[PLUG] WiFi set up pointers needed

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Fri Apr 16 15:43:02 UTC 2004


On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Paul Heinlein wrote:

> 1. Insert the pcmcia card.

  In when booted.

> 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.

  Aha! Eureka! Hoo-ha! Exclamation!

  "Warning: Driver for device eth1 has been compiled with version 16
   of Wireless Extension. While this program is using version 15.
   Some things may be broken...

  Then, eth1 shows up differently than it did with a plain, ol' 'ifconfig
-a':

eth1:	NOT READY!  ESSID:""
	Mode:Managed  Channel:6  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
	Tx-Power=0 dBm   Sensitivity=0/0
	Retry min limit:0   RTS thr=0 B   Fragment thr=0 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

  "cat /proc/net/wireless" shows it's there, too.

> 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.

  I don't know this, either. Do I need to do anything to /etc/resolv.conf?

> Does any of that help?

  After all Kurt's unselfish help, yes!

  I guess that I need to find me a public WAP. They're rather rare here in
the boondocks of Troutdale.

  So, while the interface shows up upon boot, it requires an explicit
'iwconfig' to make the system aware of the card. Kewel!

  What's my next lesson in using WiFi?

  Thanks to everyone -- especially Kurt Sussman, guru exemplar.

Rich

-- 
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>




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