Setup your wireless client at home
From FedoraNEWS.ORG
Written by [[Anze Vidmar on 2005-08-25
| Table of contents |
What is it and who is it for?
This is guide for every skill level user, how to successfully setup and get running your Fedora 4 box on wireless network, without sweat! Desktop manager used in this article is Gnome and all the config tools are graphical, so don't get scared.
Description
I have Linksys WRT54GS (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1115416825841&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper) wireless router at home. It's great because it has 4 ports + wireless and it works better and faster then »G« model. The client is Compaq N800v (http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews2522.html) with PCMCIA Cisco (http://cisco.com/) Aironet 340 series wireless card.
The wireless is configured to have fixed WEP key, so that no one without knowing it can't connect to my LAN, which is exactly what we want. The only thing that you need to set up on the router side is SSID, channel (the frequency) and the WEP key. The clients receive IP address from routers DHCP.
Basic stuff
I'll assume you have portable computer, so make sure before running the network setup to start the pcmcia services (if your wireless card isn't integrated of course). Insert your wireless card and make sure your system recognize it by watching /var/log/messages.
Get pcmcia card manager to start automatically at every boot:
chkconfig pcmcia on
Start the service now:
service pcmcia start
The Setup
Fire up Network device configuration thru Desktop --> System Settings --> Network or from your favorite shell with the command
system-config-network
It opens a nise GUI that looks like this:
In the first tab named Devices click on "New". Select wireless connection. Click "Forward".
Next, select your wireless card model and go forward. Note if your card isn't successfully detected it will be recognized as "unknown card". If this is your case better get drivers from the manufacturer vendor for it.
Here is an example of detected and working pcmcia card:
Make sure the wireless card hardware parameters are correct in the next step and go to the final step.
The final step is a bit tricky. You have to know your wireless configuration well. In my case I used Auto mode and used my specified SSID that I've set up on my wireless router. Choose the (frequency) channel that you're using. You can leave the "Transmit rate" on "Auto". The last value is your wireless WEP key. Write down the WEP key that you've chosen for your wireless router and type it in the Key field. Be aware that if your key is in HEX (it probably is), you need to add »0x« in front of your WEP key number.
The example of my config is here:
Click forward and select the client to obtain the ip from a dhcp server (if this is your config). Finish your configuration.
After you've successfully set up a wireless card configuration click on "Edit" button. Make sure you select the checkboxes that says "Activate device when computer starts" and "Allow users to enable and disable the device".
Save your settings and reboot your computer or simply restart networ service with
service network restart
The joy
After restart, if you've successfully configured your wireless settings the card should automatically get an IP addres and should be working like a charm.
For better management of your network devices , add »Network Monitor« applet to your Gnome panel. Thru this applet, you'll see a nice statistics about your network connection(s) and it also let you activate and deactivate a specific network card in case you want to switch from using wireless to wired network and opposite.
Network Monitor on your pannel
Network monitor showing avtivity with signal strenght and a nice GUI for enabling and disabling network devices available straight from Network Monitor applet.
For troubleshooting keep an eye on /var/log/messages to see what is going on. Also see a man page for iwconfig tool.
May the Wireless be with you.
