[ale] wpa_supplicant on hidden SSIDs

[James Sumners]

Oops, I overlooked the key detail of "v2".

There's really not much point to hiding the SSID. It is easy enough to
discover. Put a good WPA2 key on it and move on.

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
> That list shows the WPC54G versions 1 and 3 (Broadcomm chips) but not
> version 2 (Texas Instrument chip).  Searching through the site brings me
> to this:
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/acx1xx
>
> I think that means I'd need to find another card if I want to avoid
> ndiswrapper and hide the SSID on my AP since it doesn't appear that
> support is forthcoming in any short time frame.
>
> On 9/26/2013 05:33, James Sumners wrote:
>> According to [1], the card should be supported _without_ having to use
>> the ndiswrapper. You should be able to use the kernel provided b43
>> driver. Then you would need a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file similar to
>> the following:
>>
>> ~~~~
>> ap_scan=1
>>
>> network={
>>     scan_ssid=1
>>     ssid="HiddenSSID"
>>     bssid=68:7f:74:d3:a9:47
>>     proto=WPA
>>     group=CCMP
>>     pairwise=CCMP
>>     key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
>>     #psk="A secret key generated with wpa_passphrase"
>>     psk=c86cdc6991f8db814d426c404a5222ff2a957bb795bad2785e1ccd299a2278cb
>> }
>> ~~~~
>>
>> However, it still might not work. I have a Netgear WNDA3100v2 that I
>> tried to get working in the same situation a couple months ago. No
>> dice. It's the first time I've messed with wireless in Linux in
>> several years. I figured support would be better by now, but it's
>> still abysmal.
>>
>> [1] -- http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/devices?highlight=%28wpc54g%29
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>>> On 9/25/2013 06:05, James Sumners wrote:
>>>> It really depends on the card. Some lspci/lsusb details would help.
>>>
>>> It's a Linksys WPC54G version 2 (using the Texas Inst. ACX 111 chipset)
>>> PCMCIA card.  It worked in XP using the normal Linksys drivers (as long
>>> as I checked the option in the config that says connect even though the
>>> SSID isn't broadcast).  I picked up the ndis drivers from the install
>>> disk to use with ndiswrapper.
>>>
>>> If the AP is not broadcasting the SSID, debugging info on wpa_supplicant
>>> shows that it scans over and over again but, because it can't see the
>>> SSID, it skips the AP (the AP's MAC does show up in the scan list).
>>> Once I turn on SSID broadcast, wpa_supplicant connects.
>>>
>>>
>>> Here's lspci -v for the specific card:
>>> 02:00.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless
>>> Interface
>>>         Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G v2 802.11g Wireless-G Notebook Adapter
>>>         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
>>>         Memory at 30020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
>>>         Memory at 30000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
>>>         Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
>>>         Kernel driver in use: ndiswrapper
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 3:59 AM, Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>>>>> Has anyone ever gotten wpa_supplicant to connect to hidden ssids?  I
>>>>> just got the wireless card on the laptop installed (ndiswrapper) and was
>>>>> trying to connect to my AP which has broadcast disabled.  I couldn't
>>>>> connect no matter what I tried (ssid_scan=1, ap_scan=1 and 2).  It
>>>>> connects fine with broadcast enabled so the card is working.
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
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-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
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CH:D 59