Message-ID: <47D3CF6B.8080703@mail.aitel.hist.no> (sfid-20080309_114807_003144_C024F12F)
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:52:11 +0100
From: Helge Hafting <helgehaf@mail.aitel.hist.no>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com>
CC: Tomas Winkler <tomasw@gmail.com>,
	Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@aitel.hist.no>,
	Joonwoo Park <joonwpark81@gmail.com>, linville@tuxdriver.com,
	linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] mac80211: fix races between siwessid and siwencode
References: <1204710009-10040-1-git-send-email-joonwpark81@gmail.com>	 <20080305094859.GA10077@ehus.geninetworks.com>	 <47CEA5CB.6040001@aitel.hist.no>	 <1ba2fa240803050701y57913de2s635eaf8b5e3b4f96@mail.gmail.com>	 <47CFF955.4010501@mail.aitel.hist.no> <1204813814.29410.23.camel@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <1204813814.29410.23.camel@localhost.localdomain>
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Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org

Dan Williams wrote:
>> I am not sure what you mean by the question.
>> This network uses WEP encryption (some users have older wireless equipment)
>> there is one essid and a single shared password that everybody uses.
>> Security is not that important, this is mostly to keep out outside bandwith
>> wasters/pirates.
>>     
>
> WEP has two authentication modes, "Shared Key" and "Open System".  He
> wants to know which method your access point is using.  During
> authentication, Open System is a simple two-frame request/response.  For
> Shared Key, there's an additional challenge/response where the AP sends
> a block of data, the client encrypts it with the WEP key, and sends it
> back to the AP where it's verified.  Only if it verifies does the AP
> complete association with the client.
>   
Well, how can I know? The access point at home is set to support
WEP and WPA, and of course I can specify the key. There doesn't
seem to be much more than that. I have no control over the
access points at work, although I could ask the people involved.

> You need to ensure that the mode matches between clients and the AP.
> Some APs have an "Auto" option that just accepts both methods from the
> client.
>   
I have to ensure this? I thought this was a driver-internal thing, I 
have not
seen any mention of this in wireless documentation before.
'man iwconfig' doesn't seem to mention this, and it used to be sufficient
to get a connection before.

If this is debug stuff, please tell how I can get the information. I can
add debugging options to the kernel command line if need be. (The driver
is compiled-in, modules tend to cause bootup delays.)

I tried to sniff wlan0 with wireshark. I did not get anything there until
after the association completed. Then I got normal stuff like dhcp
and other traffic. So I don't have any sniff of the association itself.
Is there some special options for enabling this, or do I need a 
different tool?

The siwencode/siwessid patch has helped a lot. The machine sometimes
succeed to connect at first try (during bootup) and almost
always at the second try.  The driver is not perfect yet, but it improved
a _lot_ for me.  Thanks - and I hope this gets into the next regular 
linux kernel. :-)

Another problem is that going out of range for an hour means I have to
do something to get a net connection again. This does not seem to
happen automatic, although I have not yet checked if it merely is
a dhcp timeout problem.

Helge Hafting