Author Topic: Solved - Vodafone Huawei pocket wifi not connecting  (Read 943 times)

Offline Jimbo

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Solved - Vodafone Huawei pocket wifi not connecting
« on: October 28, 2012, 05:55:03 AM »
Today I bought a Huawei E585u-82 pocket wifi mobile broadband router locked to the Vodafone network.  In Windows, I just had to supply the WPA key found on the inside of the cover for it to connect.  
No success in PCLOS.  When I right-click the network icon on the panel, it shows the wireless network at full strength, but when I try to configure and connect, it asks for a WEP key.  I entered the WPA key as per Windows, and it tries, but comes back with a "failed to connect" message.  Does the same if I select the WPA key and try to connect.  Sorry I can't be more specific, as I am posting this from Windows, of course.
The driver seems to be ok, as I can connect wirelessly to my Mother's router, using her WPA key, and a friend brought her Telstra pocket wifi device, and it connected straight away, also just by entering the WPA key.
Does anyone have any ideas what is different about this one?
Thanks for your observations.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2012, 03:41:37 AM by Jimbo »

Offline Jimbo

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Re: Vodafone Huawei pocket wifi not connecting
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2012, 03:42:57 PM »
Let's add some more info:
My system is newly-installed and fully updated.  As I posted above, connects to other networks without a problem.  Here are the answers to some "Basic Wireless troubleshooting" questions.

KDE 4

Kernel
2.6.38.8-pclos1.a64

lspci
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.

eth0      IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:off/any 
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=200 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

cat /etc/modprobe.conf
install scsi_hostadapter /sbin/modprobe ahci; /sbin/modprobe ata_piix; /bin/true
install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd; /sbin/modprobe ohci_hcd; /bin/true
options snd-ac97-codec power_save=1
alias pci:v000014E4d00004727sv0000103Csd00001483bc02sc80i00 wl
alias eth0 wl
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel
alias sound-slot-1 snd_hda_intel

cat /etc/modprobe.preload
# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY
# for old kernel use /etc/modules
fuse
raw1394
sbp2
ohci1394

nvram
evdev
evdev

cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
No result

cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes

cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
blacklist ssb

service -f network
Shutting down interface eth0:                                                                                 [  OK  ]
Shutting down interface eth1:                                                                                 [  OK  ]
Shutting down loopback interface:                                                                             [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:                                                                               [  OK  ]
Configuring wireless regulatory domain                                                                        [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth0:  Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    SET failed on device eth0 ; Invalid argument.
                                                                                                              [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth1:   

iwlist scan (After listing my neighbour's networks, says:)
 Cell 03 - Address: 24:DB:AC:A4:20:50
                    Channel:3
                    Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-40 dBm 
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"pocketwifi-2050"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=0000000000000000
                    Extra: Last beacon: 59ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000F706F636B6574776966692D32303530
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B0C12961824
                    IE: Unknown: 030103
                    IE: Unknown: 050400020000
                    IE: Unknown: 0706415520010D14
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1A2C0000FF00000000000000000000008000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D1603000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
                    IE: Unknown: DD0E0050F204104A0001101044000102

If I could work out how, I'd insert a snapshot of my pclos wireless card config!
It seems that the pocket wifi thingy is working, and my wireless card is working, they just refuse to talk to each other!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Offline Jimbo

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Re: Vodafone Huawei pocket wifi not connecting
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2012, 03:40:41 AM »
Thank you for your many suggestions  ;D but I found the problem - I had to manually enter the SSID! ::)

Online Just17

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Re: Vodafone Huawei pocket wifi not connecting
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2012, 05:43:20 AM »
Thank you for your many suggestions  ;D but I found the problem - I had to manually enter the SSID! ::)

:D

For my own curiosity ......  you had to enter the SSID in the PCLOS settings?

That might be due to the SSID not being 'broadcast' from the router?
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Offline Jimbo

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Re: Solved - Vodafone Huawei pocket wifi not connecting
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2012, 12:41:52 AM »
Just17,
Yes, I had to manually enter it in PCLOS settings.  Don't know enough about such things to know why but it works fine now! :D