CF wifi card has trouble connecting to an AP

[xamindar]

I\'m having trouble getting my wifi card to connect to access points.  Kismet is able to use it just fine to scan for aps.  But when trying to connect to an ap, even when I\'m in the same room with it, it continously fails to connect.  I would say it can connect only about 10% of the time.  I have tried many different Aps as well just to make sure.  On the rare times it DOES connect and get its dhcp info, I am then able to use it and it stays connected until I disconnect it.  I haven\'t tried connecting with wep, this has all been with wep off.

Im on a 5600 with the latest sharp rom but i don\'t think that could be the problem because the card acts the same way on my friend\'s 5500 running Openzaurus.  This card looks like the ambicom card but it is a generic one from \"Simple Mobility\" (bought it off ebay, probably a bad idea).  The Z seems to detect it just fine and everything.

So I\'m confused about it, unless it\'s a damaged card.

Does anyone have any ideas?  Is the card damaged?  Does it just not work on the zaurus?  Is there any way to find out what really is wrong with it or a way I can fix it?

Here\'s what cardctl says:

bash-2.05# cardctl ident
Socket 0:
  product info: \"INTERSIL\", \"HFA384x/IEEE\", \"Version 01.02\", \"\"
  manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002
  function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
  no product info available                

If you need any more info just let me know.
Thanks for any help!

[xamindar]

I guess nobody knows, huh?

Could it be because the card came from Hong Kong?

[Stephen]

My card identifies itself the same and I have weird problems too.

In my case, after a reset of the zaurus I can\'t connect using WEP unless I first connect to something else using unencrypted.  After that, it works flawlessly.  It\'s got me puzzled a bit.

I\'m using the latest cacko release(1.20) on the c760 with the host_ap drivers.

BTW.  how did you get Kismet running, I have had no luck getting iKismet to work myself

[xamindar]

I haven\'t bothered much with getting kismet on the command line working but kismet QT works great!  Here\'s what I did:
Kismet QT:  http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=226
Get one of these
Kismet on sharp rom:  http://www.kismetwireless.net/code/kismet-...rm-2.8.1.tar.gz  (the one I use)
Kismet on OZ rom:  http://www.kismetwireless.net/code/kismet-...rm-2.8.1.tar.gz
Go to where ever you put these files and unpack the kismet tarball  \"tar xzvf kismet-zaurus-arm-2.8.1.tar.gz\"
Then you should have the ipk file.  Just install kismet and kismet_qt.  Then when you run kismet_qt for the first time you have to select the rom you are running.  I selected \"Sharp3x-prism2\" (im on a 5600 with sharp rom 1.32 but i think 3x roms on 5500 are at the same level) and it works!  Of course you could try each setting and see which one works for you.  I don\'t remimber if it required any other libs such as libpcap or what not so let me know if it does and I will try to help.  Good luck!

btw, I didn\'t use the latest kismet build because I couldn\'t get it working so I went back to 2.8.1 which is the last one built specificaly for the zaurus rom.  You could try the newest build if you want but I just stuck with this because it works fine and does what I want it to do.

[CrossBow]

I have a similar problem:

(SL C-700 Cacko 1.20 & SL - 5500 Orig Sharp Rom)

I have 3 WiFi CF cards:

1.  Linksys WCF-11 - The big wide old one - Works fiine - no issues at all in either machine.

2. D-Link DCF-660W      Purchased used at computer show
3. Linksys WCF-12          From discount table at CompUSA


_Both_   2 & 3 have the same problem:

When I first bought the D-Link, it worked fine for about 2 days, then it would seem that I would have to press very firmly on the card, or sort of twist it to get it to be reconized.  If I would release the pressure it would lock the whole machine.  Now, it almost never is recognized.  If I do get it to be recognized, it will often connect, but it I so much as even breath on it, it locks the machine, and I have to pull it out.

Since It behaved the same in the 5500 and the C700, and given it\'s origin, I figured is was a bad card, and went back to the WCF-11.

The I got the WCF-12.  I had to edit /etc/wlan-ng.conf, but then it seemed to work fine for several weeks or possibly months.  Then it started having very similar problems.  Now, it only works if I *really* cram it in to the slot.  Again, if I so much as look at it wrong, it stops working.

Other cards - Quite a few different Storage cards, an Ambicom BT card, and a Trendnet  Ethernet card all work fine in both these machines.

Note that the D-Link and the newer Linksys are (as far as I know) the same (prism2) chipset.

It may be possible that one of these cards did something to my CF slot in both Z\'s, but if so, it did something that only affects the WiFi cards, since various other cards work fine.

My immediate solution was to buy a bigger case, so that I can carry the old, big Linksys card around.

Since some of the problems in this thread seam similar, I thought I\'d post my story, and see if perhaps we can discover something.

Sorry about the length.

--- CrossBow