From: J Yunke (yunke_at_productivity.org)
Date: 2002-07-15 07:19:31 UTC
> Actually, it does not mean that.. Open mode (vs. the default restricted)
> accepts incoming frames with no encryption, but it still encrypts
> outgoing frames. I don't see much use for this mode.
Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps the 'open mode' allows the authentication to occur in the clear before 'switching' to WEP, for some vendors? Perhaps to avoid chicken-egg problems during the auth/join phase...
> > Non-working Situations (stations keep asking to authenticate, but can't)
> > iwconfig wlan0 key 1561-b874-aa open
> > iwconfig wlan0 key 1561-b874-aa restricted
>
> So, you are using key #4 in the station, but key #1 in the AP? That
> won't work since station encrypts using key #4 and AP drops these since
> it does not have a matching key #4 (and same for AP->STA with key #1).
Actually, I've also tried this (with real key data, not the below example keys):
iwconfig wlan0 key 0123-4567-89 [1] open iwconfig wlan0 key 0124-4567-89 [2] open iwconfig wlan0 key 0125-4567-89 [3] open iwconfig wlan0 key 0126-4567-89 [4] open
...and then activated both with [1], both with [4], etc. Nothing seems to make it happy.
I'll check my homework closer to see if I mistyped something.
> configuration. The frame is silently dropped and the station will retry
> authentication. If you would use open authentication, the station should
> be able to authenticate and associate, but data frames from AP to STA
> would be dropped.
Thanks for further clarifying that, and thanks for the excellent code.