn't exactly known for its standards-compliant status in anything ("We're Microsoft -- what we do is the standard!").

Still, I should be able to see my neighbor's network, which shows up in the Win7 laptop's network scan.

Heck, I may have to haul the Gateway thing down to Starbuck's or the library, battery or no battery, over the upcoming long weekend, and try to connect where I know there's wifi available to the public.

BTW, I note that RutilT seems to have started working (at first, all I'd get is dozens of error boxes about not being able to find a channel, but now I get a seemingly functional configuration window) -- what's that actually good for? I still don't see any way to (for instance) select whether to use 802.11b/g vs. 802.11n, and I'm not sure what profiles are supposed to do.

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2013-11-27 03:51

rutilit is for ralink based wireless cards. a few years ago it was the only gui that worked for them, but now everything is more or less in the open source drivers so you are better off using wicd, ceni, or other networking utility.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-27 11:42

Ah, that makes sense, then -- the R in RutilT is for Ralink.

On the side of setting up a semi-permanent ad-hoc, I can get a USB 802.11n locally for $12 (or probably save a couple bucks on eBay), but it's a Phicomm, with the same Realtek chipset that's in the Win7 laptop. Is that likely to work well to create an ad-hoc from MEPIS or antiX? It's a couple bucks cheaper than a long enough Cat5e cable to reach from my router to the laptop's usual location (and much less prone to getting tripped over). Yeah, I know, I"should" get a wireless router, but those are more money and most I've seen don't have enough wire ports for the other computers in the house (I'd have to connect via a switch, and my switch doesn't have enough ports, either, so I'd have to upgrade that).

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2013-11-27 14:06

if you can confirm that the wireless card can be set to ad-hoc mode, then you would probably be ok. I'm also seeing that its recommended that ad-hoc networks use a static ip, as there is no machine acting as a dhcp server. If you were trying to share an internet connection, then you'll need to set up dhcp server and some sort of bridging to the adapter that has the internet connection. there is a"ad-hoc, share internet connection" mode in wicd, but as I said I can't test it, so YMMV.

you'll also find that ad-hoc mode is probably limited to"b" speeds (11mb/s), as I think the later standards (g, n) actually don't include it. at least, every ad-hoc I set up yesterday testing was limited to the speeds of the older standard.

Silent Observer · posted: 2013-11-28 16:21

I can set up an ad-hoc and have it show in the network scan, but haven't been able to confirm anything else being able to connect to it -- though it is detected on the known working Win7 machine, so I presume it's actually being presented. For connecting the 300 MHz laptop from its usual bedside location, I don't think 11 Mb/s will be a huge limitation (that's still close to my maximum internet speed as of two years ago, and faster than the home network I had when I bought the laptop), so I believe I'll go ahead and get the Phicomm to mount on my primary machine (though I might ask the shop if they can demo it in an ad-hoc on Linux) -- as noted, it's a couple bucks less than a 100 foot Cat5e and less trouble than a wire, assuming I can make it work (and I now think I can).