Re: wireless network problems

[Andy Firman <andy@firman.us>]

> eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID: 1ecb13: Nickname: "Folger"
> Mode: Managed   Frequency: 2.412GHz Access Point: 00:02:2D:1E:CB:13
> Bit Rate=11Mb/s  Tx-Power=15dBm  Sensitivity:1/3  RTS thr:off
> Fragment thr:2347B  Encryption key: off Link Quality:27/92 Signal level:
> -69dBm
> Noise level:-96dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0   Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag: 0
> Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
> 
> When I run cardctl ident I get:
> 
> Socket 1:
>             Product info: "Lucent Technologies", "Wavelan/IEEE",
> "Version 01.01", ""
>              function: 6 (network)
> 
> I'm wondering if my problem could simply be something to do with
> permissions. I noticed that in one of your earlier messages you could
> run cardctl at a $ prompt, but I had to be root. Same thing for
> iwconfig. I added myself to the dialout and dip groups, but still can't
> connect to the internet.

Looks like your card is seeing the access point.  Good.

What does ifconfig say?

You need to be root to run iwconfig, cardctl, and ifconfig.
I use sudo most of the time.

If you are not getting an IP from the AP, then you can try giving
yourself and IP manually such as:

ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.5

then do this:

route add default gateway 192.168.1.1

(assuming your RG is 192.168.1.1 and you on a standard
private network 192.168.1.0/24)

Then see if you can ping the AP.

Like I said before, the Orinoco cards did not work well for me until
I compiled a custom kernel.  This may be a bit of a challenge for you,
but once you learn how to do this....it will make things easier.

http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html

Debian is not easy for beginners.  But if you stick with it,
you will be happy in the future.