Wifi "PIN" - what's this?
 

I was trying to connect to the wifi router at a friend's house today.
With other access points, the access point appears in the drop-down list
shown by NetworkManager, and I just pick it. If it needs a
password/passkey it will aks, and that's all I need.

This time was strange. The access point appears in the list OK, but if
selected there would just be a looooong delay before Networkmanager
prompted for a passkey. It had detected the security as being WAP-PSK
personal. After the passkey was entered, there was another loooong
delay, then Network Manager gave up and tried the next access point it
could detect.

My partner, who has a Vista laptop, tried connecting to this access
point. She selected the network from the list of networks Vista found,
and here is when it went strange - she was prompted for a "PIN! This was
a number printed on the bottom of the access point. She put that in and
was then prompted for a WPA passkey, and after *that* she was connected.

What's this "PIN"?!?!? I've never heard of a PIN being needed before.

Is there some way to tell Ubuntu what the PIN is so it can supply it
when needed?

Regards, K.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/ +61-428-957160 (mob)

GPG fingerprint: B386 7819 B227 2961 8301 C5A9 2EBC 754B CD97 0156
Old fingerprint: 07F3 1DF9 9D45 8BCD 7DD5 00CE 4A44 6A03 F43A 7DEF
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Wifi "PIN" - what's this?
 

On 1 July 2010 14:27, Karl Auer <kauer@biplane.com.au> wrote:
> I was trying to connect to the wifi router at a friend's house today.
> With other access points, the access point appears in the drop-down list
> shown by NetworkManager, and I just pick it. If it needs a
> password/passkey it will aks, and that's all I need.
>
> This time was strange. The access point appears in the list OK, but if
> selected there would just be a looooong delay before Networkmanager
> prompted for a passkey. It had detected the security as being WAP-PSK
> personal. After the passkey was entered, there was another loooong
> delay, then Network Manager gave up and tried the next access point it
> could detect.
>
> My partner, who has a Vista laptop, tried connecting to this access
> point. She selected the network from the list of networks Vista found,
> and here is when it went strange - she was prompted for a "PIN! This was
> a number printed on the bottom of the access point. She put that in and
> was then prompted for a WPA passkey, and after *that* she was connected.
>
> What's this "PIN"?!?!? I've never heard of a PIN being needed before.
>
> Is there some way to tell Ubuntu what the PIN is so it can supply it
> when needed?

Sounds to me like a mis-labelled encryption key. Technically, they
should always be called "keys", but they are often called "passwords",
which strictly they're not, but J. Random Punter knows no different.

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Wifi "PIN" - what's this?
 

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:27:04 +1000, Karl Auer wrote:

> I was trying to connect to the wifi router at a friend's house today.
> With other access points, the access point appears in the drop-down list
> shown by NetworkManager, and I just pick it. If it needs a
> password/passkey it will aks, and that's all I need.
>
> This time was strange. The access point appears in the list OK, but if
> selected there would just be a looooong delay before Networkmanager
> prompted for a passkey. It had detected the security as being WAP-PSK
> personal. After the passkey was entered, there was another loooong
> delay, then Network Manager gave up and tried the next access point it
> could detect.
>
> My partner, who has a Vista laptop, tried connecting to this access
> point. She selected the network from the list of networks Vista found,
> and here is when it went strange - she was prompted for a "PIN! This was
> a number printed on the bottom of the access point. She put that in and
> was then prompted for a WPA passkey, and after *that* she was connected.
>
> What's this "PIN"?!?!? I've never heard of a PIN being needed before.
>
> Is there some way to tell Ubuntu what the PIN is so it can supply it
> when needed?
>
> Regards, K.

Well, it is used to "simplify the process of configuring security on
wireless networks" :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Setup

At least linuxwireless.org is aware of PIN :

http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Brainstorming/WPS-AP

Another link about PIN: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/39

-Frans (who would also like to know how this is supposed to work)


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Wifi "PIN" - what's this?
 

On 02/07/10 04:10, Frans Ketelaars wrote:
> On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:27:04 +1000, Karl Auer wrote:
>
>
>> I was trying to connect to the wifi router at a friend's house today.
>> With other access points, the access point appears in the drop-down list
>> shown by NetworkManager, and I just pick it. If it needs a
>> password/passkey it will aks, and that's all I need.
>>
>> This time was strange. The access point appears in the list OK, but if
>> selected there would just be a looooong delay before Networkmanager
>> prompted for a passkey. It had detected the security as being WAP-PSK
>> personal. After the passkey was entered, there was another loooong
>> delay, then Network Manager gave up and tried the next access point it
>> could detect.
>>
>> My partner, who has a Vista laptop, tried connecting to this access
>> point. She selected the network from the list of networks Vista found,
>> and here is when it went strange - she was prompted for a "PIN! This was
>> a number printed on the bottom of the access point. She put that in and
>> was then prompted for a WPA passkey, and after *that* she was connected.
>>
>> What's this "PIN"?!?!? I've never heard of a PIN being needed before.
>>
>> Is there some way to tell Ubuntu what the PIN is so it can supply it
>> when needed?
>>
>> Regards, K.
>>
> Well, it is used to "simplify the process of configuring security on
> wireless networks" :
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Setup
>
> At least linuxwireless.org is aware of PIN :
>
> http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Brainstorming/WPS-AP
>
> Another link about PIN: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/39
>
> -Frans (who would also like to know how this is supposed to work)
>

It is similar to bluetooth: you can 'connect' ~(?)10 devices to a
bluetooth source; for the bluetooth station to be able to recognise
correctly which device it is 'talking' to a PIN number is used. This PIN
is normally spelt out in the documentation for the bluetooth device
being 'connected' or it could be printed on the casing of the device -
however this doesn't always hold true and one is then forced to go to
the manufacturer to get the default PIN (or you could google for it, maybe).

BC

--
Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.


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