RE: [Sheflug] Wireless Networks

["James Mears" <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Alan

I have had more luck with a laptop running mandrake 8.2 but I am still
determined to get it working on SUSE

cardctrl ident gives me 

Socket 0:
  Product info: "SMC" , "SMC2632W" , "Version 01.02" , "
  Manfid: 0x0002
  Function: 6 (network)

I guess that this means that it is finding the card OK.

After much hacking and compiling the pcmcia-cs and compiling the drivers
recommended by the SMC web site (using the newest version) the card is
finally using the Orinoco_cs driver although there is also a prism2_cs
driver but I cannot get this to compile properly.

I have even managed to hack around with the /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts
file so that the card always starts with the same settings every time it
is plugged in. 

I have also found and compiled a utility called "Wavemon" it is a
console application that gives you info on the card settings and also
nice scrolling traffic graphs that show signal strength and signal to
noise ratio -- its very nice :-)

I am not using an access point just peer to peer at the moment - just to
prove the cards work. 

I also cannot set any encryption - iwconfig eth0 enc 1111-1111
Gives me an error saying unrecognized command - must not be supported on
this card with the Orinoco_cs driver. 

All I need to do next is the same thing on my SUSE 8.0 laptop and also
then build my server/wireless gateway so that I can surf the net out in
the garden. I hope that I can make the PCI wireless card work in the
same way.

James


-----Original Message-----
From: Dawson, xxxxx [at] chesterfield.ac.uk] 
Sent: 17 June 2002 00:49
To: 'James Mears '; 'shef-lug [at] list.sheflug.org.uk '
Subject: RE: [Sheflug] Wireless Networks

Does the card make two high pitched beeps when inserted ..?  This shows
that
the card was detected correctly and that its driver was loaded
successfully.

If not what does 
cardctrl ident 
produce..?

I don't know about suse 8.0 but after compiling pcmcia-cs source, and
orinoco-cs source I got a directory called 
/etc/pcmcia 
in which a file called called "config" included a "hermes.conf" which
matched the card identity to the correct module - orinoco_cs
and a file called config.opts allowed me to set initial parameters for
the
module.

Assuming that you get 2 high beeps..
Are you trying to connect to an Access Point (AP) or an ad hoc network (
peer to peer wifi) ..?
Guessing an AP , whats your network essid - AP's must have some utility
to
set essid ID.

You can use iwconfig, from the wireless tools, 
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/ 
to set essid

If you got 2 beeps then the wifi card will appear to be an ethernet
interface - eth1 say.  
iwconfig eth1
will show its settings

if you are using an access point with essid MyNetwork then 
iwconfig eth1 essid MyNetwork mode 2 
would set  the card to be part of network MyNetwork.  mode 2 sets the
card
to be talking to an AP rather than peer to peer with other wifi cards
(mode
1).  You can control loads of other things with iwconfig - see man
iwconfig

Once you get the card in the same wifi network as your AP you can set IP
up
on it and expect it to communicate with other ip devices in the same way
as
an ethernet nic can.  So you could use 
ifconfig eth1 inet 192.168.1.26 netmask 255.255.255.0 
to set up tcp/ip (address 192.168.1.26) on the card and then start
pinging
things on the other side of the AP

802.11 is quite different to ethernet, though when it all works it looks
the
same.  A lot of the differences are around authenticating to the
network.
In ethernet its easy - you just plug a rj45 into a hub - in wifi
networks
really are invisible clouds, so the essid stuff enables you to set
boundaries on networks. Setting the essid is like plugging the rj45 into
a
particular hub.  This has got to be done before worrying about the IP
stuff
(which also has to be correct).
AP's are simply bridges between 802.11 and ethernet allowing IP to move
transparently across them.

For the full monty on 802.11 try the O'Reilly "802.11 Wireless Networks,
A
defintive guide" ISBN 0596001835, for an , er , definitive guide to
802.11.
18 Chapters + 443 pages on it ... more than anyone ought to need to
know!!

HTH 
Alan Dawson

PS.  I've been oodling about with a couple of orinoco silver cards and
an
"Planet" card (PRISM chipset) + AP for a couple of weeks now.  The only
way
I could get it to work on SuSE 7.2 was by getting the pcmcia-cs source
and
untarring the orinoco-cs source into the pcmcia-cs source directory.
After
that I compiled pcmcia-cs, following the instructions as per the README
and
all was fine, after copying hermes.conf, and messing with config.opts
...
man pages are youre friend!
I'm sure there must be a better way though.  There are some instructions
relevant to suse 8.0 on the unofficial suse FAQ at from Keith Winston at

http://susefaq.sourceforge.net/ethernetproblems.html


-----Original Message-----
From: James Mears
To: shef-lug [at] list.sheflug.org.uk
Sent: 6/16/2002 8:23 PM
Subject: RE: [Sheflug] Wireless Networks

It should not be this hard to get a network card to work.

Most of the related documents talk about not using the kernel related
pcmcia-cs but rather external modules version.

I am currently lost in the depths of trying to install pcmcia-cs form
source..... hmm this is getting tricky.

I imagine I will be bringing this stuff to the next meeting to let the
real boffins have a look.

James

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