[aklug] Re: Starting a Wireless Connection

From: Christopher Howard <choward@indicium.us>
Date: Thu Apr 02 2009 - 01:59:12 AKDT

On Wed, 1 Apr 2009, James Zuelow wrote:

> On Wednesday 01 April 2009, Christopher Howard wrote:
>> Hi. Somebody sold me a laptop for $30. It is the first computer I've ever
>> owned with wireless capability, so I am trying to work through that. Could
>> anyone help me know what commands to use to start the connection (to a
>> public hotspot).
>
> The simple way? Plug in your ethernet card, su to root and install
> network-manager and it's related companion (network-manager-kde, etc.)
>
> Make sure wlan0 isn't in /etc/interfaces and network-manager will control it.
>
> Easy as pie.
>>
>> My information:
>> 32 bit Lenny Debian install
>> XFCE desktop
>> HP Pavilion ze2000
>>
>> Results of iwconfig:
>>
>> lo no wireless extensions.
>>
>> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>>
>> wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
>>
>> wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:""
>> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
>> Tx-Power=0 dBm
>> Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
>> Encryption key:off
>> Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
>> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
>> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
>>
>> Results of iwlist wlan0 scan:
>>
>> wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
>>
> Some wireless cards won't scan until you bring the interface up:
>
> ifconfig wlan0 up
> iwlist wlan0 scan
> --- find the network you want
> iwconfig essid networkname here
> dhclient3 wlan0
>
> That's assuming an unencrypted network.
>
> If you're going to do things manually, a good tool to monitor your connections
> is wavemon. It shows signal strength, the AP you're associated with, your
> IP, etc.
>
>> I haven't installed ndiswrapper (or whatever it is called) because I saw
>> wlan0 showing up there in iwconfig (so I wasn't sure I needed it). Plus,
>> the wireless seemed to work under Mandriva live without special driver
>> installs.
>
> Yup, you don't need ndiswrapper. Actually you need that less and less these
> days.
>>
>> The wireless hotspot should be DHCP.
>>
>> I can setup wired ethernet in the config files and from the command-line,
>> but I've never dealt with wireless before. Any advice or really good
>> tutorials would be appreciated.
>
> man iwconfig will get you where you need to be to manipulate the card.
>
> Also look into the wpa supplicant documentation if you want to set up your
> home network with wpa2. It's really easy, and network-manager will do the
> heavy lifting for you if you install it.
>
> James
>
>
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>

Grrr... I think I'm going to start a Boycott Broadcom site.

Thanks for the help. I found out that there are no native Linux drivers
for the Broadcom BCM4306, so I had to go the Ndiswrapper route. I got
Ndiswrapper installed, and then the Windows broadcom drivers, but no
difference - knetwork-manager still can't configure the device.

Although, I should say... the card itself could be dead. I remember the
former owner once complaining about having issues with it under Windows as
well.

I think I'm going to have to go the Wireless USB adapter route. (I have a
morbid dread of PCMCIA.) Fortunately there is the linuxwireless.org site
that provides some good listings for Linux compatible USB adapters. Any
personal preferences?

-- 
Christopher Howard
http://indicium.us
http://theologia.indicium.us
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Received on Thu Apr 2 02:07:11 2009

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