[PLUG-TALK] USB WiFi

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky znmeb at cesmail.net
Sun Oct 5 03:47:20 UTC 2008


On Sat, 2008-10-04 at 13:01 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> > First, it has to see the access point. Then, you have to get your
> > authentication stuff straightened out. *Then* you have to get your IP
> > address, usually with DHCP.
> 
>    What's 2? When the interface is up and running, I try running dhcpcd.
> Never explicitly did any authentication stuff ... as far as I know.

You need to supply a key if the access point has WEP or WPA encryption
enabled.

>    Last year when I had a problem I used the debug options but could not
> determine what the problem was. Messages meant nothing to me.
Yeah, they're pretty cryptic ... if you actually had Internet
connectivity you could Google for them. :)

> 
>    I guess then that the occasional issues I face in small Nevada towns has
> nothing to do with the radio or my notebook. Wish I knew more so I could fix
> the problem (other than a downed server which stopped me on the last two
> trips).

Small Nevada towns have wireless? Are we talking like Denio Junction?
Fernley? Fallon? Winnemucca? Heck, I've had Linux wireless problems in
*hotels* in *Denver* and *Salt Lake City*. :)

My laptop is dual-booted Windows and Linux. I don't recall ever having
stayed in a hotel where I didn't need to bring it up in Windows at least
once. And I've crashed a couple of routers/servers with Linux wireless
too. Try talking to the wireless tech support person without Windows and
you'll find you're helpless. :)

Linux wireless is not yet "plug and play" or "it just works". I was
amazed when openSUSE 11 connected to my home network wirelessly all on
its own, and even more amazed when it connected to the Coffee Brake,
where the SSID has a space in it. :)

BTW, that Belkin driver required a binary firmware download on Gentoo
Linux. I didn't do any digging when it was running openSUSE because it
was working, but I assume it required that as well. And I found this out
by running things in debug mode and looking the error messages up on
Google.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rich
> 
-- 
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com

"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." --
Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős




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