[OFB Cafe] that having been said . . .

[Donald R Spoon]

dep wrote:

> this thing is going to be the death of me. for example: if i sudo ifup 
> wlan0, it cranks along for awhile, failing to get an ip address. ans 
> things such as kwifimanager cannot see the router. but if i sudo ifdown 
> wlan0, it says it's giving up an ip address -- and for interface wlan0, 
> kwifimanager reports, besides an "ultimate" signal -- not surprising; it's 
> two feet from the router -- this:
>
> Status of Active Connection
> Connected to network: linksys_ses_45106
> Access point 00:18:39:E5:5C:C2
> Local IP: unavailable
> Frequence [channel]: 2.437 [6]
> AccessPoint: UNKNOWN
>
> this with wlan0 *turned off*
>
> if i go to kcontrol and try to enter administrator mode for wireless 
> network, it sits on "loading" forever.
>
> however, if i go to kcontrol after ifup wlan0 has gone to sleep but is 
> running in some fashion, it tells me that i have an enabled wireless 
> network device on dhcp with an address of -- this seems a little odd -- 
> 169.254.7.20, which is not exactly in the 192.168.xx.xx family.
I don't run KBUNTU here, but I do run Debian stable on a laptop with a 
wireless card.  I suppose that getting the network going via a wireless 
card is somewhat similar...

First, I never had any luck with the various wifi config tools in KDE... 
period.  They all seemed to work fine as a monitor AFTER I got it 
running, but they were no help getting it up initially!  Probably 
operator error, but there wasn't too much "help" out there for me!  I 
did a lot of web surfing and finally settled on the following steps in 
order of importance:

1.  make sure you have the wirelesstools package installed.  These are 
needed for ndiswrapper.  These tools should be able to get the 
connection up & running for test purposes.  It sounds like you do...

2. Make an entry in your /etc/networks/interfaces file that defines the 
interface, how to bring it up, and just how to config it with an IP 
(static or dhcp).  This was "key" for me.  It sounds like this isn't 
present.  Here is mine:

> # The wireless network interface
> auto wlan0
> allow-hotplug wlan0
> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
>         pre-up modprobe ndiswrapper
>         post-down rmmod ndiswrapper
>         wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
That last line is needed for the next step, which is optional.  You can 
put all the config stuff like essid, keys, etc here if you want, like 
this: (staic IP config included in example)

> # The wireless network interface
> auto wlan0
> iface wlan0 inet static
>        address 192.168.10.11
>        netmask 255.255.255.0
>        network 192.168.10.0
>        broadcast 192.168.10.255
>        gateway 192.168.10.1
>        dns_nameservers 192.168.10.1
>       wireless_essid spoon
>       wireless_keymode restricted
>       wireless_key XXXXXXXXXX  <--- Note:  MUST have 10 characters for 
> 40-bit WEP encryption, case sensitive
3.  I initially did this and it works fine, but decided to use the 
program wpasuplicant to see what it does.  A LOT of people recommended 
it.  It also has a GUI called, strangely enough, wpagui!  Basically, you 
take all the network config stuff, like ssid and the wireless keys and 
place it in a proper place in the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file via an 
edit.  When this file is first installed, it contains a bunch of 
examples that are remarked out.  I just used the 40 bit example and 
filled in my data.  It also works fine, but I have not had much chance 
to check it out further.  Read the examples because the "wording' is a 
bit different than used above for things like essid,  and the keys.

My wireless network will drop its connection randomly for no apparent 
reason.  I have never figured this one out, so I have a small shell 
script on my desktop that "resets" the lan.  I have to remove the 
ndiswrapper module and re-insert it and then do a "ifup wlan0" to get it 
restarted.  I just discovered that the WPA GUI will do about the same 
thing, so I am waiting for it to drop out again to see if it will 
"reset" the lan...

I hope this info helps.  I didn't have anyone, and all of the above was 
discovered by Trial and Error... mostly error.  I take it back, there is 
a LOT of stuff on the web, but you will have to bend that info to your 
situation.

Cheers
-Don Spoon-