Hey, Michael's response notwithstanding - the thundering silence suggests to me that I might have hit across a puzzler...or at least a problem others on the list have not encountered. If there are no objections, I'll continue publishing my results (or lack thereof) to the list for the sake of the archives... I downloaded the Ubuntu Gutsy beta CD today, and tried it out. While the live CD did load on my laptop (unlike Feisty), it did not remedy my wireless issues. Gutsy seems to use version 1.2.2 of the ipw3945 driver (feisty had 1.2.0). A colleague who is using the same driver on the same card on another laptop reports having no problems - though he is on a WPA authenticated network. So, I'm left with a few theories - none of which strike me as compelling: 1. It's a problem the driver has with WEP. I have received assurances on various websites that WEP is supposed to work, and I've read many testimonials that ipw3945 wireless "works for me" from the web denizens, although I've read no one who thought to specify that it works with WEP. I've yet to have the opportunity to try connecting to a WPA network - however, I'm starting a new job next week, and visiting someone with a wireless network next weekend; so if I'm lucky, one of them will have just such a network. 2. It's not a problem with the driver at all, but something else on my system. I'm at a loss to know what that might be. I've installed and configured other things on my laptop - but I believe trying a wireless connection was one of the early things I attempted since my configuration often involved downloading drivers and such, and wiring my laptop typically involves me disconnecting one of my other machines from the network. Further to that, I booted from a live Gutsy CD, and tried wireless right away - so if it's a system misconfig, then its happening from the default config. 3. A hardware problem; it's a new card, and works just fine if we dispense with the authentication. 4. A WAP-end problem; I've had this issue in two separate WEP networks that I know other wireless clients (non-Linux) have connected to. So, I'm stumped. In the mean-time, I'm leaving my wireless unencrypted, and I've configured the router to only allow my MAC addresses access to the internet. I've got SMB shares that are password protected, and NFS mounts only to authorized IP addresses. I use SSH to connect between PCs, no telnet. I think I'm reasonably safe from a home network security POV (though if I've missed something, please let me know), you know, given that I've opened the network, but I'm still not crazy about this setup. Still - barring any new ideas on how to deal with the WEP authentication problem, I'm running out of things to try. Cheers On 28/09/2007, C.T. Paterson <i [ dot ] adore [ dot ] my [ dot ] 64 [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com> wrote: > Some progress - but not yet a win... > > The problem seems to be with the authentication. I'm on my wireless > network now, but could only achieve this by turning my encryption off > (a situation I'm not eager to keep up). Both my network, and the > wireless network at work use WEP for encryption. I've had someone > suggest to me that I'd have more success on a WPA network. > > If that's true, then it would go a ways to explaining why some people > seem to have no trouble with this driver, and some have a world of > problems. Until I have a WPA test case, though, it'll have to remain > a theory. > > I've tried both entering my encryption key and essid in the > NetworkManager, on the command line using iwconfig, and in the > /etc/network/interfaces. Nothing seems to work -- although if anyone > has time to kill and feels like explaining the difference between an > open and shared key, I'm interested. There's nothing of the kind > presented when I'm configuring my router. > > Cheers. > > On 27/09/2007, C.T. Paterson <i [ dot ] adore [ dot ] my [ dot ] 64 [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com> wrote: > > I also wanted to note that I've read > > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/134515 which seems to describe > > much of the problem I have. I installed wicd, but found some pretty > > nasty performance problems were created by its use, and the comments > > suggest the benefits of using it are minimal (offering up to a 20% > > success rate on reconnects). > > > > Cheers. > > > > On 27/09/2007, C.T. Paterson <i [ dot ] adore [ dot ] my [ dot ] 64 [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com> wrote: > > > Hey folks, > > > > > > With luck this will prove to be a short-lived problems, as I plan to > > > upgrade to Ubuntu Gutsy when it comes out in a few weeks, but in the > > > mean time... > > > > > > I received my brand new Dell laptop yesterday. With glee, I took the > > > preloaded Vista install out back, told it about the rabbits, and had > > > an Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty installation up and running in short order. The > > > Feisty install is meant to be a placeholder until the next release. > > > Everything that I care about is up and working without problems, > > > except my wireless. > > > > > > I have an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG PCI card, which is shown in lspci. > > > > > > paterson@bilbo:~$ lsmod | grep 3945 > > > ipw3945 118816 1 > > > ieee80211 34760 1 ipw3945 > > > > > > > > > At work, and at home, I have been successful in connecting to a WEP > > > secured wireless network, but signal strength drops to 0%, and I have > > > an address of 0.0.0.0, broadcast is 0.0.0.0, network mask, default > > > route, DNS are all 0.0.0.0 > > > > > > paterson@bilbo:~$ iwconfig > > > lo no wireless extensions. > > > > > > eth0 no wireless extensions. > > > > > > eth1 unassociated ESSID:"Wireless1" > > > Mode:Managed Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:16:C8:66:7D:50 > > > Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm > > > Retry limit:15 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off > > > Power Management:off > > > Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 > > > Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:378 Rx invalid frag:0 > > > Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:201 Missed beacon:0 > > > > > > > > > Googling has yielded little except to tell me many suffer the same > > > problem, and many have no issues at all. Does anyone here have any > > > wisdom to impart? > > > > > > Thanks. > > > > > > -- > > > "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." > > > -- Thomas Paine > > > > > > > > > -- > > "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." > > -- Thomas Paine > > > > > -- > "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." > -- Thomas Paine > -- "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." -- Thomas Paine