Encryption incompatibility

Does anyone maintain a list of incompatible wireless cards?

I have just bought a cheap Edimax PCI 54g card and a cheap Actiontec ADSL
router.

Everything else I've got interfaces fine with the router, including a
Linksys USB 11Mb, the built in 54g module in an Acer laptop, an old Buffalo
11Mb PC card and my printer server (also Edimax). They all work up to the
level of security for which they were originally designed.

Unfortunately the Edimax PCI card will only talk unsecured (which works
fine). It won't work with 64bit or 128bit WEP or WPA. They just say
"Acquiring network address" for several minutes and end up with a crappy
169.x address.

Have I any chance of getting this card to work, or should I just send it
back and try another make?

Christian.

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 16:22:42 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
<cmcardle75@nospam.yahooxxxx.co.uk> wrote:

>Does anyone maintain a list of incompatible wireless cards?

Yes. However, Wi-Fi.org does not release information on who fails
their compliance tests.

>I have just bought a cheap Edimax PCI 54g card and a cheap Actiontec ADSL
>router.

I like cheap. I guess cheap hardware doesn't have model numbers.

>Everything else I've got interfaces fine with the router, including a
>Linksys USB 11Mb, the built in 54g module in an Acer laptop, an old Buffalo
>11Mb PC card and my printer server (also Edimax). They all work up to the
>level of security for which they were originally designed.
>
>Unfortunately the Edimax PCI card will only talk unsecured (which works
>fine). It won't work with 64bit or 128bit WEP or WPA. They just say
>"Acquiring network address" for several minutes and end up with a crappy
>169.x address.
>
>Have I any chance of getting this card to work, or should I just send it
>back and try another make?

I'll assume you've checked for updated router firmware and Edimax
client drivers.

Yep. The problem is that the WEP conversion from ASCII to Hex keys is
different between different manufactories. There should be only one
way, but since standards are such a great thing, every company wants
to invent their own. Setup the unspecified model Actiontec ADSL
(wireless?) router for 128bit WEP and use a Hex key, not an ASCII key.
That always works. (Yeah, I know it's a big long key, but I can't do
anything about that).

WPA should work without the same problem as the ASCII to Hex
conversion has been standardized. If your unspecified Edimax card
does not work with WPA, then something is wrong with the driver (WPA
is usually in the driver, not the hardware). You might want to try an
alternative WPA driver before you give up.
http://www.wirelesssecuritycorp.com/...PAAssistant.do
It's kinda worth it as WPA is much more secure than WEP.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

> I like cheap. I guess cheap hardware doesn't have model numbers.

Actually, now I'm home, it is:

Actiontec GT701-WG (Access point)
Edimax EW-7128G

> I'll assume you've checked for updated router firmware and Edimax
> client drivers.

Yes. I updated the card drivers. The access point drivers on their
website were an earlier version than that supplied on the CD!

> Yep. The problem is that the WEP conversion from ASCII to Hex keys
> is different between different manufactories.

I have only used hex keys throughout to avoid dictionary attack.

> http://www.wirelesssecuritycor p.com/wsc/public/WPAAssistant. do
> It's kinda worth it as WPA is much more secure than WEP.

Unfortunately, the printer server doesn't support WPA, so even if I
could get WPA to work, it wouldn't be ideal. I'm not too concerned
about security. I have local firewalls on each computer. A complete
total loss of my entire system would be only a minor inconvenience, so
128 bit WEP would be fine for me. My only real concern is getting
charged for excess bandwidth on my ADSL, which has a cap.

Christian.

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 16:22:42 +0100, in alt.internet.wireless ,
"Christian McArdle" <cmcardle75@nospam.yahooxxxx.co.uk> wrote:

>Does anyone maintain a list of incompatible wireless cards?
>
>I have just bought a cheap Edimax PCI 54g card and a cheap Actiontec ADSL
>router.
>
>Everything else I've got interfaces fine with the router, including a
>Linksys USB 11Mb, the built in 54g module in an Acer laptop, an old Buffalo
>11Mb PC card and my printer server (also Edimax). They all work up to the
>level of security for which they were originally designed.
>
>Unfortunately the Edimax PCI card will only talk unsecured (which works
>fine). It won't work with 64bit or 128bit WEP or WPA. They just say
>"Acquiring network address" for several minutes and end up with a crappy
>169.x address.

most likely you just have the key input in the wrong format. Some
vendors use ASCII, some use hex, some use passphrases etc etc. Its a
bit of a lottery getting it right,

>Have I any chance of getting this card to work, or should I just send it
>back and try another make?

Sure, it;ll work - if its wifi certified it more or less has to - but
it might take a while to figure out the format.
--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
CLC readme: <http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

On 11 Jul 2005 13:27:42 -0700, cmcardle75@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

>Actually, now I'm home, it is:
>Actiontec GT701-WG (Access point)

Linux based router.
http://www.nettwerked.net/actiontec.html
Looks nice.

>Edimax EW-7128G

http://www.edimax.com.tw/html/englis...s/EW-7128g.htm
Well, it claims to work with WEP and WPA. I don't have any experience
with this product so I can't be sure if it really does.

>Yes. I updated the card drivers. The access point drivers on their
>website were an earlier version than that supplied on the CD!

Sigh. Welcome to cheap.

>Unfortunately, the printer server doesn't support WPA, so even if I
>could get WPA to work, it wouldn't be ideal.

Yep. In a previous post, I mumbled something about a large company
downlgrading from WPA to WEP because of one lousy Windoze 98SE client
that couldn't seem to run WPA. Welcome to the club.

>I'm not too concerned
>about security. I have local firewalls on each computer. A complete
>total loss of my entire system would be only a minor inconvenience, so
>128 bit WEP would be fine for me. My only real concern is getting
>charged for excess bandwidth on my ADSL, which has a cap.

Well, you could sniff and graph the internet traffic and set alarms
for when it exceeds your normal useage. Not exactly an intrusion
detection system, but might be adequate.

>Christian.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
# jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# jeffl@cruzio.com AE6KS

>> Actiontec GT701-WG (Access point)
>
> Linux based router.
> http://www.nettwerked.net/actiontec.html
> Looks nice.

It certainly seems OK and is listed at WiFi.org.

The PCI card, on the other hand, is not listed.

I'm going to have one more try by seeing if the chipset reference drivers
are better than the Edimax ones. If that fails, I'll have to send it back.

I'm currently running with security disabled, but MAC address filtering on
and SSID broadcast off. Please don't tell anyone.

Christian.