SMC 2632 (PLX) Ad-hoc mode fails

[Jim Carter]

On Mon, 8 Apr 2002, Thomas Leineweber wrote:
> since two weeks, I'm trying to get two (PLX-based) SMC2632 cards to talk
> with each other in Ad-hoc mode. I have tried different versions of the
> orinoco-driver with no success. Here are some diagnostics made with
> version 0.11:
>
> After loading the driver, on both sides the following commands are
> made:
>   iwconfig eth0 essid OM79
>   iwconfig eth0 mode Ad-hoc

I'm using a Linksys WPC11 in the Linksys PLX-based adapter, talking to a
Dell 1150 (Agere) mini-PCI card, in Ad-Hoc mode.  It works fine.  (Well,
the Dell card seems to be doing some strange stuff recently, but that's
another sad story.)

Did you set the channel explicitly for both cards?  You're right that there
would be an order dependence, since you can't enter Ad-Hoc mode without an
ESSID, and you can't set the channel until you are in Ad-Hoc mode.  Try
this command line:

iwconfig eth0 essid OM79 mode Ad-Hoc channel 3

(or whatever your preferred values are).  The WEP key (recommended) could
be set at any point, as far as I can see.  My own command line is:

iwconfig eth2 nick FAFNIR essid CFT mode Ad-hoc channel 3 key aaaa-9999-88

For some more notes on my wireless setup, see:

    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc/insp4100/wireless.html

Hope this helps!

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
Email: jimc at math.ucla.edu    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)