Re: Netgear wg511, 2.6/Sarge - weird?

[Rusty Carruth <rusty_debian@descomp.com>]

I got a lot of helpful replies from folks, I'll use the last one as the 
pulpit from
which I'll speak ;-)

Thanks to all for their help, here's what I've found:


Jordan Smith wrote:

> I was running this card on Sarge when it was still Testing.  Did you
> install the wireless-tools package?
>  

Yep.

> If so, do an iwconfig and see if the card is detected with wireless
> extensions. 
>  
>
> If you see wireless extensions in the output, try an "iwlist
> eth1(interface) scan" to see if it picks up the AP
>
> If the card is up and the module loaded then the green light should be
> on.  When the interface is routing traffic, the yellow light will be
> flashing. 
>
> Also, you might try a lsmod to see if the prism54 and the Yenta modules
> are loaded before you scan. 
>  
# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      NOT READY!  ESSID:off/any
         Mode:Managed  Channel:6  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
         Tx-Power=31 dBm   Sensitivity=0/200
         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

eth2      no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

doclap:~# lsmod|egrep prism
prism54                54812  0
firmware_class         10176  1 prism54
doclap:~# iwlist eth1(interface) scan
-su: syntax error near unexpected token `('
doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1(interface)' scan
eth1(interface)  Interface doesn't support scanning.

doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1' scan
eth1      No scan results
doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1' scan
eth1      No scan results
doclap:~# lsmod|egrep -i yenta
yenta_socket           21728  1
pcmcia_core            70868  2 ds,yenta_socket
doclap:~#

During all the above the green light never let a peep of greenness out.

Now, do remember that I don't have an AP here - I'll have to go try the
things that require an AP handy somewhere that has one.

one thing thats not very helpful (in addition to the fact that the vendors
like to switch parts inside without ANY way for folks to tell!), is that
the card itself has NO information about what's inside, and in fact
doesn't even say where it was made!  (Jochen asked where it was
made - there's no hint at all.  All it says is the usual 'This device
complies ...blah...blah...blah", then FCC ID: PY3WG511, and
Canada ID: 4054A-WG511, then the MAC address (00:09:5b:45:51:aa)
and serial (WG51A33AH021946).  thats all on the back.  On
the front is even less useful info :-)

So, what I need to do, it appears, is get next to a REAL AP and
see what happens when I do the above iwlist eth1 scan...

I'll report back when I finally get a chance to do that.

Thanks again to all who responded!  (That iwlist thing I've not seen
before, and I can tell you I've been looking!)

Oh - Will asked what kernel I was running.  Its 2.6.8-2-686
(I'd not heard about iwconfig to monitor mode either, so that's something
else for me to try, if I remember)

rc