Re: NetworkManager support for "restricted" or "shared" keys

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2005-08-31 at 11:04 +0100, Nick Atkins wrote:
> Hi,  I am using the latest version with Fedora Core 4 (0.4 I think).  Is
> there a way to enter a key that is restricted or shared.  NM seems to
> default to "open" and there seems to be no way to enter another key type.

NM will first try Open System (open) authentication since that is the
more secure of the two, actually.  If the connection to the access point
fails with Open System, NM will attempt to connect with Shared Key
(restricted) authentication.  NM then caches the last successful
authentication method and will use that auth method for that essid after
that.

Something you can do to debug the problem is to watch NM attempt
connection to your access point by executing the following (as root):

watch -n 1 "/sbin/iwconfig eth0"

where eth0 is your wireless card.  NM waits for the "Access Point:
00:00:00:00:00:00" line to become a valid MAC address for 6 seconds,
then it decides there is a connection to the access point.

If your access point accepts Open System connections, but doesn't
actually pass their traffic (if no 802.1x authentication is being used,
that is), then the access point is being stupid and needs a firmware
upgrade or a replacement.  What model access point is causing the
problems?

Thanks,
Dan