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Wireless Networking Problem


computerlove
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I am using Mandriva 2006 and have sucessfully installed my wireless LAN card using ndiswrapper. I have set my access point (i) not broadcasting its SSID and (ii) using WPA-PSK data encryption.

 

The only problem is that I cannot connect my wireless LAN card with the access point unless I enable the SSID broadcasting. Is there anything that I can do?

 

Thanks a lot!

 

;)

Edited by computerlove
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What card are you using? (open a console and type: lspci -v and post the relevant part of the output)

 

Relevant parts are extracted as follows -

 

00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c475 (rev 80)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
Memory at e3005000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: e3000000-e3001000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: e3002000-e3003000
I/O window 0: 00004400-000044ff
I/O window 1: 0000d000-0000d403
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RT8139
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
Memory at e3004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]

02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Melco Inc: Unknown device 0324
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at e3002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

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Get the bssid of your access point by connecting to it with broadcasting enabled.

 

It's listed in iwconfig as 'Access Point'

eth1	  IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"rayner"  Nickname:"ipw2100"
	  Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:11:50:6D:5A:BA
<snip>

 

then when you try to connect, use iwconfig wlan0 ap 00:11:50:6D:5A:BA

except with your ethernet card instead of wlan0, and your AP's bssid.

 

This may/may not work. And I have no idea how to integrate this into mandrake's scripts, and I have no idea whether they have an option for this in the GUI.

 

James

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The notion that not broadcasting SSID enhances security is an urban myth; it does nothing. Anyone with commonly available tools can get your SSID is seconds. Save your self some hassle and turn it back on. Your only real security comes from your WPA encryption as WEP can now be cracked in minutes instead of hours. Check out these articles for a more thorough discussion of this issue:

 

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/e...lsshacks_chap1/

 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=43

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