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Access Connections replacemnt ?

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 7:33 am
by powaq
Hi, I'd like to know if there is anything out there that manages connections as well as IBM Access Connections. AC works great for me but I need to be able to log on to a certain WEP wireless network once in a while that provides the KEY for me and that uses a root certificate.

I'm able to configure windows networking correctly for that network but I can't get Access Connections to connect to it.

I can't immediately find something, being mainly a Mac user I don't really know what to look for. OSX has location management built in.

I'm on an X23 with the 802.11b wireless card (the one that doesn't support WPA *grumble*)

Anyway, any info is welcome.

Re: Access Connections replacemnt ?

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 8:13 am
by Wiz
powaq wrote:Hi, I'd like to know if there is anything out there that manages connections as well as IBM Access Connections. AC works great for me but I need to be able to log on to a certain WEP wireless network once in a while that provides the KEY for me and that uses a root certificate.

I'm able to configure windows networking correctly for that network but I can't get Access Connections to connect to it.

I'm on an X23 with the 802.11b wireless card (the one that doesn't support WPA *grumble*)
I assume the wireless card you use is a Intel 2100b? It should support WPA/TKIP, but not WPA2 i think (a long time since i used that adapter so cannot remember for sure). I found the Intel 2100b to be useless so replaced with a Atheros when i had my T40.
I also assume that you try to connect to a wireless network that use PEAP and 802.1x authentication since you talk about root certificate and dynamic wep? Do you authenticate using username and password, machine authentication or a certificate? If you use username and password do you use GTC or MSChap? If you are going to authenticate using a certificate you need a client certificate or machine certificate issued to you or your computer (depend if you use machine authentication or not).
If you use PEAP and choose to validate server certificate in your profile you need the root ca certificate on your computer. If you uncheck that option you don't need the root ca certificate on your computer and should be able to connect. Also since you have a 802.11b adapter only you have to make sure the wireless network you connect to does not require b/g.
When you try to connect is it stopping when trying to authenticate? Do you see any errors on the radius server?

There are other clients like Cisco Secure Services Client and also one from Juniper and both support most authentication and encryption types available, but none of them is free. AC should work fine with PEAP and the Intel 2100b (I think the Intel 2100b stink in any case, but that's another story). There might be other clients as well and maybe someone else know about some other good clients, but i haven't seen any that i found better then the one from Cisco, Juniper or AC. Very few support that many EAP types, encryptions and authentication types that some might need to connect to several different wireless networks.

I also assume you use the latest driver for your wlan adapter and the latest version of AC that support your wlan adapter and the driver you use?