How to connect to WEP wireless network?

[sfeeley]

Please be extremely gentle—I’m completely new to Linux, and just installed puppy today on an old sony vaio pcg z505js.

Problem: I cannot connect to my wireless network. It seems like everything is recognized, but I still can’t get the connection.

I am using a belkin wireless card F5D6020.

I click internet connection wizard à internet by network or wireless lan

It identifies this interface:
Wlan0 Wireless rtl8180 pci: belkinwireless card F5D6020.

I click wlan0

I click wireless.

I click scan. It brings up several networks, one of which is mine. I scroll over it and see:
Channel 11; frequency 2.462g; AM MAC: 00: 22: 75f4; strength 193/100

I select. It shows the profile name and ESSID. Since it is WEP encryption, I click the WEP radio button.
Mode: managed is checked; security: open is checked
I enter my network key (I recently double checked to see if the key was correct on another computer).
I click save and then use this profile
It says testing interface, shows a scroll bar and then says Report on Test of wlan0 connection: “unable to connect to wireless network

[OverDrive]

Hi, Which version of puppy are you using?

OverDrive

[Brown Mouse]

Are you using 4.3.1?
Have you tried from the Start Menu,select Network then Xautoconnect to wireless network.

[sfeeley]

I am using 4.3.1 running off of a unetbootin install (I guess this means that it thinks its running off a live-cd but is actually on my harddrive. I did this because I can't boot off USB and have no CD)

I tried xautoconnect. It scanned, the names of a bunch of networks raced by (I live in a crowded area), it tried to connect to an open network, but then said something like ping to google failed.

Oddly, I kept going through basically the same steps as I outlined in my first post, and one time it seemed to work (sortof and briefly).
It said I had successfully connected. I tried the browser, and was able to partially load the google page, but even there some of the graphics failed to load.
Then it stopped working. And I can't get it to do even that again.

Its an older slower card, but using win2000 I was pretty capable of general web browsing with it.

[Flash]

To eliminate your hardware as the source of the problem, you can turn off encryption in the modem and see if you can connect then.

[rjbrewer]

Here's a "wep" tip, hope it helps.

If not; there's at least 3 different chipset versions of the 6020
card.
Will need more information.

[sfeeley]

So, I plugged in a netgear card that I had in another computer, and that seems to work. In fact I'm sending this message with it.

So, it seems to be a hardware problem withr the belkin card.

I'd still appreciate any tips you might have, since I don't want to be switching cards all the time.

Regarding the poster who asked for more info on the belkin-- how can I tell? The top of the card says 802.11b FSD6020. On the back it has the following:
n10117
p81705
version 3000

Another poster mentioned something about WEP tips, but I didn't see the info or a link? I know that WEP is pretty lousy security, but it is the only thing that ever seemed to work with the netgear card, and it worked with the belkin card in question on another OS.

thanks!

[rjbrewer]

Here's a "wep" tip, hope it helps.

If not; there's at least 3 different chipset versions of the 6020
card.
Will need more information.

Oops; forgot the link; here it is:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 95&t=51145

Belkin cards:

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_part ... ame=Belkin

[cortezthekiller]

Hi,

I have a similar problem.
It might be caused by my ignorance, because is the first time I use linux.

It took me a while to configure the wireless interface wlan0 (pcmcia card netgear wg511 v2 -made in china-). I will post one 'how to thread' about how I fixed it with ndiswrapper using the windows 2000 driver (with the xp it does not work), in case it can help some newbie ...

But now that wlan0 is configured, I'm not able to connect to my home network, which uses WEP encrytion. I'm writing the correct key, and the system seems to get an IP address (via DHCP), but I cannot open any website from the browser.

It works fine with my neighbour's network, which is not encrypted. I also get an IP address and I can surf the web.

I will read all the how to's about wifi and wep on the forums and I'll come back to this post if I cannot find a solution.
Any help is highly appreciated.

Thank youy very much in advance

Rod

[rjbrewer]

Seems there is WG511v2 and WG511v.2, 2 different chipsets.

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_part ... me=Netgear

[cortezthekiller]

Hi, thank you for the quick answer

Yes, it took me a while to find that this morning: mine has Marvell chipset, but finally I could fix it with ndiswrapper and the windows 2000 driver.

I know where the problem is:

when I specify the WEP key, I write the alphanumeric key. I think that the wizard expects it in hexadecimal.

If I configure the interface from the command line, with the "key s:" option, it works fine:

# iwconfig wlan0 key open s:alphanumeric_key

So, the problem is fixed!!

I'm going to install puppylinux in my hard disk now. Do you know if I can delete windows from my computer at the same time?

Thank you very much in advance
Rod