# Wireless connects but times out on DHCP [Fixed]

## cookiez

I have a Compaq WL100 card in a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S607 laptop PCMCIA slot 2. It's running latest orinoco drivers on a gentoo 2.4.25 kernel. pcmcia-cs and wireless-config are emerged. Software and drivers look to be in order. However, whenever I try to start the link, this happens: 

```
/etc/init.d/net.eth1 start

 * Running preup function

 *   Configuring wireless network for eth1

 *   Connecting to "CooKz" (WEP enabled)...                                                                                                                                                     [ ok ]

 *     eth1 connected to "CooKz" in managed mode

 *     on channel 07 (WEP enabled)

 * Bringing eth1 up via DHCP...                                                                                                                                                                 [ !! ]
```

 The logs tell me that DHCP timed out. I have it set to a 5 second delay, but it times out even when the delay is a whole minute. Here is some debug info:

```
ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:39:6B:43:AA

          inet addr:192.168.1.97  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:505 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:500 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:466942 (455.9 Kb)  TX bytes:84853 (82.8 Kb)

          Interrupt:4 Base address:0x8000

 

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:8B:D0:B8:35

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:119 dropped:119 overruns:0 frame:119

          TX packets:4 errors:2 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:2576 (2.5 Kb)

          Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100

 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:100 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:100 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:5248 (5.1 Kb)  TX bytes:5248 (5.1 Kb)

```

```
iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

 

eth0      no wireless extensions.

 

irlan0    no wireless extensions.

 

eth1      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"CooKz"  Nickname:"Prism  I"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.442GHz  Access Point: 00:00:D1:23:43:3A

          Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Sensitivity:1/3

          Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:4444-4444-4444-4444-4444-4444-44   Security mode:open

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:92/92  Signal level:9/153  Noise level:111/153

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:12  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

```

Anyone know what's going on and how I can fix it? Thanks.

Note: I am pasting the encryption key from the web management page of the access ppoint so there is no way it's screwed up. AP's preamble is set to long (saw that mentioned on another post). This card and key worked in Windows XP a couple days ago, before I formatted it.

Another note: I emerged ifplugd and told it to watch over eth0 and eth1. eth0 works fine but eth1 would reset itself every minute. ifplugd would see a link beat and try to enable net.eth1, it would time out after a minute, then the whole process would start over again. After I set the timeout to 5 seconds, ifplugd left it alone.

----------

## cookiez

I found the problem. I had 4 different keys set up in my access point and I was giving wireless-config (in /etc/conf.d/wireless) the 3rd key, which was set to default in the AP. When I set the first key as default and gave it to wireless-config, my network came to life.

For reference, my access point is an Adaptec Wireless Access Point, firmware version 1.3.3F.

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## eisenack

I had the same problem.

Connecting without WEP worked, but with e.g. 128bit encryption didn't. 

But as EVERY dumb windows notebook that came here, could connect at ease, I didn't expect the solution to be found at the access point's configuration. 

In fact I still don't understand this. Doesn't this mean that the position on which the key is defined at the access point makes some secret difference which obviously creators of windows drivers know about, but linux coders don't ???

So long, 

FrankLast edited by eisenack on Wed Sep 22, 2004 2:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## UberLord

 *eisenack wrote:*   

> But as EVERY dumb windows notebook that came here, could connect at ease, I didn't expect the solution to be found at the access point's configuration. 

 

The solution isn't on the AP

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> In fact I still don't understand this. Doesn't this mean that the position on which the key is defined at the access point makes some secret difference which obviously creators of windows drivers know about, but linux coders don't ???

 

Although you can set 4 keys on the AP and using iwconfig, only 1 key can be active at any time on the linux client.

```

iwconfig eth1 key [1] s:key1ascii [2] s:key2ascii enc open key [2]
```

This sets 2 keys and key #2 to be active.

Which solves your problem

This can be used in the wireless config as follows

```

key_ESSID="[1] s:key1ascii key [2] s:key2ascii enc open key [2]"
```

This is documented in the example file btw

----------

