[TAG] Mandriva 2007 - WiFi cards cannot find network

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Sat, Feb 10, 2007 at 10:08:52AM +0000, OS wrote:
> Well, I've tried encoding a manual IP adress, netmask, gateway and DNS server 
> 1.
> 
> The WiFi AP is 192.168.0.1, my assigned IP address is 192.168.0.2. The netmask 
> is 255.255.0.0, the gateway is 192.168.0.1 and the first DNS server is 
> 192.168.0.1

I assume that the AP, the gateway, and the DNS server are all actually
one machine/one interface. If you're saying anything else, then you have
a problem right there - multiple hosts with the same IP on the same
segment are a big no-no. Second, (not that this is a problem, but you
might as well start out doing everything as "right" as you can) unless
you have hosts which use the third quad of the IP (i.e., 192.168.2.X),
your netmask should be 255.255.255.0.
 
> The NetApplet applet now shows a connected interface and shows a good signal 
> strength. So I tried the following:
> 
> ping 192.168.0.1
> PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
> >From 192.168.0.2 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable

OK, this would be the time to start doing the reduction process. You
know that your packets aren't making the round trip from your host to
the other one; why not? For the duration of the test, shut off/remove
every non-critical piece that could get in the way of that (i.e., turn
off any firewalls, remove any hubs/routers between the two hosts, etc.)
and double-check any of the pieces that go in between (can you hook a
cable between the two hosts and ping that way? If that works but the
WiFi connection doesn't, what does 'iwconfig' report for that
interface?)

All the other output that you've sent us demonstrates nothing more than 
the above test. It all says "no connection". Turn all that stuff off,
test each piece in between, then start adding things back in one at a
time. When the connection fails, you'll know what the problem is.

> I always tell people how good Linux is at networking !! :-)

Linux does indeed provide you with complete access and lots of tools.
The biggest problem in cases like that is almost always operator error.
:)


-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *