WiFi won't log in

Just started using Haiku on my Dell laptop. It recognises my WiFi dongle and connects to TalkTalk but won’t log me in even though I use the correct log-in password that is fine with other operating systems. After the error message," Failed to join network," it says, ( incorrect password?). But the password is definitely correct. I am able to log in without any problem using an ethernet cable.

Check that number lock isn’t on, I’ve been caught out a few times because of that…

Thank you for replying. I tried what you suggested but no luck.

Kind regards,

Richard

Which chipset does your wifi dongle have?
Sometimes that can be caused by the driver not being perfectly compatible with your device, but in fact that message can have various causes.
I know it from some Ralink devices on FreeBSD (and Haiku uses FreeBSD drivers for Wifi)

Thank you for responding. I can see Ralink RT5370. Is that helpful? Sorry, I’m no expert in these things. Also my Dell laptop has a wi-fi card Broadcom BCM 4312 but Haiku doesn’t recognise that.

Richard

After doing some research, it seems that other users could connect to a Wifi using this specific chipset, as they reported other issues which they could fix then.
I still wouldn’t take compatibility for granted, considering my own experience with Ralink (but I don’t know the exact chipset anymore, unfortunately)
Broadcom has heavily proprietary drivers that barely work on anything but the big three (Windows,Linux,MacOS), better forget about that one.
Some suggestions:

  • If your internal Broadcom chip has a standard form-factor,try replacing it with a Intel wifi chip. They’re supported pretty well, even the newer ones with 5GHz wifi.
  • Try using another USB Wifi dongle. It’s difficult to find out which chipset they use before buying, but I know that those by “Hama” use a Realtek chip which works fine for me.
  • If you don’t mind a little device connected to your Ethernet port, get a Vonets VAP11G. It receives Wifi and forwards it to your laptop using Ethernet. It looks like a regular Ethernet cable to Haiku. Wifi credentials are configured using the browser. That’s probably the most reliable solution, where nothing can go wrong, knowing that your Ethernet port works properly.

Maybe someone else has better ideas which don’t involve buying new hardware, but getting Wifi to work can be really painful and if it simply doesn’t connect while it actually should, there’s often not much else you can do about it.

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Thank you for looking in to this problem for me and replying so fully - much appreciated. I will give your suggestions serious thought, I did find another wi-fi dongle that connected but, once again, I received the message saying I was using an incorrect password, which isn’t the case. All rather frustrating.

Thanks again,

Richard

What’s the chipset of the other wifi dongle that you tried?

What hrev are you on? Somewhere between 56935 and 56948 I’ve had networking issues appear myself, could be related to that. Haven’t had a chance to file a bug report yet. Does it just get stuck “configuring” by chance?

It connects to TalKTalk and then asks for my password. I enter that but it says that it’s the wrong password. It isn’t - I use it successfully with Linux Mint. It’s a pity: I like Haiku but can only connect to the Internet by using an ethernet cable, which is tedious.

Kind regards,

Richard

I use something similar, with a cheap and old D-Link router set to WDS mode. Works great :smiley:

Thank you, that’s probably the answer - I see they’re about £25 on eBay but could be the easiest solution to my problem.

Kind regards,

Richard

I get similar problems sometimes (but not always and it’s a different chipset, so this may not help you). Most times I can workaround it by disconnecting (software-wise, not the dongle) and reconnecting again.
From the GUI:

  1. Choose your AP or let the automatic selection fire. Password is not accepted.
  2. Open Network preferences, select your wifi device on the left and click Disable on the right.
  3. Wait a few seconds and reenable the device.
  4. Choose your AP once the scan finds it. Hopefully this time the password will be accepted.

Same effect from the CLI with join, leave, scan, scan (yes, twice) and join ifconfig commands.

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Sounds like a rain-dance.

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Thank you for those suggestions. I tried them repeatedly but no luck.

Kind regards,

Richard

Indeed :smile:
But then it works for me. The logs seem to point to some race, maybe between wpa_supplicant and autoconnect, I never got deep enough into it to at least give a hint to someone that may know better. When I just try the AP again it seems there are errors due to a scan being running. When I disable the device I get a scan finished message and after reenabling it everything goes right.

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I face the same exact problem. Retrying over and over usually works and sooner or later it connects. Sometimes on the 3rd try, sometimes on the 30th try. So a race condition could even be a reasonable cause given that behaviour.

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Thank you for replying. I have tried multiple times but have never been able to log on except by using an ethernet cable. What else could be running that’s blocking it do you think?

Kind regards,

Richard

The Vonets VAT11G is about £25 on eBay but I found this at less than £10. I appears to offer the same function. What do you think?

Richard

That seems to do exactly the same that the VAP11G would do,so it should work,at least theoretically.
It’s a bit confusing that they list some specific compatible TV models,but that doesn’t need to mean much.