CentOS - Feb 2008 - Wireless DELL M90 with CentOS 5.1 - pb with key encryption

Hi, 

I have a laptop DELL M90 with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG card. 

I'm using centOS 5.1 kernel 2.6.18-53 i386.

I installed ndiswrapper v 1.52
I installed the driver http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R164255.EXE
The wireless-tools is v 28.2

When I trying to connect to my wireless access point with encryption key
disabled everything work fine !!!!

When I enabled the encryption key on my wireless access point with ? 128b WEP
it's impossible to connect to it.

If I need to connect to the same wifi access with an ancryption key (WEP 128b)
it's impossible :-( I receved the message that the laptop cannot get an IP
Adress.

The same laptop under Windows can connect to the same wireless acces point with
encryption key enable ou disable (WEP 128b)


The result when Encryption key is off and the laptop is connect.

[root at localhost ~]# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:01:02:(change by me)
                    ESSID:"Borne Wifi"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality:93/100  Signal level:-36 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
                    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
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

[root at localhost ~]#

[root at localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Borne Wifi"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:02:03:(change by
me)
          Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
          RTS thr:1600 B   Fragment thr:1600 B
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:98/100  Signal level:-33 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

[root at localhost ~]#


Any help ? 
Best Regards. 
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On 2/7/08, MOKRANI Rachid <Rachid.MOKRANI at ifp.fr>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a laptop DELL M90 with an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG card.
>
> I'm using centOS 5.1 kernel 2.6.18-53 i386.
>
> I installed ndiswrapper v 1.52
> I installed the driver http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R164255.EXE
> The wireless-tools is v 28.2
/snip

ndiswrapper is ok if there is no native support for the wifi card
which isn't the case with the 3945 but it does seem to be working
so...

Have you installed NetworkManager which should cope with the WEP encryption?

yum install NetworkManager\*
service NetworkManager start
service NetworkManagerDispatcher start
chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManager on
chkconfig --level 345 NetworkManagerDispatcher on

if you reboot or restart X + service network restart
then you should have a wee icon on your desktop that you can click on
and enter your WEP key.

Personally i would get rid of ndiswrapper and use the dkms-ipw3945
package from Dag's repo.
I never had consistent wifi access (with a broadcom card) using
ndiswrapper and have had total stability using the bcm43xx/b43 in
fedora 8 so would always go with the "non-hack" method. Intel seem to
have particularly progressive in terms of opening up their FOSS
support.

hth

mike