[PLUG] WiFi set up pointers needed

[Paul Heinlein]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Rich Shepard wrote:

>   The tools seem to be there. But, I don't know how to configure
> wlan. What's a MIB, WEP and the other acronyms? How do I answer
> config file questions when I've no idea what it is I should want?

Try the iwconfig(8) man page.

For quick and dirty, try

1. Insert the pcmcia card.

2. Run iwconfig without any arguments. Does the new device show up?
   Here things get tricky. The name of the device might be eth1, or
   wlan0, or something else entirely. If you don't have iwconfig, try
   "cat /proc/net/wireless" instead.

3. If the device doesn't show up, tail /var/log/messages to see if
   there are any "I'm frustrated" messages from your hotplug setup.

   If that isn't revealing, then you'll need to do some Googling to
   find out what kernel module supports your card. If it's, say, the
   very common orinoco_cs module, then do "modprobe orinoco_cs" and
   then repeat step 2 to see if anything has happened.

4. I don't know how Slackware does network configuration, but you'll
   almost certainly want to set up the wireless interface to use DHCP.
   Very few people hard-wire their wireless addresses.

Does any of that help?

-- Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com>