Cannot Change essid using iwconfig

[Timothy Murphy]

Rick Bilonick wrote:

> If I try to manually configure the nic using iwconfig, I can set the key
> but I CANNOT get it to set the essid:
> 
> [root at localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0 essid default
> [root at localhost ~]# iwconfig wlan0
> wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:off/any
>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point:
> Not-Associated
>           Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:25 dBm
>           RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B
>           Encryption key:off
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
> 
> (iwconfig will set the key, but I'm not showing the key info.)
> 
> When I use dhclient to obtain a lease, it tells me no leases were
> offered (even though the other laptop is connected to the wireless
> network and I've had them both wirelessly connected at the same time
> when using Fedora 6 on the Dell).

I'm not a WiFi guru, but it seems to me that if "iwlist scan" works
there cannot be too much wrong with WiFi on your system.

I would check /etc/dhcpd.conf on the remote system
to make sure it matches your WiFi device.
If the MAC is given, is it correct?
If it is not given, try adding it.
Could there be some duplication in the file,
as you have been changing your disk?
Does "service dhcpd restart" work OK on the remote machine?

Also, is /etc/dhclient-wlan0.conf (or /etc/dhclient.conf)
on your local machine reasonable?

Are you using NetworkManager (NM)?
If so, you could try turning it off
and run system-config-network.

As I said, I am not an expert on WiFi,
just someone who has had a lot of experience with it, mostly bad ...

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland