what exactly is Prism2?

Forum: Networking
Topic: what exactly is Prism2?
started by: vees

Posted by vees on Oct. 06 2006,14:58

I am looking for a wireless card to use in hotels and restaurants for my laptop. I use DSL 2.4.

I looked up the wireless cards wiki and found one I could get (refurbished) for only 20 bucks - which is great. However, it says that I need to use the "Prism2" GUI with it.

What the heck is this and how do I use it?

Sorry for the primitive question, but this will be my very first step into the wireless world.

Thanks!

VS

Posted by jmlowe on Oct. 06 2006,16:22

I think they just mean you can get it to work but need to use the Prism2 utility to code the SSID & WEP key. There's a button for Prism2 in the DSL control panel, when you fill in the blanks it builds /opt/prism2.sh.
Put this entry in your /home/dsl/.filetool.lst so that it will be backed up & restored---so it will be persistent, and you won't have to enter the data into the GUI every time.
This worked flawlessly for me w/ a DWL-G122 usb wireless adapter on both an Inspiron 8000 a ThinkPad 600.

Posted by vees on Oct. 06 2006,18:18

thanks a lot for the info!

Cheers,

VS

Posted by vees on Oct. 09 2006,13:42

I took a look at the prism2 GUI but, being the total wireless ignoramus and newbiw that I am, I am still confused:

if I am sitting in a hotel lobby or starbucks where there is a wireless network, how do I fill the blanks:

device:
channel:
sid:
wep:

I suppose that I can find out what the USB device is called by looking at the kernel messages when I put it in the USB port, but how about the rest of the info?

Sorry for the dumb question and thanks for any info!

Cheers,

VS