Re: How to set up a WLAN?
On 05/02/2008, Daniel Haude <daniel@stoptrick.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> this message is all the more strange since I had wireless up and running
> with Debian once. But that system got hosed about a year ago for some reason
> or another, and now I've got it set up again and I'm completely stumped with
> the WLAN thingy.
>
> $ lsusb
> Bus 005 Device 003: ID 2001:3c00 D-Link Corp. [hex] DWL-G122 802.11g rev. B1
> [ralink]
>
> OK, this is a Ralink RT2500 chipset. I've built the rt2500usb module and
> loaded it. ifconfig wlan0 up worked.
>
> I'd like to connect to the public network that's set up around the campus.
> What do I have to do to make it happen? Everybody else's Windoze and Mac laptop
> simply connects to whatever network it happens to find.
>
> There is a utility with the promising name "iwspy", but that tells me:
>
> wlan1 Interface doesn't support wireless statistic collection
>
> Don't know what that means except that it doesn't work.
>
> There are two Debian packages for this chipset: rt2500-source and
> rt2x00-source. They provide different modules, but neither really seem to
> work.
>
> I do remember using some tools when I had this set up about a year ago that
> listed all networks in the vicinity, and dumped screen upon screen of
> network traffic. After an afternoon of playing with this stuff, straight
> from Debian stable packages. Now I've been trying this for three days and
> I'm not getting anywhere. Am I getting too old?
>
> Thanks,
> --D.
>
Hi Daniel
I haven't yet used wireless on Debian but the general idea, I think,
is once you have the wireless thing running then you may be able to
pick up a list of wireless access points out there. I have no idea
what package provides this.
These access points will use DHCP to allocate an IP address to your
wireless interface. Any DNS will be sorted out at this time.
Most will not allow access - they will be protected in some way e.g.
password, MAC address restriction but iyou should be able to connect
to public access points.
I have no idea what iwspy does - the man page is unclear to me but it
looks like it is for access points. iwlist might be more useful to
discover nearby access points.
Regards
Lesley
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