Notes about Linux and wireless home connections

Preface

Here some notes about using linux with the BT adsl routers. While I didn't have problem when using the VOYAGER 2091 router with Suse 10.0, I had some issues when I moved to Suse 10.1. I had the problem Knetwork manager was loosing the the EDDI and key information. Other times Suse was loosing the gateway info. I decided to do things manually and test them under different systems.

BTHomeHub: wireless and Suse 10.1 on a Dell Latitude D610

The first part of the configuration is not very far from the Microsoft one. I opened YAST and for the wireless interface I input the Extended Service set Id (ESSID) (let my say BTHomeHub-AA55) and a 64bit WEP key (a1b2c3d4e5).

It's worth mentioning here that I'm trying to creating a wireless (IEEE 802.11g) connection to a Wireless Access Point (Managed mode) with an open authentication mode.

Moreover, the key is in hexadecimal format. In fact, the key for 64-bit is 5 chars (10 hex digits). Here a table for other kind of keys:

05 chars for 64-bit key
13 chars for 128-bit key
16 chars for 156-bit key
29 chars for 256-bit key

Troubleshooting

There is a couple of commands that usually I run to check if I'm connected.

iwconfig
ifconfig -a

linux:/home/dallegri # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"BTHomeHub-AA55" Nickname:"linux"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:12:34:56:78:9A
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:1234-5678-9A Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality=88/100 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-87 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:1

sit0 no wireless extensions.

Of course I modified some of the data here like ESSID, Access point, key, etc...

linux:/home/dallegri # ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:BB:0B:A2
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:169

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:34:56:78:9A
inet addr:192.168.1.65 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: ab12::213:ceff:fe51:82f5/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:294 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:105 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:9933 (9.7 Kb) TX bytes:7912 (7.7 Kb)
Interrupt:201 Base address:0x4000 Memory:dfcff000-dfcfffff

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:52 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:52 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3360 (3.2 Kb) TX bytes:3360 (3.2 Kb)

sit0 Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

From both the commands I saw that I was connected to the router and the router gave me the IP address

192.168.1.65

Half of the way was done. Now the problem was that I wasn't in Internet yet. The fact that I was not in Internet was clear also from the fact I was not able to ping any known site.

At the same time the router was connected in Internet because he was able to resolve the site’s name I was trying to ping.

linux:/home/dallegri # ping www.google.com
connect: Network is unreachable

linux:/home/dallegri # host www.google.co.uk
is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com has address 209.85.165.147
www.google.com has address 209.85.165.103
www.google.com has address 209.85.165.99
www.google.com has address 209.85.165.104
www.google.co.uk is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.co.uk is an alias for www.google.com.
www.google.com is an alias for www.google.com.

Here we are. The problem was the missing gateway. You can see this with one of the two commands

route -n
netstat -n

linux:/home/dallegri # route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo

How to add the default gateway if I don't know what is the address of my router? I used the following command

ip neighbor

linux:/home/dallegri # ip neighbor
192.168.1.254 dev eth1 lladdr 00:41:f7:d3:c1:d2 REACHABLE

Solution

Now that I know router IP address of the router, the solution is to add the default gateway with the following command.

route -v add default gw 192.168.1.254

Now if I check again the routing table, I can see my gateway

linux:/home/dallegri # route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 192.168.1.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1

linux:/etc # netstat -r
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
loopback * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default BThomehub.home 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1
linux:/etc #

At this point I'm able to access Internet. Not only, having the IP address I can telnet it or see it's web page at

http://192.168.1.254

If the communication drops, it's possible to restore it just with

service network restart

BTHomeHub: wireless and Ubuntu on a Dell Latitude D610

With Ubuntu no problem at all. I tested the followings notes on both the 7.04 and 7.10 distributions. The good thing is that Ubuntu comes with already the module ipw2200 for the Intel PROSet/Wireless, so there is no need to download it, build it, and so on. Just a check whether the wireless is on or not, and a list of those available with a simple command

dallegri@parma:~$ iwlist eth1 scanning
eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:A4:14:D8:69:6B
ESSID:"WANADOO-6870"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=55/100 Signal level=-68 dBm
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Extra: Last beacon: 12ms ago
Cell 02 - Address: 00:3F:17:46:3E:B2
ESSID:"MK_HC_Belkin_N1_Wireless_3E46B2"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=31/100 Signal level=-81 dBm
IE: WPA Version 1
Group Cipher : TKIP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Extra: Last beacon: 72ms ago
Cell 03 - Address: 00:71:F3:26:67:57
ESSID:"Belkin_G_Plus_MIMO_180170"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Encryption key:off
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=51/100 Signal level=-61 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 360ms ago
Cell 04 - Address: 00:12:34:56:78:9A
ESSID:"BTHomeHub-AA55"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Channel:11
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=86/100 Signal level=-44 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 132ms ago

dallegri@parma:~$

Finally I source my simple text file.

dallegri@parma:~$ cat myBTHome
sudo iwconfig eth1 essid "BTHomeHub-AB12" key 1234-5678-ab
sudo dhclient eth1

All the other parameters have default values that work fine

dallegri@parma:~$ source myBTHome
Password:
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4
Copyright 2004-2006 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth1/00:13:ce:15:28:f5
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:13:ce:15:28:f5
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.254
DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.254
bound to 192.168.1.64 -- renewal in 40440 seconds.
dallegri@parma:~$

This time there is no need to add the default gateway, and I don't miss any graphical interface tools.

BTHomeHub: wireless and Debian Etch on a Dell Latitude D610

For the progenitor of Ubuntu, things are not so different, but the module ipw2200 for the Intel PROSet/Wireless was not already set as for Ubuntu. First I wanted to upgarde my newly installed Etch. I needed to edit /etc/apt/sources.list because I was not connected to the network during the installation. I added the main US site. I suggest to access the site before adding any reference just to check if the reference is still right. Note that the directories etch, main, and contrib were under the directory http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/, but I didn't need to add dists. I just added

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib

Then I updated my packages database and upgraded my distribution by entering the following two commands

aptitude update
aptitude dist-upgrade

checked for the version of the kernel

casa:/home/davide# uname -a
Linux casa 2.6.18-6-686 #1 SMP Fri Jun 6 22:22:11 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

searched for an updated driver that could fit my kernel version with the command

aptitude search ipw2200

and installed the proper one

casa:/home/davide# aptitude install ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-686

Next step, I added the wirless interface eth1 editing the file /etc/network/interfaces and adding just two lines.

#my wifi new entry
allow-wireless eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

Last the firmware. I downloaded ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz directly from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net, and placed the extracted files under /lib/firmware. I rebooted my laptop. Maybe it wasn't necessary but it worked. As for Ubuntu, I ran

iwlist eth1 scanning

just for checking my router was seen by the laptop. I wrote my script with something like

iwconfig eth1 essid "BTHomeHub-AB12" key abcd-1234-e5
dhclient eth1

but with the proper essid and key, and sourced it.