[clue-tech] wrt54g v3 again

[Ken MacFerrin]

dperkins at frii.com wrote:
>> 2. My R51 laptop is quite happy to communicate (using KNetworkManager
>> for the automatic setup) as long as the kernel is right! *Ubuntu, like
>> most distros, doesn't do an adequate amount of testing before
>> releasing a kernel. What works just fine on kernel 2.6.20-9-generic
>> fails miserably on kernel 2.6.20-11-generic - doesn't even detect a
>> wireless device!
> 
> You could try using the old .config file, and then typing "make
> oldconfig".  That will probably keep wireless working.  If you are using a
> wireless kernel module that is not part of the kernel, you might need to
> recompile and install it or save a copy somewhere and copy it back into
> /lib/modules after installing the new kernel.
> 
>> Here's another dumb newbie question. How does encryption work on these
>> units? Is this a matter of hardware in the unit or is this handled by
>> the various software loads you can put in the unit?
> 
> I'm still learning about wireless, but this might help.
> 
> You can use either WEP or WPA for security.  WEP suffers from a poor
> encryption algorithm, but is still a lot better than a totally open
> system.
> 
> If you use WEP, I recommend using 128-bit encryption instead of 64-bit. 
> When I set up my router, it let me enter a password (?) and then created a
> hexadecimal key.  I used that for the first key and left the other three
> unused.  You can ignore the other keys.  Apparently multiple keys were
> intended to let users use rolling keys for supposedly greater security.
> 
> It's also possible to use an ASCII string for a key if you add s: to the
> beginning of the string.  I haven't tried this yet, so I'm not sure why
> both methods are available.
> 
> WEP also lets you choose between open or shared (restricted) security
> mode.  I think shared mode requires that everything be encrypted, but I
> have seen a few webpages that recommend open mode on Linux.  That might be
> old advice, and I am using shared mode.

And if you're having trouble connecting with WEP under linux make sure
you experiment with both modes on the AP.  A previous laptop I had could
not connect with the AP using "open" authentication under linux no
matter what I tried, even though that same laptop had connected fine
under XP.  Once I switched to "shared" everything started working fine.
-Ken