I have an Actiontec DSL modem broadcasting a wireless signal
to my laptop (Fedora Core 2) via a ZoomAir Model 4100 pc card,
with no security. The connection used to work fine -- so I
don't think it's a configuration issue -- but lately it has
been near impossible to establish the connection and, once
established, it often fails. A friend's laptop picked up the
router's signal without any trouble, so I'm wondering if there's
something wrong with the ZoomAir card. Any advice on how to
debug this problem would be greatly appreciated. An example of
the kind of trouble I've been having:
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[root@localhost paul]# /usr/local/sbin/iwconfig eth0 essid ACTIONTEC key off mode Ad-Hoc
# at this point the blinking light on the card becomes solid, but ...
[root@localhost paul]# /usr/local/sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"ACTIONTEC" Nickname:"Prism I"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:2.457 GHz Cell: 02:40:31:EB:B4:55
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity:1/3
Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
[root@localhost paul]# /sbin/ifup eth0
Determining IP information for eth0... failed.
[root@localhost paul]# dmesg
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: Station identity 001f:0009:0001:0004
eth0: Looks like an Intersil firmware version 1.4.9
eth0: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
eth0: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
eth0: WEP supported, 104-bit key
eth0: MAC address 00:40:36:01:B4:55
eth0: Station name "Prism I"
eth0: ready
eth0: index 0x01: Vcc 5.0, irq 3, io 0x0100-0x013f
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
pnp: Device 00:07 activated.
parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP]
lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
lp0: console ready
eth0: New link status: Association Failed (0006)
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:02.7[C] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49401 usecs
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
eth0: New link status: Disconnected (0002)
eth0: New link status: Connected (0001)
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
[root@localhost paul]# tail /var/log/messages
Sep 13 09:32:57 localhost kernel: ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Sep 13 09:33:00 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
Sep 13 09:33:03 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Sep 13 09:33:11 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Sep 13 09:33:19 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
Sep 13 09:33:26 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
Sep 13 09:33:37 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Sep 13 09:33:45 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
Sep 13 09:33:54 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
Sep 13 09:34:01 localhost dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.
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-Paul
