Wireless lan connected but no internet

[blnl]

In each machine I have 1 wireless and 1 ethernet adapter.
This is the output of lspci |grep -i net

02:04.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
02:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M_2 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)

The dmesg | grep -i firmware does not produce any output.
Please find the complete dmesg output here

I tried setting different encryption algorithms on my wireless access point. This is the outcome of the experiment.

• WPA2-AES - connection established, but no Internet
• WPA-AES - connection established, but no Internet
• WPA-TKIP - cannot establish connection
• WEP - fully functional Internet
• No Encription - fully functional Internet

Besides, disabling firewall did not have any impact on the wireless communication.

By the way, on my HEALTHY machine ALL encryptions work properly (with or without firewall). That machine has the same OS installed, OpenSUSE 11.0.
Does it mean that we can rule out the wireless access point as a potential suspect?

I was not aware that SElinux was enabled. Since I cannot find where to disable it, I believe that I have no SElinux installed.

As a next step I'll try migrating my HEALTHY machine to WICD (with installed Network Manager). I successful I'll do the same on the FAULTY machine.

[waterhead]

Do the two PCs have identical wireless cards? If not, then you can't accurately compare the two. The fact that you are unable to use WPA-TKIP encryption is troubling. This may point to a problem with the card itself, or the software used in the connection.

You could try manually installing the latest version of the wireless drivers. You can download the source files, containing almost all open-source wireless drivers, from here:

Download - Linux Wireless

To compile the drivers, you should install these:

kernel source
kernel headers
gcc
make

Now, these error messages:

SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=eth1 OUT= MAC= SRC=192.168.1.221 DST=224.0.0.251 LEN=87 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=255 ID=0 DF PROTO=UDP SPT=5353 DPT=5353 LEN=67

May be just because you don't have an active connection. But it seems that it is about port 5353. According to this post in the Suse Forums, it is from Multicast DNS. And if you don't need it, you should disable it.

That's Multicast DNS, if you don't need it, disable it.
Edit your /etc/host.conf and set mdns off

I hope this helps you make some headway on this.

[blnl]

True, the wireless cards in the two PC's are not identical.

Indeed there is a possibility of a hardware problem with my wireless adapter. Since I have a dual boot, I can test the hardware in Windows XP. In Windows, all encryption's are functioning properly.
I believe this rules out the hardware as a potential suspect!

Now, I shall proceed with wireless drivers installation.

[blnl]

I checked my wireless firmware. It is the latest version.
I reinstalled my wireless driver. It did not help.
I also tried another distro, Fedora 11. The problem still exists.

This is unsolvable. I'm giving up.

By the way, I remember once connecting to a WPA encrypted network in a hotel during my vacation. So probably nothing is wrong with my wireless drivers.

[blnl]

Yes, indeed I can connect to a WPA encrypted network (tested at my friends home). So finally this confirms that my wireless setup, drivers, and firmware are all OK.

For some reason my wireless adapter and my router do not understand each other.
Possibly some technical voodoo black magic that nobody understands

Anyway MikeTbob and waterhead thanks a lot for your effort to help me.

[MikeTbob]

Perhaps you can erase all the settings or restore your router to factory settings, to see if this might help before you go off and purchase a new router.

[blnl]

Yes, I already did that (several times), but it did not help.

The bad news is that this is a brand new router (3Com WL-603).
My old router had only WEP encryption, so I bought a new one WPA capable. Well I certainly made a good choice.

Maybe I can try contacting 3Com customer support first.
I'm not in the mood for buying more routers.

[waterhead]

You may want to try upgrading the firmware in the router. If it is still under warrenty, I wouldn't do this unless they tell you to.

The 3com site lists two versions of this router:

3CRWDR300A-73 (POTS)
3CRWDR300B-73 (ISDN)

I guessed that you have the ISDN version. There is a "Software" file update available dated Aug 19 2009. I believe that this is a firmware update:

3Com Downloads

Here are the release notes for upgrade version 3CRWDR300B_v1.11.01.

Temporary Release Notes

ADSL Wireless 11n Firewall Router Annex B (3CRWDR300B-73)

Summary
These are temporary release notes that will be superseded as soon as possible. These release notes describe the main changes from v1.08.00 to software version 1.11.01. This software contains a large number of fixes and an upgrade is highly recommended.

Problems resolved in this release
1. Added pre-shared key type field with passphrase and hex in wireless encryption settings page.
2. Modified inconsistencies in encryption types between Wizard and Wireless settings page.
3. Fixed URL filtering with PVC2.
4. Fixed VPN IPSec connection issue with virtual server setting.
5. Fixed VPN IPSec issue with supernet address at Remote Secure Group in IPSec Rule setting.
6. Fixed UPnP issue running Xunlei.
7. Added a check box with “Block traffic between VLANs by routing” in the Advanced VLAN tab of the GUI management.
8. Fixed configuration file issue with VPN IPSec settings. The settings must be changed and the configuration saved again.
9. Fixed issue if RESET button held for more than 5 seconds.
10. Improved wording on the URL Blocking Page.
11. Fixed clone MAC issue. Note: For fix to take effect, the unit must be reset to factory defaults.

The first one may relate to your problem. It is a Windows type executable, so it would need to be done with a Windows PC.

[blnl]

I got the answer from 3Com.
They say that my 30 DAYS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE period has expired. It is very unfortunate but they can't help me any more.

The only thing I can do now is to smash that damn thing out of the window.

By the way, I tried upgrading the firmware too. It did not help.