Re: Problems with Linksys and Orinoco clients

From: Aron Silverton (ajs_at_labs.mot.com)
Date: 2002-08-13 14:34:52 UTC


Well, there is nothing wrong with the Linksys and ORiNOCO client cards.   I tried them in both FreeBSD and Win2k talking to a Cisco AP and they work great.

I have, by now seen numerous mention of the "problem" with the WMP11 card and firmware 1.4.2. I would like to reiterate from my experience detailed below that the WMP11 DOES work with a Cisco Aironet 350 client although I don't seem to get good speed negotiation.

Assumming that all of my problems are related to the firmware, how do I upgrade it? I have the 1.4.9 firmware mentioned earlier on this list and I have the Linksys utility for upgrading the firmware, but I get an error telling me that the secondary firmware needs to be upgraded along with the primary. I have all of the files included in the .zip. Does somebody have a clue as to how I can upgrade this card? How about the Intersil utility? I downloaded their software and, as noted previously on this list, there is only a broken shortcut to the utility.

Thanks,

Aron

Aron Silverton wrote: 

> John,
> 
> I got WPC11 firmware from the linksys website.  It is version 1.4.2.  My
> problem is that it gets downgraded everytime I try to use the card under
> Win2k.  As for the AP, note that I am using the WMP11 PCI card, not the
> WPC11 PCMCIA card.  Here is some information for you all the same:
> 
> # dmesg | grep wi0if
> wi0: <Intersil Prism2.5> mem 0xe9001000-0xe9001fff irq 10 at device 9.0
> on pci0
> wi0: 802.11 address: 00:06:25:08:f5:72
> wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3874A(Mini-PCI)
> wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary 1.01.00, Station 1.04.02
> wi0: promiscuous mode disabled
> wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 14b/3c; last status 403c
> wi0: promiscuous mode enabled
> wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 14b/3c; last status 403c
> wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 14b/3c; last status 403c
> 
> # ifconfig wi0
> wi0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         inet6 fe80::206:25ff:fe08:f572%wi0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 
>         ether 00:06:25:08:f5:72
>         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect <hostap>
>         status: associated
>         ssid lville 1:lville
>         stationname "FreeBSD WaveLAN/IEEE node"
>         channel 6 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
>         wepmode OFF weptxkey 1
> 
> Let me know if I can send you anything else.  The problem that I seem to
> have with this setup is that the TX rate is always shown as 2 regardless
> of what value I have selected.  The Aironet 350 in the Win2k client
> shows 11 Mbps.
> 
> Anybody out there have any suggestions as to the speed issue and to my
> problems regarding the ORiNOCO and Linksys client cards?
> 
> Aron
> 
> Jon Bebeau wrote:
>

>>Hello,
>>
>>I too setup a FreeBSD 4.6-RC2 system with a Linksys WPC11 and the same
>>Firmware you indicated. I could NOT get it to run in AP mode, only ad-hoc.
>>I have a Win/2000 client too that works fine with both AP and client PCs are
>>in ad-hoc. No go in AP mode. I'd sure like to see your config to figure
>>out what I'm doing wrong! Could you send a "dmesg | grep wi" and "ifcontrol
>>wi0" for your WPC11 HostAP pc that works.
>>
>>I did a posting about not getting the HostAP to work in infrastructure and I
>>got a few responses the WPC11 station (STA) firmware had a problem at 1.3.4
>>and it's corrected at the 1.3.7 version. Linksys says they don't have a
>>higher version yet. Don't know who to believe. Bottom line; I've been
>>unable to get FreeBSD and WPC11 to work in mode=6 (infrastructure).
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Jon Bebeau
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Aron Silverton [mailto:ajs_at_labs.mot.com]
>>Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 6:02 PM
>>To: hostap_at_lists.ssh.com
>>Subject: Problems with Linksys and Orinoco clients
>>
>>Hi all,
>>
>>I put together a HostAP using FreeBSD 4.6-Release in about twenty
>>minutes last night. The FreeBSD box is using a Linksys PCI WMP11 card
>>with firmware: PRI 1.01.00 and STA 1.04.02. I was up and running
>>immediately with a Win2k client using a Cisco Aironet 350 card.
>>
>>I have since tried using a Linksys WPC11 and an ORiNOCO Gold in my Win2k
>>client without any success.
>>
>>The WPC11:
>>
>>The WPC11 (version 3) has firmware 1.03.04. I'm not sure if the
>>firmware could be causing problems or not, but I tried to upgrade it to
>>PRI 1.1.0 and STA 1.4.2 from the Linksys support site. The upgrade goes
>>fine, but when I try to activate the card I get the following message:
>>
>>"The firmware of the card is not suitable or too old for running on your
>>environment. The utility is going to update the firmware of you card"
>>
>>At which point the firmware utility box pops up and my card is
>>downgraded to: PRI 1.0.5 and STA 1.3.4.
>>
>>Weird.
>>
>>I can't get this to do much of anything unless I put it into adhoc
>>mode. In adhoc mode it sees the HostAP, but I don't manage to get an IP
>>address from my server. The DHCP bit works find with the Aironet card
>>as the client.
>>
>>The ORiNOCO Gold:
>>
>>I upgraded the firmware on this card to 8.10, but it doesn't even seem
>>to see the AP at all.
>>
>>Here is some configuration information: (I'm not worried about my MAC
>>address being out there...)
>>
>>NIC serial number: [ 0123456789 ]
>>Station name: [ MALACHAI-AP ]
>>SSID for IBSS creation: [ myssid ]
>>Current netname (SSID): [ myssid ]
>>Desired netname (SSID): [ myssid ]
>>Current BSSID: [ 00:06:25:08:f5:72 ]
>>Channel list: [ 2047 ]
>>IBSS channel: [ 6 ]
>>Current channel: [ 6 ]
>>Comms quality/signal/noise: [ 0 81 27 ]
>>Promiscuous mode: [ Off ]
>>Port type (1=BSS, 3=ad-hoc): [ 6 ]
>>MAC address: [ 00:06:25:08:f5:72 ]
>>TX rate (selection): [ 3 ]
>>TX rate (actual speed): [ 2 ]
>>RTS/CTS handshake threshold: [ 2347 ]
>>Create IBSS: [ Off ]
>>Access point density: [ 1 ]
>>Power Mgmt (1=on, 0=off): [ 0 ]
>>Max sleep time: [ 100 ]
>>WEP encryption: [ Off ]
>>TX encryption key: [ 1 ]
>>Encryption keys: [ ][ ][ ][ ]
>>
>>Am I missing something on my HostAP side? Is anybody out there familiar
>>with these cards under Win2k and is there something basic that I am not
>>configuring correctly? How about the firmware downgrade on the Linksys?
>>
>>I can send more detailed information as necessary. Thanks in advance
>>for any help.
>>
>>Aron

>
> 
-- 
Aron J. Silverton
Senior Research Engineer
Motorola Laboratories, Networks and Infrastructure Research
Motorola, Inc.

Telephone: 847-576-8747
Fax: 847-576-3420
Pager: 800-759-8888 PIN 1147344
mailto: Aron.J.Silverton_at_Motorola.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4.