Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

BigPilot · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 98

To be honest this may not be a Puppy issue since I've been having this problem with all Linux distro's I tried on this computer.

Puppy Linux detects my network card flawlessly, installs the driver and scans for networks successfully. However whenever I try to connect to the network it won't connect, neither through DHCP nor with a static ip address. I have no clue why this is since a previous Windows 98 installation on this machine could connect to the network without a hitch. All other Windows machines can connect to the network through DHCP.

I'm even beginning to suspect that my wireless router has some kind of quirk that only allows Windows clients to connect or something. Alas, I'm at a loss why I can't connect, having tried about half a dozen distro's on this machine.

Anyone have a clue what's going on?

jonyo · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2727

What network card & what pup ver?

BigPilot · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 98

Puppy 2.13

Wireless card: Sweex LC700030 (http://www.sweex.com/LC700030)

BigPilot · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 98

I also notice when I do a 'iwconfig' from the terminal that it says:

Encryption: off

which isn't correct since I entered a correct key in the wireless settings.

rarsa · Posted: Sun 21 Jan 2007, 13:05 Post subject:

When troubleshooting wireless it is always wise to start without encryption and broadcasting essid.

If you can connect to an open network then add WEP encryption and set an Hex key.

Then try again setting the WEP parameters

If that works then you can stop broadcasting the essid.

If it fails at any of the steps mentioned above at least you've narrowed the quest.

Note: I am not advocating running an open network. I am recommending doing this just for throubleshooting.

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

I agree with rarsa, disable encryption while testing.

Is your encryption WPA? The standard wifi configurtation tool "iwconfig" does not support this form of encryption.
But the Ralink driver does support WPA natively. See here for instructions http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/drivers-for-Puppy-2.00-and-2.01/ralink-legacy_README.txt

BigPilot · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 98

No, I'm using WEP-128.

rdchin · Joined: 24 Jun 2006 Posts: 9

Hi, I am using a Hawking HWP54G/RT2500 PCI Wireless LAN Card with Puppy 2.13. I don't think the wizards will work wih 128-bit WEP encryption, only 64-bit encryption, but I could be wrong.

I have been able to get connected using 64-bit WEP encryption with the wizard, but have been unsuccessful at making a connection by using WPA-PSK Open passphrase encryption. I tried both wpa_supplicant-0.4.9.pup and later wpa_supplicant-0.5.5.pup wihout success.

Interestingly enough, WPA-PSK Open passphrase encryption worked with Puppy 2.02 and wpa_supplicant-0.4.9.pup.

Although I know how to configure WPA-PSK using the command line, I wish there was a GUI to configure it because I am reviving several of my friends MS Win 95-98 laptops since MS Win9x cannot do WPA-PSK and I know that my friends would muchly prefer a GUI since they are not too PC-saavy.

I prefer not to use 5-character password WEP encryption on my LAN and it would be great if 2.13 worked with WPA-PSK passphrase encryption. Either something broke between 2.02 and 2.13 or my version of wpa_supplicant is incompatible with 2.13.

Has anyone else had any success with WPA-PSK and 2.13 or should I reinstall 2.02? The installation method used is a "Normal" HDD-ATA method.

Thanks for any assistance.

tempestuous · Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4944 Location: Australia

The wpa_supplicant dotpups were not patched to support the Ralink driver.

kirk · Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 1333 Location: florida

Rutilt has special support for ralink cards and should be able to connect to wpa-psk. You might have to use the Profiles tab to set it up.

BigPilot, you might want to give Rutilt a try too! You'll find it under Network on the menu. I've used it with wep 128 from the scanning tab.

BigPilot · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 98

I got it working! Thanks to Kirk. The RUtil utillity did the job for me!!

Thanks guys! Very Happy

I'm posting this through Puppy Linux on the SeaMonkey browser!!

qaz · Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 5

Hi,

I'm using 2.14 w/ Seamonkey and trying to get wireless working on a Thinkpad 380xd. I'm connecting to an apple airport extreme with no encryption. The wireless utility configures the card fine, I get a connection with a signal strength around 50%, and an ip address, but the card disconnects after a few seconds and cycles between drop/acquire.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

q a z

Aitch · Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 6825 Location: Chatham, Kent, UK

qaz
try moving your aerial, if possible, or if its a flying lead type check the connection is tight.
sig strength is a bit low which could account for dropouts.
I used to get this, till I repositioned my aerial
RutilT has a screen that gives a reading in db
as long as its more than -80db [-70/76 or lower i.e. -50 something is good] it should be ok

qaz · Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 5

Thanks,

That did it.
Puppy is truly amazing. An old brick like the Thinkpad 380xd, a $15 wireless card, Puppy burned on a CD and I'm surfing at Starbucks.
This is with 64meg of ram and running off the CD!

q a z