Re: [gentoo-user] WiFi needs ESSID to connect?

[Mick]

Thanks HW,

On Tuesday 16 January 2007 13:28, Hans-Werner Hilse wrote:

> On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:50:26 +0000 Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com>
> wrote:
> > I am unable to connect to a wireless access point unless it is set to
> > announce its ESSID.
[snip...]
> FWIW, if there are no beacons in the air, how should your WiFi client
> tell what frequency to tune? How should it be aware of the network?
> That will only work if you set both channel and ESSID on the client
> (and WEP key, of course).

Well, it should and does pick up the broadcasted MAC address of the access 
point (AP).  I have verified that the wireless (USB) adaptor on my laptop 
receives the AP's MAC by running 'iwlist wlan0 scanning' and 'iwconfig 
wlan0'.

However, the WEP authentication fails thereafter, because the authentication 
seems to need an ESSID_name.  Not sure if this is an adaptor driver issue 
(rt2500usb), or something to so with the way the init.d scripts work.  
M$Windows laptops don't seem to have a problem connecting to this AP whether 
it publishes its ESSID, or not.

> > This happens despite me changing the key entry from
> > key_ESSID-name="12345678" to key="12345678".
>
> Revert that. Also set
> ---snip---
> essid_wlan0="MyESSID"
> channel_wlan0="<channel number>"
> associate_order="forcepreferredonly"
> ---snip---

I have found that as long as the AP publishes its ESSID_name there's no need 
to specify a channel.  Up until today, when the AP ESSID_name broadcast was 
switched off, I did not need to enter the channel number in 
my /etc/conf.d/net to be able to associate and authenticate.  I also found in 
the past that setting a preferred AP and trying to force it on the wireless 
adaptor invariably ended in failure to associate.

Whilst we're on the topic of wireless networking, I am quite confused as to 
how wireless works with its various encryption and authentication modes.  Is 
it possible to set up Linux so that if an AP asks for a WEP key, I can get a 
message informing me accordingly?

How is one meant to configure /etc/conf.d/net to be able to associate with 
different APs, some with no encryption, some with WEP, some with WAP.  I 
don't mind using a gui if this is going to offer some interactivity, to 
enable me to achieve this.  A recent post mentioning a Gnome application 
wouldn't do for me on this occasion, as I don't have Gnome on this laptop.  
Kwifimanager does not seem very helpful, at least not with this USB adaptor 
and its driver.

Thanks for your suggestions so far.
-- 
Regards,
Mick