Topic: Enhancement for wireless networks withlong keys

Hello all, I love my Chumby and Sony Dash, but my biggest problem is getting my WPA key entered. I ave a long key (22 charecters) and it takes a few trys to type it in sucessfully. I'd like to have the ability to use the "wireless PIN" features some puters have now or pull the key off a USB drive in HEX or ASCII. I'm also a fan of the Windows Connect Now system where you export your wireless settings to a USB key for plug and play setup around the house. This is how I currently enter my key into my Xbox 360 and it works well.

Re: Enhancement for wireless networks withlong keys

Interesting idea about taking it from USB - I'll look into it.

Some of the wireless PIN methods you're talking about (for instance WPS) require support by the access point.  In most cases, we've found the support to be dodgy at best - since so few devices support it, we've often found that it simply doesn't work as advertised.  This will likely change as more devices support it. My biggest issue with WPS is that it compromises the security of the network, for those folks that care about that sort of thing.

For instance, you use a 22-character key, so it's likely you care about security, however, the PIN methods replace this with a simple small key that can easily intercepted.  The protocols used to trade this PINs is quite bad too - often the normal security is simply bypassed.

Re: Enhancement for wireless networks withlong keys

If you SSH into your chumby you can download and edit the network_configs file.

So I did this..

Set WPA key simple key

SSH>Chumby and d/l network_configs

Edit network_configs and enter comples 64 character key

SSH network_configs back to Chumby

reconfigure network; reconnect chumby to network

DONE.

Re: Enhancement for wireless networks withlong keys

It turns out we already support network configuration from USB - all you need to do is create a file that's the same format as "/psp/network_config", and put it on a dongle with the name "network_config" and it will override the one in /psp at boot.

Re: Enhancement for wireless networks withlong keys

That is cool! Much easier than my workaround!

Re: Enhancement for wireless networks withlong keys

harmlessgryphon wrote:
W6TT6GyA wrote:

If you SSH into your chumby you can download and edit the network_configs file.

That's difficult to do when the device doesn't have an address yet big_smile

You can also capture the existing file with a debugchumby script:

#!/bin/sh
cp /psp/network_config /mnt/usb

On the C1, you can also plug in a USB keyboard and edit the file directly