WPA Supplicant for Dummies?

I have an older IBM laptop with a non-WPA-capable WiFi adapter. I recently
downloaded WPA Supplicant for Windows and have been playing around with it,
learning step-by-step by trial and error, with the aid of Google, how to
configure and use the program. This brings me to my question. Has anyone
written "WPA Supplicant for the Complete Idiot"? The documentation that
comes with WPA Supplicant pretty well assumes that you already know how to
use it.

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:57:24 -0600, Donald Newcomb <DRNewcomb@NOT.attglobal.net> wrote:
> I have an older IBM laptop with a non-WPA-capable WiFi adapter. I recently
> downloaded WPA Supplicant for Windows and have been playing around with it,
> learning step-by-step by trial and error, with the aid of Google, how to
> configure and use the program. This brings me to my question. Has anyone
> written "WPA Supplicant for the Complete Idiot"? The documentation that
> comes with WPA Supplicant pretty well assumes that you already know how to
> use it.
>
Donald:

I am using it with a wireless Linksys NIC that also does not support WPA.
It took me some time but I have it working. It also took me some trial
and error. I now have it set as a service so that it starts when the
computer reboots.

My router/access point is a Linksys WRT54G.

Here is my wpa_supplicant.conf file:

# WPA-PSK/TKIP
ap_scan=2

#ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
ssid="hahnfamily"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
psk="a_random_string_of_characters"
}

When I run win_if_list.exe in a cmd console, I get the following output:

ifname: \Device\NPF_GenericDialupAdapter
description: Adapter for generic dialup and VPN capture

ifname: \Device\NPF_{3C2E7B86-E71E-424A-8095-505395F11703}
description: Wireless-G PCI Adapter

From the README-Windows.txt file, using the information above, I would
run the following command:

wpa_supplicant.exe -i'\Device\NPF_{3C2E7B86-E71E-424A-8095-505395F11703}' -c /path/to/wpa_supplicant.conf -d

Note: The above is all on one line, my Newsreader may wrap the line. Other
lines may have also been wrapped.

I sat at the command console and kept rerunning the above line until I
got the syntax correct. Once I had that part correct, I then moved to
trying to setup wpa_supplicant so that it ran as a service.

There is a win_example.reg file which can be modified so that the correct
registry entries get written. Just edit the file when you get the above
command line version running.

When you get the registry setup, just run:

wpasvc.exe reg /full_path/to/wpasvc.exe

Make sure you include the program name of wpasvc.exe at the end.

I also seem to have to run the Windows software that originally came with
the Linksys wireless NIC. Not sure why. I would think that it would not
be needed. I tried removing the Windows Linksys software and everything
broke. Maybe it also removed some needed drivers for the Linksys wireless
NIC.

Try this and see if any of the above helps.

I am sure there may be some typos in the above. If so, let me know, and I
will try and correct.

Good luck.

--
Frank Hahn