Re: Can Anyone Explain the over-all view of Wireless Networking?

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Jochen Schulz wrote:
> Kent West:
>   
>> Jochen Schulz wrote:
>>     
>>> /etc/network/interfaces contains the configuration of all your network
>>> devices.
>>>       
>> Well, that's what I thought, except a couple of people on this thread
>> told me to remove my wireless from this file and use wicd or
>> NetworkManager, so it's not always true;
>>     
>
> I don't really know these tools, so I cannot comment on that. If they
> work for you and you can live with them - fine! I only tried both of
> them for a very short time to find out they couldn't do what I
> needed/wanted them to do.
>
>   
>> and there's this warning when I
>> run /etc/init.d/networking restart:
>>     
>>> Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may
>>> not enable again some interfaces ... (warning).
>>>       
>> That's the sort of thing that confuses me.
>>     
>
> Never seen this, but it rings a bell. Does running the script with
> 'stop' and 'start' give this warning, too?
>
>   
>>> Wpa-supplicant is a special tool for configuring wireless encryption
>>> settings. Additionally, it can use virtual device names from the
>>> `interfaces` file so that a specific network card can use different
>>> configurations depending on the available networks. As I understand it,
>>> your computer is stationary and doesn't use wireless encryption, so you
>>> can ignore wpa-supplicant as well.
>>>       
>> Now that starts getting confusing.
>>     
>
> True, but it works great here. :)
>
>   
>>> After "Access Point" there should be a hexa-decimal string just like in
>>> my example. If this looks fine but DHCP still doesn't work, I am
>>> temporarily out of ideas. :)
>>>   
>>>       
>> Ah, a clue!
>>     
> -- snip
>   
>> So, how do I associate an Access Point?
>>     
>
> Usually, wireless cards do that by themselves when you set the SSID. My
> experience with different wireless cards is that they sometimes need a
> slight kick in the butt in order to restart scanning. Running 'iwconfig
> wlan0 mode managed' or 'iwconfig wlan0 essid any && iwconfig wlan0
> ACUwireless' usually does the trick. Another option is to remove the
> module and load it again. However, that shouldn't be needed after a
> fresh boot.
>
> J.
>   

westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid any && sudo iwconfig wlan0
ACUWireless
iwconfig: unknown command "ACUWireless"
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated  
          Tx-Power=27 dBm  
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management: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

westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid any && sudo iwconfig wlan0
essid ACUWireless
westk@evoljasen:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"ACUWireless" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated  
          Tx-Power=27 dBm  
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management: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


-- 
Kent West     <*)))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Praise Yah! \o/