ifconfig problem

[ichigo]

Hi! I need some help regarding my wifi card in my Openbsd 4.3
it seems my wifi pccard can't scan my AP device

root> ifconfig ath0 up
root> ifconfig -M ath0
ath0: flags=8822<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,SIMPLEX,MULTICA S> mtv 1500
lladdr 42:5f:42:5f:42:5f
groups : wlan
media : IEEE802.11 autoselect (OFDM6)
status : no network
ieee80211 : nwid ""
none
inet6 fe80::405f:42ff:fe5f:425f:ath0 preixlen 64 scopeid 0x3

and when I issue a command

root> ifconfig ath0 up mode 11b chan 11 nwid myap nkey mysecretkey
root> dhclient ath0

it displays some error : ath0: device timeout
I already read the man page of ath but unfortunately
I dont have any idea what it tells. maybe some hardware issues.
does anyone here have an idea what should I do to conect my openbsd to my AP... thank's

Just a newbie eager to learn more...

[ai-danno]

Some common sense things that you have likely checked, but just to be sure:

Are you having your AP broadcast it's ssid?

Another thing could be that you are not correctly specifying your (e)ssid when running ifconfig. So if you have configured your AP to not broadcast it's (e)ssid and you aren't correctly specifying it when trying to connect, it could produce this same error.

Also, be sure you are on the right channel, etc.

I don't think that running dhclient is neccesary until you can see the broadcasted ssid in your -M ifconfig scan. In fact, I'd stick with a straight static IP assignment for now... dhclient is something to configure AFTER your wireless link can be easily established. One thing at a time...

[ichigo]

thank's for the reply ai-danno, but my AP is broadcasting its ssid.. I checked with my friends laptop and I think I checked all the options that I should filled to connect to my AP. It worked on my previous 4.1 obsd before. with just
ifconfig ath0 up
ifconfig -M ath0
shows my AP,maybe I should try to buy new card

Thank's again.

[ai-danno]

Originally Posted by ichigo

thank's for the reply ai-danno, but my AP is broadcasting its ssid.. I checked with my friends laptop and I think I checked all the options that I should filled to connect to my AP. It worked on my previous 4.1 obsd before. with just
ifconfig ath0 up
ifconfig -M ath0
shows my AP,maybe I should try to buy new card

Thank's again.

Since you've shown it can work in 4.1, it is likely the case it will work in 4.3 as well... so I personally wouldn't recommend purchasing another card. In fact, you may run into similar problems with the new card. The whole thing about growing as an OBSD user/admin is that you take problems like this and "eat them for breakfast." So if you don't mind, let's troubleshoot a bit more, shall we?

I wonder if there are some media options that you need to set that were not previously needed to be specified for your card in 4.1. "ifconfig -m ath0" (the lowercase "m") will show the available media options for your card... perhaps you have to set or disable one or more of these options in order for the scan to properly work, and see your AP...

... but if you're happy with getting another card, I will bug you on this no further. Good luck.