Episode 52 - Wireless Networking Basics

[Chess]

In this episode: a basic, general overview of wireless networking in Linux, with mentions of the Intel wireless firmware, MadWifi, WPA Supplicant, NdisWrapper, and more; several audio Listener Tips, one on using an iPod with Amarok, and two regarding ssh and vnc; audio feedback.

http://www.linuxreality.com/podcast/episode-52-wireless-networking-basics/

[treed]

Hey Chess
Being a noob, I was surprised to hear all the difficulty with wireless cards. I have a Toshiba A45-S150 with an Atheros wireless card and it just works. I didn't have to download anything besides the Network Manager in Ubuntu. I simply punched in my WPA network key and it worked. I guess i got lucky when I purchased my laptop because I wasn't running Linux at the time.

[sy677]

Hi Chess,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but as your most recent podcast touched on the network manager i'll try here... Also i cant find anything on the web about it.

ive been able to connect to my work's vpn from home using network manager & pptp plugin in ubuntu 6.10 and can connect and access my workplaces' networked machines.

Although when i am connected, i cant seem to load any webpages! (This isnt great for a web developer!) If anyone has any ideas please point me in the right direction. thanks.

Simon

[thelastknowngod]

hey treed, i think my mom has the same machine and i know what youre saying. i loaded the ubuntu live disc and everything just worked. i didnt try the suspend function or anything but as far as wireless goes... no problem. oh and i dont use any protection... wpa.. wep.. nothing... i have done wireless only twice in linux and both times it was a simple matter of basically just making the device active... best of luck to anyone else.

[jkelly]

Hi Chess,

If you do any wrap up on wireless in 53 can you speak to using your laptop
on the road and being able to find available wireless networks?  Your examples
require that you know the ESSID - but what if your at your friends or (?) and
need to connect to a network?  Is there a show available wireless netwoks app?

Thanks,

Jeff
Sea Girt, NJ

[gotta_luv_tux]

If you use network manager, it will scan an find available APs

[Haliburton]

I have been working on a friend's laptop for the past couple of days. Something was spilled on it a while ago, and it has lost the use of several keys and the wired network connection. Wireless wasn't working with the installed Windows XP either, so I popped in a PClinuxOS CD, and with no effort had it quickly connected to the internet. Linux allowed me to see what was working, and what was not, so reinstalling the wireless drivers had it communicating in Windows too. Still have to use an external keyboard on the laptop, but at least it is semi-functional now. I haven't had a chance to listen to the latest LR episode yet, but I'm looking forward to expanding my wireless Linux knowledge some more.

Peter

[mjjzf]

If you do any wrap up on wireless in 53 can you speak to using your laptop
on the road and being able to find available wireless networks?  Your examples
require that you know the ESSID - but what if your at your friends or (?) and
need to connect to a network?  Is there a show available wireless netwoks app?

If you are a command-line person, you can usually scan for the networks using
iwlist <interface> scanning
- which is /sbin/iwlist ra0 scanning for me.
The 'iwlist' command usually isn't in the user's $PATH, but the user is allowed to run it, so if you indicate the full path, you can still see your networks as user, not root.
If you are into GUI, you can use Wifi-Radar. I use it with Xfce. I have to run it as root or with sudo, so I have a button for the command kdesu /usr/sbin/wifi-radar - which could also be gksu /usr/sbin/wifi-radar. I use 'kdesu' because I have part of KDE installed. If you have something Gnomeish, 'gksu' is probably the way to go.

[into_311]

I also wanted to throw out there some ideas/solutions.  If you are using a card with the Broadcom Chipset ( which unfortunately a lot of the mainstream/oem machines do). This would include some HP's, some Dell laptops and I've also found that a lot of the MacBook pro's have these....

Here are some solutions I can offer you to get it working:

- bcm43xx driver project (which by the way was reverse engineered by the Linux community, which I think is cool because it goes along with what Chess was saying about getting them to do that more). However, it only works with about 2/3rd of the Broadcom Chips out there. It comes with Ubuntu and OpenSuSe i know for sure (its enabled in the kernel).  YOu just have to do an apt-get or use yast and download the bcm43xx_fwcutter and then find a copy of yoru firmware to cut into it. For more info on the project you can go here:

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/

You can find a list of devices they support by going here:

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices
 
Personal note: I have had semi-good luck with this (depending on the chipset you have in your laptop).

- Another good solution I could offer you is the Ndiswrapper project

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

They also have a very comprehensive list of devices that they have found to work (the linux community) listed in their wiki entries. You can also find which drivers work the best for that device. In some cases I have found that HP's version of the driver works better than the Dell driver even though the card is branded as a Dell Wireless card and comes with a dell laptop.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List

- The last solution I would offer you is to buy a new card. This was my ultimate decision I made. Most laptops (made in the last 4-5 years) use either mini-pci card interface or a mini-pciE interface. You can go on ebay.com or possibly other sites and just find a card that will work with that interface that works in Linux. Such as the Intel Pro Wireless series. 2200, etc. work great for mini-pci cards and the 3495ABG works great for a pci-E interface.  Also, the Atheros cards are fairly easy to find. You may want to do a bit of research with your manufacturer to make sure the BIOS and your motherboard will support that other card though.

Above all, do your research though. Like Chess says. It will save you mounds of time/resources/headaches if you just buy a laptop that has a working/supported solution from the get go. Unlike me...

[danblei]

Hi, Chess. Great podcast and great work, got me totally hooked on Linux (I've been a listener almost from the beginning of your shows).
Just came across an outstanding wireless step-by-step guide which was written at the Vector Linux forums, though its instructions should be general enough to be applicable on the majority of other distributions. Thought it could be helpful for people like me who was frustrated for !months! before getting wireless to work.

http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1282.0

It seems to be especially suited for notebooks (which was my case, using a very old Toshiba 2595CDT and a no-name PCMCIA wireless card with an RTL-8180 chipset). By the way, I found Vector Linux to be a very fine intermediate distribution with lots of flexibility and adequate for not-too-powerful hardware. Comes with XFCE, Fluxbox and IceWarm; more than worth a look !...
Good luck and keep up the excellent podcast.
Thanks and best regards.