Its probably my fault actually...What Ive done is I had upgraded my Linksys WRT54G unit to the newest firmware provided by linksys, and then without checking to see if WiFi was working I just straight up installed OpenWRT over it. I assume the WiFI settings got borked somewhere in there, and no I cant connect to it to save my life. The unit is sending out a signal, I can see it with netstumbler. Netstumbler also shows its is unprotected (no WEP) and is brodcasting the SSID. I had mac address filtering on and sucessfully working before I did all the upgrades and looking at the NVRAM output it appears to be setup still. When I try and connect to the unit via wifi with either my Linux or Windows installs they both just dont connect. No error messages or anything, just not able to ping anywhere through the wireless interface. Can someone post the relevant parts of their NVRAM so I can match it up and get it working? Im fine with no security on it (actually would prefer it) so I can just get it up, and from there I can add things as I need them. Thanks!

Oh, quick neewbie question as well... When you run the "nvram set" command do the changes take effect immediatly, or does nvram commit need to be run first? Im kind of under the impression nvram commit is just so the settings are hardcoded once the unit reboots...but perhaps I'm mislead? Thanks again.

Do the clients associate with the ap?
Under linux you can test this by running iwconfig
if you are associated the Access point field will have the mac address of the AP.

You need to run nvram commit to make the changes stick over a reboot, since most of the settings are read by the scripts at boot time, simply changing the settings wont do much, you need to commit and reboot, or manually run the script that uses the settings.

Thanks for the quick reply. Heres my iwconfig output.

iwconfig
eth1      unassociated  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Channel=0  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00   
          Bit Rate=0 kb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

Dosent look like its associating properly. Can I grep out part of my nvram show output that would be helpful? Like anything with wl or something?

This may be helpful as well...the current wl related items from my nvram. Let me know if its missing any needed settings.

@OpenWrt:/# nvram show | grep -i wl
wl_radius_port=1812
wl_mac_deny=
wl_ap_ssid=
wl0_net_mode=mixed
wl0_frameburst=off
wl0_wep_buf=pass42:B0045EFB15:27459B777D:09391F3FD5:E62B235135:1
wl_phytypes=
wl0_macmode1=disabled
wl0_infra=1
wl0_country_code=AU
wl0_ap_ssid=
wl_infra=1
wl_radius_ipaddr=
wl0_ifname=eth2
kernel_mods=et wl il diag
wl0_mrate=0
wl0_mode=ap
wl0_ap_isolate=0
wl_mrate=0
wl0_gmode=1
wl_active_add_mac=0
wl_gmode=1
wl0_wep_last=
wl0_dtim=3
wl0_ssid=deeerp
wl_enable=1
wl_plcphdr=long
wl_macmode=disabled
wl_phytype=g
wl0_key1=B0045EFB15
wl_lazywds=1
wl0_key2=27459B777D
wl0_key3=09391F3FD5
wl0_key4=E62B235135
wl_auth_mode=open
wl_wpa_psk=
wl_mode=ap
wl0_plcphdr=long
wl0_rate=0
wl0_closed=0
wl_wpa_gtk_rekey=3600
wl0_macmode=disabled
wl0_radioids=BCM2050
wl0_phytype=g
wl0_lazywds=1
wl0_afterburner=off
wl0_antdiv=-1
wl_dtim=3
wl_ssid=derp
wl0_wpa_psk=
web_wl_filter=0
wl_passphrase=pass42
wl0_mac_list=00:02:2D:42:16:33 00:02:2D:42:16:B8 00:0E:35:60:95:1D
size: 9353 bytes (23415 left)
wl_key1=B0045EFB15
wl_key2=27459B777D
wl0_unit=0
wl_key3=09391F3FD5
wl_key4=E62B235135
wl_country_code=AU
wl_hwaddr=
wl_net_mode=mixed
wl_active_mac=
wl0_wds=
wl_rate=0
wl_macmode1=disabled
wl0_radius_port=1812
wl0_auth=0
wl0_mac_deny=
wl0_radius_ipaddr=
wl_country=Worldwide
wl_crypto=tkip
wl_rateset=default
wl_wep_bit=64
wl_radius_key=
wl_unit=0
wl0_phytypes=g
wl0_frag=2346
wl0_wep=off
wl0_country=Worldwide
wl_wds=
wl0_rateset=default
wl0_wep_bit=64
wl0_afterburner_override=-1
wl_auth=0
wl_wep_last=
wl_frameburst=off
wl0_passphrase=pass42
wl0_rts=2347
wl_ifname=
wl_wep=off
wl_gmode_protection=off
wl0_wpa_gtk_rekey=3600
wl_frag=2346
wl_wep_gen=pass42:B0045EFB15:27459B777D:09391F3FD5:E62B235135:1
wl0_key=1
wl0_active_mac=
wl_maclist=
wl_radioids=
wl_mac=00:02:2D:42:16:33 00:02:2D:42:16:B8 00:0E:35:60:95:1D
wl_corerev=
wl0_radio=1
wl_channel=6
wl0_bcn=100
wl_afterburner=off
wl0_hwaddr=00:06:25:C0:34:48
wl_radio=1
wl0_wep_gen=pass42:B0045EFB15:27459B777D:09391F3FD5:E62B235135:1
wl0_gmode_protection=off
wl0_maclist=
wl_rts=2347
wl_ap_isolate=0
wl_mac_list=00:02:2D:42:16:33 00:02:2D:42:16:B8 00:0E:35:60:95:1D
lan_hwnames=et0 il0 wl0 wl1
wl0_radius_key=
wl0_corerev=4
wl_key=1
wl0_channel=6
wl0_auth_mode=open
wl_closed=1
wl0_crypto=tkip
wl0_ap_ip=
wl_bcn=100
wl_wep_buf=pass42:B0045EFB15:27459B777D:09391F3FD5:E62B235135:1
wl_ap_ip=
wl_antdiv=-1

Try to do a scan, if your wlan is able to, with:

iwlist eth1 scan

Probably doesn't give you that much, but it can't hurt to try.
/bengan

Interesting....it came up with something.

root @ katherine # iwlist eth1 scan
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:06:25:C0:34:48
                    ESSID:"<hidden>"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:6
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
                    Extra: Rates (Mb/s): 1 2 5.5 6 9 11 12 18 24 36 48 54 
                    Extra: RSSI: -39  dBm 
                    Extra: Last beacon: 2ms ago

What does this mean?

Ok, upon more investigation it seems if i manually up an IP on the wifi i can ping the router (192.168.1.1) but cannot ping anything past it, even other machines on my local network. It really seems to me that the MAC if my wifi card is blocked, but all the settings (As far as I can tell) in the nvram show no blocking is taking place.

Question....why are there settings for both wl and wl0 in the nvram? Two different sides of the wireless interface? Perhaps one of them is allowing me acces (so it responds to pings) but the oter side is rejecting me so I can't go out to the network anywhere. Also, why do the macmode settings have regular macmode and macmode1 for both wl and wl0 interfaces? Heres what I mean..

@OpenWrt:/# nvram show | grep -i macmode
wl0_macmode1=allow
wl_macmode=allow
wl0_macmode=allow
size: 9359 bytes (23409 left)
wl_macmode1=allow
filter_macmode=allow

And just for fun my settings for maclist

@OpenWrt:/# nvram show | grep -i maclist
filter_maclist=
size: 9359 bytes (23409 left)
wl_maclist=00:0E:35:60:95:1D
wl0_maclist=00:0E:35:60:95:1D

Oh, one more question...what is filter_macmode? What should it be set to? I didnt see an explanation to it on the openwrtnvram page. Thanks again! This is fun stuff!

Try setting your essid explicitly. And key off. You might whant to set the channel to.

iwconfig eth1 essid "youressid" key off channel 6

Hm. From here I'm lost. Haven't worked with the openwrt and filter_macmode. Sorry.

Alright! This works. But...why? How come it needs the settings to be specified for it? Now...how am I going to get windows to connect to it? Heh. Id much prefer it just worked like before where it just went. Any ideas on how to configure it back to an easier connection? Thanks so far, at least im free from the cat5 again.

It's showing up as "<hidden>" because the ssid isn't being broadcasted in the beacons. The setting to control this is wl0_closed, but according to your nvram output it's already set to 0 (broadcast ssid).

Yea, i made sure it is no longer hidden and now when i scan it comes back with the ssid name. But why to I have to specify the network and channel now when I didnt have to before installing openwrt? Im not really complaining...Im just trying to learn. Thanks!

In linux (client) when you bring the wireless interface up it will automatically attempt to connect to nearest network (strongest signal) it finds. The only reason you ever have to specify the network name/channel in linux is when the network you want to connect to is hidden, encrypted (in which case you need to specify the key) or multiple networks are available in your area (to prevent it from connecting to the wrong network).

Otherwise it's just a matter of running the dhcp client which brings the wireless interface up, causing it to associate with the nearest access point and perform a dhcp request setting the nameserver, ip and routing.

I can't emphasise this enough - don't blame your problems on anything other than yourself unless you can prove it. If you don't like openwrt or are unable to use it then don't run it.

Yeah, well. In the initial line on the message you can read that the person is blaming hi or her self. No one else.

Yea, the part I don't understand is why before I installed openwrt i *didn't* have to specify the name, and after the install I *did*. Even now, when Im positive the ssid isn't hidden it still has to be manually specified. Its works now, so I'm to worried about it...I was just wondering if perhaps this was a feature of openwrt or something and was interested in *LEARNING* more about the software, as that's my intended purpose of this whole process.

I'm sorry if I have somehow insulted you. If you don't like my questions please don't read them. I'm not trying to anger anyone.