Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless hidden association problem

[Florian Philipp]

On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:07:31 +0100
"Paul Melvin" <paul@×××××××××××××××××××.uk> wrote:

> Hi Sergey,
>
> Thanks for that, since my question I have found that if I enter the
> iwconfig command into /etc/conf.d/net it does work; i.e.
>
> iwconfig eth1 essid name_of_ssid
>
> However I am not sure how this would work if I had a load of hidden
> ssids, if at all, and it does seem messy
>
> Is wpa_supplicant the best/only way to do this?
>
> Please can anyone tell me how this works in ubuntu as it does seem to
> and I would hope that I could replicate it
>
> Cheers
>
> paul
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sergey Kobzar [mailto:tod.zullu@×××××.com]
> Sent: 17 June 2008 11:55
> To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
> Subject: [SPAM] Re: [gentoo-user] Wireless hidden association problem
>
> Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 1:37:29 PM, Paul wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have a dell laptop with intel wireless card (ipw2200) and am
> > trying to configure it to use WPA-PSK.
> >
> > I have setup up the card correctly utilizing the ipw2200 module,
> > wpa_supplicant and wireless_tools.
> >
> > If I use a broadcast ssid everything works, however if I turn off
> > the broadcast on the ap and do a debug of the wpa, it recognizes
> > that there is a hidden ssid but will not connect to it.
> >
> > I would rather use hidden ssids than not but how can I get it to
> > connect?
>
> I have similar problem with Cisco AP and Intel 3945, D-Link
> DWL-G500 adapters under Gentoo/FreeBSD. Looks like it's wpa_supplicant
> permanent problem. Windows works fine.
>
> AFAIK there is no solution except using broadcasts.
>
>
> > Please can you also tell me a quick way to restart the interface to
> > make it go through all the negotiaton, as I have moved from ubuntu
> > where /etc/init.d/networking restart did it
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Paul
>

I use wpa_supplicant and it's working flawlessly with a hidden ssid and
some unhidden ones. Here is an excerpt from my wpa_supplicant.conf:

network={		<<<--normal net with wpa2 and visible ssid
        ssid="..."
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        psk="..."
}
network={		<<<--net with wep and hidden ssid
        scan_ssid=1
        ssid="..."
        key_mgmt=NONE
        wep_key0=8346...
        wep_tx_keyidx=0
}
eapol_version=1		<<<--some general options
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

I'm using iwl3945, by the way.

As far as Ubuntu goes, I think they use networkmanager which gives you
a nice gui but only marginal advantages over properly configured
wpa_supplicant and /etc/conf.d/net-files.

Here are some parts of my /etc/conf.d/net:

modules_eth1=( "wpa_supplicant" )
wpa_supplicant_eth1="-Dwext" 
iwconfig_eth1="txpower on"

#some SSID-specific options for nets I know. On every other net dhcp is
#assumed
config_SSID1=( "192.168.2.2 netmask 255.255.255.0" )
routes_SSID1=( "default via 192.168.2.1" )
dns_servers_SSID1=( "192.168.4.1" )
config_SSID2=( "dhcp" )