Help on getting Broadcom WLAN to work

I'm not sure what you mean by WEAN? did you mean -WPA? WEP? EAP?

David Portland ,Sorry.
What I meant was WLAN, ie my Broadcom wireless card.
Apologies.
Bish Dissa

On 11/10/2007, David Portwood <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> David Portwood proposed the following answer:
> I'm not sure what you mean by WEAN? did you mean -WPA? WEP? EAP?
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Which version of Ubuntu are you using? Also, how did you configure your connection; manually with iwconfig or using the GUI tool? Also please make sure you that you install all the updates available, including kernel updates which require you to restart.

Rouben,Thanks.
I am using Ubuntu Kernel 2.6.20-15 (generic) which was recently upgraded to
ver -16.
I have used both the Manual configuration tool from the panel and the
Syst-Admn-Network method to configure but with no joy.
I presume the former is the GUI tool you mention but I am not clear as to
whether
' manually with iwconfig ' is yet another method.
'iwconfig' in Terminal produced the items I mention at the start of this
thread.

Look forward to hearing from you.
Bish Dissa

On 13/10/2007, Rouben <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Rouben requested for more information:
> Which version of Ubuntu are you using? Also, how did you configure your
> connection; manually with iwconfig or using the GUI tool? Also please
> make sure you that you install all the updates available, including
> kernel updates which require you to restart.
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Indeed, you can use iwconfig to set up your wireless adapter manually; that's the best way to test it, really, but it does require you to know some details about your wireless network. Here are the steps that you can do in the terminal:

First tell the wireless card to look for the wireless network named Belkin54g
sudo iwconfig eth1 essid Belkin54g

Then tell the wireless card the MAC address of your wireless router
sudo iwconfig eth1 ap 00:11:50:A0:F2:77

Then tell the wireless card what your WEP password is. If you're not using WEP, try setting up your wireless router to use 128-bit WEP for the purposes of this exercise. Please note that 128-bit WEP keys have to be 13 characters long, letters and/or numbers.
sudo iwconfig eth1 key s:"Your wireless key in ASCII"

Commit the changes. This command may not be necessary in your case and as such it may fail.
sudo iwconfig eth1 commit

Wait a minute or so here to let the wireless card settle down. Please note that some of the above commands might fail, such as the last one (commit). If that happens, don't worry. Finally, check iwconfig output, by simply running iwconfig. When you do that, check to see if the ESSID (wireless network name) is set right, as well as the access point MAC address matches. Now run dhclient (DHCP client) on your wireless card to try to grab an IP address:
sudo dhclient eth1

If you get an IP address, that's good. If not, then your wireless card isn't connecting up properly with the router. If you already tried setting up the router for WEP access, now try to disable encryption altogether and retest, skipping the key step (no encryption means no key necessary). Please make sure to re-enable encryption on your router when you're done testing!

Please let me know how this goes, preferably copy-pasting the results of your terminal session here.

Rouben,thanks.
Will take the steps you mention and shall come back.
Regards
Bish Dissa

On 15/10/2007, Rouben <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Rouben requested for more information:
> Indeed, you can use iwconfig to set up your wireless adapter manually;
> that's the best way to test it, really, but it does require you to know
> some details about your wireless network. Here are the steps that you
> can do in the terminal:
>
> First tell the wireless card to look for the wireless network named
> Belkin54g
> sudo iwconfig eth1 essid Belkin54g
>
> Then tell the wireless card the MAC address of your wireless router
> sudo iwconfig eth1 ap 00:11:50:A0:F2:77
>
> Then tell the wireless card what your WEP password is. If you're not using
> WEP, try setting up your wireless router to use 128-bit WEP for the purposes
> of this exercise. Please note that 128-bit WEP keys have to be 13 characters
> long, letters and/or numbers.
> sudo iwconfig eth1 key s:"Your wireless key in ASCII"
>
> Commit the changes. This command may not be necessary in your case and as
> such it may fail.
> sudo iwconfig eth1 commit
>
> Wait a minute or so here to let the wireless card settle down. Please note
> that some of the above commands might fail, such as the last one (commit).
> If that happens, don't worry. Finally, check iwconfig output, by simply
> running iwconfig. When you do that, check to see if the ESSID (wireless
> network name) is set right, as well as the access point MAC address matches.
> Now run dhclient (DHCP client) on your wireless card to try to grab an IP
> address:
> sudo dhclient eth1
>
> If you get an IP address, that's good. If not, then your wireless card
> isn't connecting up properly with the router. If you already tried
> setting up the router for WEP access, now try to disable encryption
> altogether and retest, skipping the key step (no encryption means no key
> necessary). Please make sure to re-enable encryption on your router when
> you're done testing!
>
> Please let me know how this goes, preferably copy-pasting the results of
> your terminal session here.
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Rouben, Please see below my session on terminal.
It seems there is no IP address given.
I have not disabled encryption yet.
By router works fine on my main desk top and also on Wndows XP on this
notebook - I am dual-booting on this laptop.
Shall be glad to have your further comments.
Regards
Bish Dissa

bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid Belkin54g
Password:
bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo iwconfig eth1 ap 00:50:A0:F2:77
Invalid hardware address 00:50:A0:F2:77
Error for wireless request "Set AP Address" (8B14) :
    invalid argument "00:50:A0:F2:77".
bish@bish-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"Belkin54g" Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"
          Mode:Managed Frequency=2.462 GHz Access Point:
00:11:50:A0:F2:77
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power=19 dBm
          RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=68/100 Signal level=-43 dBm Noise level=-73 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:708 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo iwconfig eth1 Access Point: 00:11:50:A0:F2:77
Error : unrecognised wireless request "Access"
bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo iwconfig eth1 ap 00:11:50:A0:F2:77
bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo iwconfig eth1 key s:2354678912
bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo iwconfig eth1 commit
Error for wireless request "Commit changes" (8B00) :
    SET failed on device eth1 ; Operation not supported.
bish@bish-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"Belkin54g" Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"
          Mode:Managed Frequency=2.462 GHz Access Point:
00:11:50:A0:F2:77
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power=19 dBm
          RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=66/100 Signal level=-44 dBm Noise level=-73 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:1083 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

bish@bish-laptop:~$ sudo dhclient eth1
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/eth1/00:16:ce:00:98:2a
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:16:ce:00:98:2a
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
bish@bish-laptop:~$

On 15/10/2007, Bish Dissa <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> Status: Needs information => Open
>
> You gave more information on the question:
> Rouben,thanks.
> Will take the steps you mention and shall come back.
> Regards
> Bish Dissa
>
> On 15/10/2007, Rouben <email address hidden> wrote:
> >
> > Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
> >
> > Status: Open => Needs information
> >
> > Rouben requested for more information:
> > Indeed, you can use iwconfig to set up your wireless adapter manually;
> > that's the best way to test it, really, but it does require you to know
> > some details about your wireless network. Here are the steps that you
> > can do in the terminal:
> >
> > First tell the wireless card to look for the wireless network named
> > Belkin54g
> > sudo iwconfig eth1 essid Belkin54g
> >
> > Then tell the wireless card the MAC address of your wireless router
> > sudo iwconfig eth1 ap 00:11:50:A0:F2:77
> >
> > Then tell the wireless card what your WEP password is. If you're not
> using
> > WEP, try setting up your wireless router to use 128-bit WEP for the
> purposes
> > of this exercise. Please note that 128-bit WEP keys have to be 13
> characters
> > long, letters and/or numbers.
> > sudo iwconfig eth1 key s:"Your wireless key in ASCII"
> >
> > Commit the changes. This command may not be necessary in your case and
> as
> > such it may fail.
> > sudo iwconfig eth1 commit
> >
> > Wait a minute or so here to let the wireless card settle down. Please
> note
> > that some of the above commands might fail, such as the last one
> (commit).
> > If that happens, don't worry. Finally, check iwconfig output, by simply
> > running iwconfig. When you do that, check to see if the ESSID (wireless
> > network name) is set right, as well as the access point MAC address
> matches.
> > Now run dhclient (DHCP client) on your wireless card to try to grab an
> IP
> > address:
> > sudo dhclient eth1
> >
> > If you get an IP address, that's good. If not, then your wireless card
> > isn't connecting up properly with the router. If you already tried
> > setting up the router for WEP access, now try to disable encryption
> > altogether and retest, skipping the key step (no encryption means no key
> > necessary). Please make sure to re-enable encryption on your router when
> > you're done testing!
> >
> > Please let me know how this goes, preferably copy-pasting the results of
> > your terminal session here.
> >
> > --
> > To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> > this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
> >
> > You received this question notification because you are a direct
> > subscriber of the question.
> >
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

It seems like the wireless card on your laptop is unable to establish an encrypted connection to your wireless router... that's usually the main cause of wireless connectivity difficulties. Can you please try setting up your connection without encryption? Please don't leave your router configured without encryption for too long, though.

Another question: what type of encryption is your router configured with? WEP? WPA?

Rouben,That was brilliant. Without the encryption connection was
established.
I shall re-introduce encryption and see if it still works. I use WEP 64 bit
encryption.
Thank you ever so much for all your help.
The problem is solved.
Best regards
Bish Dissa

On 15/10/2007, Rouben <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Rouben requested for more information:
> It seems like the wireless card on your laptop is unable to establish an
> encrypted connection to your wireless router... that's usually the main
> cause of wireless connectivity difficulties. Can you please try setting
> up your connection without encryption? Please don't leave your router
> configured without encryption for too long, though.
>
> Another question: what type of encryption is your router configured
> with? WEP? WPA?
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

OK, so at least we know the driver works, somewhat. Now let's try WEP encryption. I suggest using 128-bit rather than 64-bit encryption if you have that option. Most importantly, don't leave your router on with the encryption disabled for too long.

Let me know how it goes and good luck.

Rouben,Yes it works with WEP. I have been using 64-bit encryption and have
gone back to that encryton. As I said the card works now with the
encryption.
Thanks again Rouben.
Bish Dissa

On 16/10/2007, Rouben <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #14937 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Rouben requested for more information:
> OK, so at least we know the driver works, somewhat. Now let's try WEP
> encryption. I suggest using 128-bit rather than 64-bit encryption if you
> have that option. Most importantly, don't leave your router on with the
> encryption disabled for too long.
>
> Let me know how it goes and good luck.
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/14937
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

I'm glad that you were successful in getting your card to work. If you have no further questions, please feel free to mark this question as "Solved".

Thanks!