Networking :: Wi card no worky.....

Hey Buf,

I think this is where you are, but of course I could be wrong. You run from the shell the command ndiswrapper -l and you get a response like

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netwg311 hardware present

If that is so, run the iwconfig command with no arguments and you should see eth0, loopback and wlan0. If you don't see wlan0. Try the shell command

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modprobe ndiswrapper

. Then try iwconfig (no args). If still no wlan0, things aren't working correctly and we have to go back and look at ndiswrapper.

Next use iwconfig to set the particulars of your WiFi network

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iwconfig wlan0 essid BufHouse ( or whatever your SSID is)
iwconfig wlan0 key FFFFFFFFF ( whatever your network key is.
In this example I assume 64bit WEP so you enter a 10 digit hex key). In one instance, I had to set the channel using iwconfig channel x (mine happens to be 6). Simarly, one can specify the mac address of the access point. However, I've never seen the need to do so.

At this point, wlan0 may be up running if your network uses DHCP. To find out run ifconfig and see if wlan0 is listed and if so, does it have an address assigned? If it is listed but doesn't have an IP address assigned issue the shell command

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ifconfig wlan0 up

. This should obtain (or renew) a lease with the DHCP server.

If you are using static IP's, I think the command after configuring with iwconfig is (you'll have to put in your particulars here)

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ifconfig wlan0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast xxx.xxx.xxx.255
followed by
router add default gw xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
you may also have to have specify your name servers. However, if you have had the PC connected using an ethernet cable, setting the addresses of one or more domain name servers should'nt be necessary.

Ahh, finally a number of the iw ... commands aren't supported when ndiswrapper is used. I have used iwlist succussfully with ndiswrapper. This will report a list of access points (that broadcast SSID) within the receiving radius of the network card.

Even if all goes well, the computer may hang. If so the network card drivers are exceeding the per-thread stack size limit set by DSL. In order to fix that, we need to rebuild the kernel with a larger stack size. I found some instructions on how to do so for Debian. On a fairly a new PC I installed Ubunto (another Debian derivative) this weekend along with some development tools. Hopefully next weekend I'll have time to rebuild a new kernel for DSL and test.

Best of luck and let me know how you make out!

Kind Regards

Scot

I actually got it all working, but its at 802.11G, is there a command to force 802.11G?
Or maybe its the driver.......
I am only 10 feet from the router
oh, and its ath0, not wlan0

Supposedly, there is a rate parameter for iwconfig. E.g.) iwconfig ath0 rate 54M. I've never tried it though and I'm not sitting in front of my DSL box at the moment.

However, congratulations on getting your card!

Kind regards

Scot

hmmm......
right now my noise level is twice as high as my signal level.......
10 feet from the router.

My roomies comp can access the router in the basement of the building, and I am on the 3rd floor......so it has a strong output.

anyway of clearing this up?

Getting out of my area of expertise. However, I did experience something similar. I was getting a weak signal using a USB adaptor. The PC was under my desk, when I put on top, the signal immediatly strengthed to nearly 100 percent. The card came with a little extension device, so I put it on before putting it back under the desk. Now it works well.

I would look for environmental stuff ... try moving the computer around if possible. I doubt its the driver, etc.

Just a guess!

Scot

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