step by step

[shinny]

ok i was wondering if anyone could help me out here... heres the deal, i've tried a bunch of linux distributions, so far my favorite would have to be mepis. weeks ago when i installed mepis, i got it to connect through wireless by using dhcp client and ndiswrapper for my linksys wmp54gs wireless card. now the wireless has been setup to only use TKIP (preshared) key instead of WEP Key. here's the deal, i tried using WPA Supplicant to connect through and that had no luck. I am trying to connect through a preshared, "TKIP" key. could someone out there please.... giveme some step by step instruction on this. I am really fed up with windows and all it's vulernabilities towards spyware, i am so sick of spyware crap and trying to remove it all. plus I need a faster OS for this old computer (300 mhz, 192 megs ram, 20 gig hd). thanks in advance.

[Manlynux]

Try other distros`s like Smoothwall !

[kakariko81280]

I'm assuming the network card is still working with ndiswrapper, so here are the steps for wpa_supplicant.

1: download the source from http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

2: extract to a suitable location ready to be configured and compiled

3: create a .config file with the following entries

CONFIG_DRIVER_NDISWRAPPER=y
CONFIG_IEEE8021X_EAPOL=y
CONFIG_EAP_MD5=y
CONFIG_EAP_MSCHAPV2=y
CONFIG_EAP_TLS=y
CONFIG_EAP_PEAP=y
CONFIG_EAP_TTLS=y
CONFIG_EAP_GTC=y
CONFIG_EAP_OTP=y
CONFIG_EAP_LEAP=y
CONFIG_PKCS12=y
CONFIG_CTRL_IFACE=y

This config file probably has more in it than you need, I just edited my own one to suit your driver. However it should work just fine.

3: compile wpa_supplicant

make

4: install it as root

cp wpa_supplicant wpa_cli /usr/local/bin

5: make a config file. Start with the one supplied but edit out all of the network entries. Add one like:

network={
ssid="{your ssid here}"
psk="{your pre-shared key here}"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
priority=0
}

leave everything else as the default.

6: Run wpa_supplicant

wpa_supplicant -i{your network device} -Dndiswrapper -c{location of the config file from step 5}

this will dump some basic debugging info to the console. If it all goes well you should see something like

WPA: Key negotiation completed with xxx...xxx [PTK=TKIP GTK=TKIP]

If not, then redo step 6 but add a -d to the end for more debugging info and post the output.
If it works then you need to make wpa_supplicant run on every startup. I'm afraid I've never used Mepis so I'd need more info before I can help you there.