Re: How to establish a wireless internet connection?

[Martin Kraus <lists_mk@wujiman.net>]

On Sat, Apr 05, 2008 at 11:41:51AM +0100, Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I've never experimented a wireless connection with my Debian Etch system.  Now
> I'm in a hotel in which a wireless connection is available.
> 
> Can anybody suggest how I can make this thing work?  I hope it is not too
> difficult.  A bluetooth connection is already working in my system.

well what kind of a wifi device do you have and what kind of desktop/window
manager do you use? 

if you are not affraid of the command line and your wifi device has a driver
loaded, you can try to scan for networks:

iwlist scan

this will output a list of networks with information about each network such
as essid, ap mac address(the 12 digit number in syntax like 00:d5:e8:01:12:d4)
and channel.  also, it will output an interface name of a device, that did the 
scanning.

sometimes, the device is down, so you can't use it for scanning(like ath0ap
below). this is fixed by running "ip link set device ath0ap up". exchange
ath0ap for you interface name.

example: 
>iwlist scan

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

ppp0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wifi0     Interface doesn't support scanning.

ath0ap    Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

ath0sta   Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:A0:C5:55:28:B3
                    ESSID:"moon"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=1/70  Signal level=-94 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100


if the network you need to use is listed, you can try to associate with it
using:

iwconfig <interface name from iwlist> essid <essid from iwlist scan>

example:

iwconfig ath0sta essid "moon"


then try to run "iwconfig <interface name>" to see, if the device has
associated with the network. it should list the correct essid and the 12 digit
number(mac address of the access point). if not, then you may specify
access point mac address and wifi channel manually by

iwconfig <interface name> ap <access point mac address>
iwconfig <interface name> channel <channel listed in iwlist scan>

also, make sure, that the network information has "Encryption key:off". if
not, you will need to set up wep/wpa authentication, which is a bit harder.

if you're using some kind of desktop environment(kde/gnome), they probably
have some gui thingy, that can scan and associate for you. try installing
something called network-manager and network-manager-gnome or
network-manager-kde according to the desktop you're using.

mk