Problem with HostAP/WEP running in Managed mode

Tony Espy espy at pepper.com
Thu Nov 18 15:16:37 EST 2004


Hi --

I'm having problems getting the HostAP driver to connect in Managed mode 
to an Orinoco AP-200 AccessPoint configured for WEP.

Before I get into the details, here's a bit more configuration info:

Platform: Pepper Pad2 Tablet; XScale PXA270 CPU running MontaVista CEE 
Linux 3.1 ( a 2.4.20 kernel w/some 2.5/6 features back-ported by MV ).

Wireless Extensions: v14
Wireless Tools: v27
HostAP: 0.2.5

Wi-Fi Card: Gemtek Prism II based CF card ( hostap_cs reports firmware 
as -- NIC: id=0x801b v1.0.0, PRI: id=0x15 v1.1.0, STA: id=0x1f v1.4.9 )

I currently have things set up so that the PCMCIA sub-system loads the 
drivers.  I've confirmed that hostap_cs, hostap, and hostap_crypt_wep 
are all loaded.

I'm following the instructions for Manual Roaming from the HostAP README:

prism2_param wlan0 host_roaming 2
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
iwconfig wlan0 essid any
iwlist wlan0 scan ( the results from this look OK )
iwlist wlan0 key <WEP key>
iwlist wlan0 essid Pepper
iwlist wlan0 ap <AP MAC>

My problem is that although it looks like I've associated with our AP, 
the Bitrate always shows up as 2Mbps.  I also see a constantly 
incrementing Rx invalid crypt, Tx excessive retries, and Invalid misc 
counters when I run 'iwconfig wlan0'.

I also notice that the signal level reported for the AP is very low 
(-230 dBm ) when I run 'iwconfig wlan0'.  This differs drastically from 
the report from 'iwlist wlan0 scan', which reports a signal strength of 
-56 dBm from the AP I'm trying to connect to.

When I run 'dmesg', the last two messages are:

wifi0: LinkStatus=1 (Connected)
wifi0: LinkStatus: BSSID: 00:02:2d:40:44:85 ( which is correct for our AP ).

We had been running a Symbol Spectrum24 card w/the Orinoco driver that 
worked great, however we have a new requirement to support WPA, thus 
I've been working for the past week of so to try and get HostAP working 
on the Pepper Pad.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

thanks,
Tony Espy
Pepper Computer, Inc.





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