How to LiveCD to my hidden wireless network with Puppy?

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tryinglinux
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How to LiveCD to my hidden wireless network with Puppy?

#1 Post by tryinglinux »

To any kind puppy user that can help: I just downloaded Puppy Linux Slacko 5.4 and want to run it from liveCd. I have an old Pentium III laptop that used to run Windows 2000 and be connected to the internet through this hidden network, so i know this hardware can connect using W2k. When i ran the simple Slacko 5.4 network config apps like frisbee or the other included one, it doesn't allow me to select a hidden network, it just scans for available, visible networks. So i run the more extensive network configuration app, in that one there is room to include my ssID, WPA/TKIP and include my key, but this seems to always ask me to "Save" the configuration and since i am running from LIveCD it complains it wasn't saved. Do I have to really save this configuration into USB or other or is there a way to run Slacko and connect with a hidden network by just providing the network parameters? If so, how?

(I also tried the retro Precise Puppy variant and it seems to have the same network configuration utility, same issue)

Thank you for any help,
Last edited by tryinglinux on Thu 28 Feb 2013, 02:54, edited 3 times in total.

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Flash
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#2 Post by Flash »

Were you able to connect? If so, then you've done exactly what you wanted. Just remove the CD and shut down without saving (turn off the power) when you're done. If you don't save, you'll have to fill in the blanks every time you boot the CD, to connect to the internet.

Or you can save to the CD, which can be removed and kept in a safe place when you're done. That way, you don't have to redo the network configuration when you boot the CD. When you save to the CD, nothing is written on the hard disk or anywhere else but the CD (or DVD).

tryinglinux
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#3 Post by tryinglinux »

Flash wrote:Were you able to connect? If so, then you've done exactly what you wanted. Just remove the CD and shut down without saving (turn off the power) when you're done. If you don't save, you'll have to fill in the blanks every time you boot the CD, to connect to the internet.

Or you can save to the CD, which can be removed and kept in a safe place when you're done. That way, you don't have to redo the network configuration when you boot the CD. When you save to the CD, nothing is written on the hard disk or anywhere else but the CD (or DVD).
Flash, thank you for looking at this. I was not able to connect.

So i selected the "Network Wizard', and went to configure the wireless network:

I clicked to search for networks but that shows me several visible wireless networks and several hidden ones. For the hidden ones it doesn't show the SSID name so I don't know which one to select)

On that same page it says, "Select a profile to load" is prefilled to "autoconnect"

I then click on the "WPA/TKIP" button,

-Left 'Profile Name" blank
filled in the hidden network name for "ESSID"

there are some preselected parameters below ESSID, they are:
Mode to Managed
Security to Open
AP Scan to Hidden SSID

then filled out the "Shared Key" to the key to my hidden network

but not sure what button to press at this point?

whatever I have tried so far generates a pop up that says;

"Puppy Network Wizard"
"Error"
"The profile had no network associated with it. You must run a wireless scan and select a network, then create a profile for it"

------------

It seemed it always wanted to "save' the profile before trying it, but maybe I missed it. Could you mention what are the steps that are needed to connect to a hidden network, WPA, with key. without the need to save since i am running and would like to run from LiveCD?
Last edited by tryinglinux on Thu 28 Feb 2013, 02:41, edited 1 time in total.

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Flash
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#4 Post by Flash »

I haven't used wireless in a long time, plus I'm running Puppy Precise at the moment, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but it looks to me like you've somehow got the cart before the horse. I think you have to run the network scan first and choose a network, before going through the profile and login process. That's about all I can think of. Perhaps someone who knows about connecting wirelessly in Slacko 5.4 will step in here. :)

tryinglinux
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#5 Post by tryinglinux »

Flash wrote:I haven't used wireless in a long time, plus I'm running Puppy Precise at the moment, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but it looks to me like you've somehow got the cart before the horse. I think you have to run the network scan first and choose a network, before going through the profile and login process. That's about all I can think of. Perhaps someone who knows about connecting wirelessly in Slacko 5.4 will step in here. :)

Flash, thank you for your comments, I just edited my earlier post to note that one of the things I did was to search for networks which generated a list of wireless networks, including hidden ones. For the hidden ones it didn't show the SSIDs so I couldn't tell if any of the hidden ones shown was mine and didn't want to send my key to unknown networks.

I have used used other Linux LiveCDs in this network but with a more powerful laptop and that worked fine. Unfortunately those heavier distributions don't run in the laptop I am trying now, the laptop chokes on them. Variants of Puppy Linux so far are the only ones that seem fully come up from LiveCD, I just somehow can't figure out how to configure the wireless without saving. My guess is that I am missing something simple, but somehow it escapes me.


The good part of the issue is that I believe this network configuration utility maybe the exact same one as present in other Puppy variants as I also tried one of the other Puppy ones, I believe it is retro Precise and that behaved similarly so my hope is that somebody that may have run into wireless networking, particularly using a hidden network could chime in. Thanks again for your comments and let me know if other ideas come up, thanks,

kurtdriver
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#6 Post by kurtdriver »

The Network Wizard can't show the names of hidden routers as they don't transmit them, it should show their mac addresses, though. These are in the form of an alphnumeric string of six octets separated by colons, like this
00:A4:6G:S2:F5:68

Your router should have one of these printed on it, the underside most likely.

You might also connect through the terminal, saving the brief commands involved as a script would be trivial. Google will turn up many pages on this topic.

A hidden wireless network is not as secure as you may think.

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Flash
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#7 Post by Flash »

Possibly this thread will have some useful information.

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