Linux Unwired

Alex Moskalyuk writes "Remember the Best Buy commercial where a puppet asks a woman for a laptop computer, and upon hearing that it's a 'wireless' laptop, starts imagining his life free of strings and limitations? That guy doesn't know it yet, but soon the harsh reality will kick in, ironically kicking him off the wireless network periodically if he uses Microsoft Windows Wireless Zero Configuration or if he wants to run Linux on a laptop with WiFi card that doesn't support Linux. This book, however, is not just about getting your Linux laptop onto the wireless network. Granted, WiFi plays a big role in today's business and personal networks, and three chapters are dedicated to exactly that purpose, but behind that wireless adjective we have a variety of technologies." Read on for the rest of Alex's review of Linux Unwired, from O'Reilly.

Linux Unwired: A Complete Guide to Wireless Configuration
author	Roger Weeks, Edd Dumbill, Brian Jepson
pages	300
publisher	OReilly
rating	8
reviewer	Alex Moskalyuk
ISBN	0596005830
summary	Complete guide to wireless configuration on Linux

Infrared, Bluetooth, 802.11 (in current a, b and g offerings, 802.11i is also being discussed), wireless access points friendly to Linux, United States commercial cellular networks and GPS systems are all covered in a single title that surprisingly fits all of this information into 284 pages. All the chapters can be subdivided into two large parts - familiarizing yourself with the technology (the primer on GPS is pretty good) and running Linux on it (with code and shell command samples and lots of URLs).

Introduction

The authors start up with introduction to wireless, intended for Linux geeks who are not quite up to speed on radio technologies. The concepts of waves, spectrum and radio wave behavior are explained, so later the reader can explain what a retracted radio wave is. Then the first chapter moves on to explain antenna behavior, wireless infrastructure modes and some common problem, like a hidden node in ad-hoc infrastructure. The chapter is well-written, and you're not expected to have an advanced radio degree or ARRL membership to understand the terms.

WiFi cards

Chapters 2, 3 and 4 deal with connecting a Linux desktop or notebook to a wireless 802.11 network. The first issue is that of chipsets used in the wireless card, and even though enough research has been done already, authors discuss different quirks relevant to Intersil Prism, Lucent WavelLan/Orinoco, Aironet/Cisco, Symbol, Atmel, Atheros and Broadcom chipsets. We need to discuss chipsets instead of discussing the actual wireless cards, since some hardware may be shipped under the same brand name with different internals. "A good case in point: the D-Link DWL-650. This radio card initially shipped with a Prism II chipset and was very popular, because it worked on a Linux box. However, D-Link changed chipsets when it released the DWL-650 Version 2, choosing the ADMtek chipset. It is very difficult to tell from the packaging which version of the DWL-650 you are purchasing".

The chapters are done in traditional walk-through mode. They are not HOWTOs or compendia of reference information, available from the manufacturer's Web sites. The authors made an effort to ensure the reader is capable of starting up a wireless connection on Linux box, knowing nothing about it while learning important technology in the process. Certain wireless drivers need to be compiled into Linux kernel, so the task is not for the meek, but with detailed explanation, plenty of URLs and nice fonts and paragraph formatting O'Reilly Publishing uses to differentiate between the text, commands entered at the shell, and URLs, the book is easy to read.

Chapter 3 (available in PDF) teaches the reader how to connect to existing wireless network once the wireless card has been recognized by the system and proven functional. By the time the book hit the stores it was already a bit out of date, since the very first hotspot operator, Cometa Networks, shut down in May 2004. Chapter 4 discusses wireless security, touching WEP settings, a $20 Linuxant utility allowing the user to implement WiFi Protected Access, as well as authentication utilities wpa_supplicant and XSupplicant.

WiFi access points

The issue of WiFi access points is not trivial either, as many vendors out there will ship the product with a Windows app being the only way to set it up. However, for the access point setups that are Web-based, a browser in Linux will do the job. The most Linux-friendly access point include Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, Cisco, SMC, EnGenius, Belkin, US Robotics, Microsoft and ActionTec. Again, harsh reality kicked in between the time the book was written and went to press, and it's sad to see yet another Linux-friendly access point vendor quitting the market.

Not satisfied with commercial offerings out there? Chapter 6 takes the reader into the task of building your own access point. Don't forget that an access point doesn't need to be a compact portable - your old 486 with Linux on it and a wireless card connected to it might serve the purpose. Unfortunately, after all the hardware is bought and assembled, the final product might still cost you the quadruple (in case you go with smaller form-factor motherboards and CompactFlash cards for software storage), so consider this more as a geek project, not a viable solution. The authors use LinuxAP distribution for this task.

16 pages are dedicated to hacking Linksys WRT54G access point with Sveasoft, described as disruptive technology by Robert X. Cringely. The authors also take a brief look at Wifi-box and OpenWRT.

Other wireless technologies

Bluetooth, Infrared, cellular and GPS chapters follow the same chapter plan - first the basics of the technology and simple use case scenarios of what you might use it for, then the hardware needed to implement the wireless technology, available Linux software to do the jobs, accompanied with the list of shell commands to successfully talk to a wireless product, and after that typical applications of the working link.

The authors tested various wireless data plans in the United States, although this data, once again, is constantly changing as the operators buy one another and introduce new data plans. The winner of the quality and the fastest download tests, by the way, was a Motorola v120e phone on Verizon Wireless network. In upload speed tests a Merlin C201 PCMCIA card on Sprint PCS network won. T-Mobile also offers a PCMCIA card for its GPRS network, so the authors install and run it under Linux in Chapter 9.

The last chapter discusses using Linux computers with GPS devices and open-source GPSdrive project for reading GPS data.

The book

For those just venturing into the wireless world, the book would be useful. All the information provided on WiFi connectivity can perhaps be googled and found in various HOWTOs. With wireless operators, GPS systems and Infrared connection one would have to rely on enthusiast sites and newsgroups. Having such informative title that covers all of the technologies would be very useful to a Linux enthusiast.

With that, the book can be quite overwhelming, although it's probably not intended to be read from page 1 to the end. There's usually more than one correct way to do things in Linux, and for each successful project another competitor appears on SourceForge the next day. I like the authors' approach of dedicating most of the chapter space to one, leading, Linux package that seems to be dominant in the field, and then briefly mentioning the others. A notable omission is Intel's Centrino drivers for Linux, as the company is bound to become a leader in the chipset marketplace with 42% of notebooks shipped in 2003 running Centrino chipsets.

But overall the book proved to have a high informational and educational value, not only you follow the steps on setting up wireless technologies on Linux, but you also learn the internals of the technology and why certain things are done that way, but not another.

---

You can purchase Linux Unwired from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Easy solution

[foidulus]

Get an airport(or as I have, an AirMac) card!

/ducks!

Re:Easy solution

[ph33nd]

Actually, I seem to have the same problem with my AirPort Extreme card and a linksys 802.11b station...

Re:Easy solution

[foidulus]

Hmmm...I have never gotten kicked off using my aiport router(little info here, I bought my router in Japan, where iodata makes routers/access cards called airport, and Apple's cards/base stations are called AirMac) nor in any of the public terminals I have been in, maybe I'm just lucky, who knows.

Re:Easy solution

[ph33nd]

I've had this problem actually with the router i suppose, my roommate keeps getting kicked too, but we still get a strong signal... i've encountered this problem with more than one linksys router tho... could be linksys

Re:Easy solution

[foidulus]

yeah, my friends have had the same problem with the lynksys wireless routers, they will get kicked off the internet, although the signal is strong. You aren't alone.

Re:Easy solution

[NewNole2001]

If you are using Windows, then look at the link [wired.com] at the beginning of the article to see what might be causing your problems.

Beat that, Carnack!

[Thud457]

I knew he was going to rate the book an "8"!

Re:Easy solution

[rakkasan]

mix, Xandros 2.0 deluxe, Cisco Pcmcia aironet 350 card and a linksys 2.4 802.11b hub on a dell C600. Disable on board nic, configure dns. off and running. no recompile. wireless. wep doesn't work tho..:(

Re:Easy solution

[NanoGator]

"Get an airport(or as I have, an AirMac) card!"

Heh. The only time I ever had a problem with the wireless zero service was on an airport. (I doubt that was the problem, though...)

Re:AirMac

[foidulus]

Yeah, the Japanese setup console was fun too(esp. since I lost my instruction manual, so had to go on the web to get the documentation). Though it is pretty simple to set up once you can read it, though I don't know much about other routers. The router strong too. My employer in Japan(who provided the apartment for the 6 months while I was there) wouldn't allow me to set up my internet connection, but my friend from Sweden who lived on the third floor of the building(opposite side) set up the router in h

That's a genuine problem

[metlin]

From the article --

Microsoft disputes the notion that there's a problem with the way Windows XP works with Wi-Fi.

That's a blatant lie, typical Microsoft attitude.

For the longest time, the wi-fi connection of my notebook would keep dropping and I thought it was because of a bad wireless card.

I changed my wireless card, I tried everything possible.

What I had not noticed was everything I was in Linux, this never happened - no matter what! There are areas in my school where the wi-fi signal strength is particularly weak, and even in those areas I never lost connection from Linux.

Somehow, when I would boot into Windows, my wi-fi link would keep dropping. I still haven't figured the problem yet, I just use Linux instead everytime.

And so contrary to what Microsoft may say, there is a problem with Windows XP (I have the problem whether am on XP Home or XP Pro). I wonder whether they EVER admit their mistakes.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[__Maad__]

I have the same problem mentioned in the Wired article, have seen it in numerous places and know of others who have the same problem.

At the very end of the article they state that you can bring the connection back to life by stopping and starting XP's Wireless Zero Configuration service -- I wish I had known that during some very ill-timed outages! This suggests that XP has everything to do with the problem but I'd still be careful in blaming Microsoft outright. Still, what a disaster.

I wonder now if

Re:That's a genuine problem

[networkBoy]

Yes you can. The Intel PROSet driver works far better when compared to the zero config. Set up a list of preferred APs and the PROSet tools will connect in order of preference and NOT continue to bump you around to other APs when they show up as long as any on your preferences are available. If you wan't I beleive you can even turn that off and go for a fully static config.

HTH,
-nB

Re:That's a genuine problem

[lukewarmfusion]

As I tell many of my users:

If I can't recreate and experience the problem, I can't fix it. Microsoft has heard these complaints, and has probably investigated the problem; if they can't experience the problem on their own, the logical conclusion is that it's not on their side. Of course, with something as complex as an OS and the associated software, hardware, drivers, etc. for the wirelesss, it's much harder to track down a bug, let alone find the exact settings that cause it.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[swv3752]

The problem with the Zero Config service is a known issue. If your card has its own config util and you disable the zero config util, there is no problem. If you connect with the zero config and then disable zero config, there will be no problem. The zero config has a bug that will drop connections.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[uberdave]

Either that or the zero config util brings a bug on the card/hardware to the surface. It may not be as clear cut as it seems. It could even be a side effect of spyware on the affected machine.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[swv3752]

Multiple cards/chipsets. It has been well recognized by many. Microsoft says it is a feature not a bug.

Yes, it is clear cut.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[jfmiller]

I would like to point all of you to this article [arstechnica.com] at Ars Technica [arstechnica.com]. It explains the problem and how to fix it.

Good Luck

JFMILLER

SSID rebroadcast is NOT a solution

[blunte]

That will allow the machine to quickly reconnect, but it doesn't solve the actual problem. It just remedies the symptom a bit.

It is unacceptable to be disconnected, even if you are immediately reconnected. This is the situation of one of my clients.

His PC bounces while his two laptops, both on the same desk, all of which are no more than 5 feet without obstruction from the wireless router, never have a problem.

Plus his PC didn't always do that. And changing router frequency channels doesn't solve it.

Dumping the MS config and moving to a manufacturer connector is the only solution for hosed XP machines like this.

Re:SSID rebroadcast is NOT a solution

[blunte]

heh, well I didn't count that suggestion since it was already present in the original article.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[ElForesto]

I could have told you that! *grins* WinXP's utility is useless. On a lot of systems, I couldn't get it to hook up to a router of the same brand 2 feet away with the default settings. I tell Microsoft what it can do with it's utility, install the one from the manufacturer, and BAM, it works.

I should have known better than to trust software from Microsoft over the software from the manufacturer.

Re:That's a genuine problem

[sixteenraisins]

It's not a Windows XP problem, it's a configuration problem.

I recently migrated from a 10/100 wired home network to a wi-fi network. For the first two weeks there was no problem whatsoever. I had read about the problem with XP seemingly dropping the wi-fi connection, but I had never experienced it.

Last night, I set up a couple of shared folders on each of two different computers on the network (using a wi-fi router connected to a cable modem), and this problem appeared. The wireless connection would dr

WPA was the source of my woes

[EkiM in De]

I discovered that both of my Windows Laptops were dropping the connection approximately every hour and it was driving me nuts. (They are a Dell with a Broadcom 4306 (802.11g) and a Centrino Toshiba.) Even with a Linksys 802.11g WAP and an SMC 802.11b WAP I was still getting the disconnections.

Eventually after one night's worth of Windows's Eventlog data, when I forgot to switch my laptop off, I realised that there was almost precisely an hour between disconnections. An alarm bell rang in my head because o

Re:WPA was the source of my woes

[Skuto]

Please see the fix for this I posted somewhere else down here. And note that WEP can be trivially cracked with Airsnort.

Re:Question?

[metlin]

I'm guessing that they would not possibly be stopping you from using Linux.

It's just that if you had any problems setting it up in Linux, they will not help you (they == tech support). You will have to figure things out yourself, that's all.

Atleast that's how it is in other institutions which have similar rules in place.

Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem

[MBCook]

I (and probably everyone else with XP) have expirianced that problem of getting your connection dropped. I learned how to fix it a while ago (and then Ars Technica wrote on it).

The problem is if Windows can find a network that broadcasts it's SSID when yours doesn't, it will try to switch. There are three (or four) soltuions.

1. Find the other network and get the owner to turn off broadcasting
2. Turn broadcasting on for your network
3. Once you are connected to your network, disable the WZC service (set it to manual and disable it). Windows will KEEP the current settings (the ones that work) and won't change them every, so you'll stay on your network. You will have to re-enable WZC if you want to switch networks though
4. The fourth option is to use a 3rd party application to manage your wireless configuration (your WiFi vendor probably gave you one). But if your vendor doesn't have one for XP, this isn't an option.

I REALLY hope that they fix this in SP2, because it's my number one complaint.

Re:Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem

[lukewarmfusion]

I've never had this problem with Windows XP on any of my machines. They're all configured approximately the same, too.

I first encountered it yesterday, when a friend of mine installed a Linksys WUSB11 and complained about the drops. His network did not broadcast the SSID... and there are no other SSIDs being broadcast (that he can detect).

This is the first I've heard of this problem... but I've been configuring and using wireless networks for myself and friends for almost two years.

Re:Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem

[crimbil]

Or #5. Open the properties for your wireless connection. Click the tab for wireless networks. Click the Advanced button. Remove the check from the box titled "Automatically connect to non-preferred networks."

Re:Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem

[hawkstone]

I don't believe that works. It doesn't actually connect to them, it merely drops the original connection to let you know that they are available. To quote an Ars article [arstechnica.com]: "You won't fully associate with that network, but the service will pop-up and tell you that there are multiple wireless networks to join, even if you have removed all other networks from your preferred settings (this contradicts Microsoft's report, which says it only affects preferred networks)."

Re:Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I have used Windows XP and have never had a dropout like this. I'm not sure I never used the zero configuration whatzit either.

Re:Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Problem

[MBCook]

You do, it's enabled by default. Now I know you say you've never expirianced the problem, but I was like you too. Mine worked fine for months. Then one day, the problem started and persisted for months. Then one day it stopped again. When it started again, I turned WZC off and the problem stopped. My other computers have had the problem too.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why the problem occurs. No configuraiton changes, no changes in wireless networks (mine or anyone else), etc. It just start

Is it just me...

[Fooby]

or does wireless seem a bit overhyped? I don't own a single wireless device and I don't really see the need yet. Sure there have been times when it would be convenient to have a cell-phone, but most of the time when I'm not home I don't want people harassing me with phone calls anyway. As for 802.11*, the data rate and reliability of ethernet beats it every time for home networking use. Something about carrying around a laptop so I can browse the web at random hotspots just doesn't float my boat. I have wired access at home and at work, and if I need access when I'm at neither I'd go to an internet cafe.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a luddite and I think these are great technologies, but for myself they just seem expensive and not terribly useful. What I do find interesting is use of WiFi for rural broadband. But that's still pretty novel.

Re:Is it just me...

[CompWerks]

It's just you...

Re:Is it just me...

[Fooby]

Thanks for clearing that up.

Re:Is it just me...

[Dagny Taggert]

I'm with you on the cell phone thing, although my work demands that I have one. However, if you live in an older home (as I do), it is much, much more convienent to set up a wireless network. One comment about corporate wireless, though: in my limited experience with it, most of the execs who want it are fascinated by the whiz-banginess of it, not the true utility. And don't even begin to explain the security precautions they need to take...

Re:Is it just me...

[nharmon]

I was going to say the same thing. My house was built in 1922. On top of that, it is 2-stories, so getting ethernet from the basement to the 2nd floor is not really easy. Wireless is perfect in these situations.

Re:Is it just me...

[garcia]

most of the time when I'm not home I don't want people harassing me with phone calls anyway. As for 802.11*, the data rate and reliability of ethernet beats it every time for home networking use. Something about carrying around a laptop so I can browse the web at random hotspots just doesn't float my boat. I have wired access at home and at work, and if I need access when I'm at neither I'd go to an internet cafe.

I don't see what cell phones have to do w/this but anyway... Yeah, I guess that wlan's aren

Re:Is it just me...

[kfg]

I like my personal space and I don't want anyone invading it unless it is on my terms.

Oddly enough, in certain respects, wires can play an effective stategic part in this strategy.

KFG

Re:Is it just me...

[bplipschitz]

I don't see what cell phones have to do w/this but anyway...

Uhhhhh, maybe because it is a wireless device? Just guessing. . .

Re:Is it just me...

[Sloppy]

As for 802.11*, the data rate and reliability of ethernet beats it every time for home networking use. Something about carrying around a laptop so I can browse the web at random hotspots just doesn't float my boat.

I don't see the appeal of wireless on a home LAN either. But Wireless starts to look useful, when you're travelling.

if I need access when I'm at neither I'd go to an internet cafe.

Wait a minute .. you mean using someone else's computer? That is a security problem. How do you know it's no

Re:Is it just me...

[silas_moeckel]

Using somebody elses network is similarly insecure. Setup airsnort and see how much traffic is plain text out there on a public wifi you will see piles of pop3 logins because all to often they are allowed.

Re:Is it just me...

[silas_moeckel]

I think there is a level of trust issue. It's one thing to use plain text on UUNet's backbone it's alother to use it on some guys wifi that he is letting the world use. Your shouldent trust either of them but I would trust UUNet or another backbone to not care about my email password a lot more than joe geek with a free wifi AP. Granted I run everything though SSH, IPSec and SSL either way. And BTW they can see whats inside your encryted connection it will just take awhile encryption does not make anyth

Re:Is it just me...

[Blnky]

In a typical home, perhaps not. I cannot be the judge of that. However, as I live in a historic home well over a hundred years old, running cable is not as easy as one would hope. Cutting new holes into the walls just isn't appealing either as the desire is to keep the house as "originally" intact as possible. Thus, wireless has been a great thing for me.

A wonderful side benifit is that I can place my systems anywhere and am not contrained to walls that have poth power and a network tap. LAN parties are so

Re:Is it just me...

[networkBoy]

I don't see the appeal of wireless on a home LAN either.

Actually wireless is exceptionally useful in the home.
I live in an appartment and I have no control over where the phone comes in. Now, rather than having a very long phone line strung across the floor or ceiling I put my DSL modem on a wireless bridge to my router/AP. (I know I'm going to get slammed for this security wise, but I have taken some steps to harden the link.)
Furthermore I use the same wireless AP to move ethernet availability to my

Re:Is it just me...

[shawn(at)fsu]

No it's not just you.
I like the security that comes with a wired network, and my company does too, seeing how it is policy to keep the wireless hardware disabled.

I think WiFi has it's place, just not with me.

Re:Is it just me...

[tcopeland]

> wireless seem a bit overhyped?

I thought the same thing for a while... but after working on my laptop at home with no wires for the kids to yank on/trip over, I'll never go back. If I run across something interesting, I can carry my laptop in to another room to show my wife. If the living room gets too loud, I can move into the dining room. It's very handy.

And for some reason I still get a kick out of printing something over a wireless LAN connection. Just something odd about clicking the "print" button, with no wires attached, and then hearing my printer downstairs leap into action :-) I don't know why that still amazes me, but it does :-)

Re:Is it just me...

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

Glad I'm not the only one overly fascinated by printing on the Wlan.. somehow, causing an effect in the real world really makes one appreciate the wireless connection. (another fun trick is to ssh into another machine and do something like $ eject /dev/cdrom && eject -t /dev/cdrom ;))

Re:Is it just me...

[Marble68]

On the same vein. My wife kept asking me to stand up WiFi @ home. I ended up getting the Microsoft 700 series (which they're not going to make anymore) and I must say I don't know what took me so long.

I love being outside by the pool and taking care of a backlog of emails or simply using my Mod points.

But speaking of printing; we have an upstairs game room thats my wife's office. My office is directly below hers. Anyway, the cats LOVE to lay on her desk and look out the window at the trees.
I get a HUGE ki

Re:Is it just me...

[silas_moeckel]

It's a bit over hyped for big desktop replacement laptops (I own 3 of them) where they need to be pluged into power anyway. But for a PDA bluetooth or 802.11(abg) is rather usefull as they can get out get your mail sync etc, same goes for small light weight laptops that have decent battery life. As far as cell phones it's all about how you use it, I have a cell phone that nobody calls me on unless it's important as in router down (I'm a network guy) as in I take one or two phone calls a business day on it

Re:Is it just me...

[NanoGator]

"or does wireless seem a bit overhyped?"

Not in my view, no. My laptop floats between home and work. I have wireless at both home and work. I have long battery life on my laptop. At either place, I just pull it out and turn it on. It doesn't seem like much, but it's actually kind of a pain in the butt to go hook up ethernet/power cables. The convenience factor is there, not to mention that I can clear out of a room quickly.

Additionally, I had a PocketPC for a short time. I *really* enjoyed having t

Re:Is it just me...

[GreyPoopon]

or does wireless seem a bit overhyped?

It all depends on your needs or work habits. Here are my personal reasons:

• Wireless LAN at home: I frequently have to work at home. The office where our internet access is downstairs. I like having a wireless signal so that I can either work at the kitchen table or while sitting on the couch in the family room. It allows me to at least be in the same room with my family while I work. I could install a couple ethernet jacks and run cable, but that's a hassle in my house and I would have to break my internet connection to move from the kitchen to the family room.
• Wireless Hotspots: I travel internationally for business. As such, I have rather long expense reports to file. The work needed to file an expense report is not taken into consideration when projects are assigned to me. At the moment, our expense reporting system requires an internet connection. It's nice to be able to handle my expense reporting while I'm in an airport or a cafe somewhere through wireless. It's also nice to be able to get to e-mail and communicate with people at work while sitting in the airport. This is especially true when I'm traveling during a business day.
• Cell Phones: OK, in my mind these are actually less useful. But good reasons to have them are:
  1. Unlimited calls to my wife's mobile regardless of where I am in the country.
  2. Nationwide long distance included
  3. Backup source of connectivity for my laptop (GSM + GPRS)
  4. A way to call for help in an emergency where there's no phone around

Re:Is it just me...

[torpor]

I've been using Wireless services for a few years now, am a big user of WLAN, had the first Ricochet modem setup in my area when it was released, etc. I've been wirelessly connected to the 'net now for almost 10 years.

I have come to love WLAN. With my current setup, I can go sit in the park across the road, tiBook in hand, enjoy the outside fresh air and do my e-mail under a tree. After work I can drive up for a quick 'mail sweep' outside my front door, connect to my net with my sl5500, download my late

Re:Is it just me...

[homer_ca]

I had wired Ethernet at home before wireless, and it really restricts where you can put your computers. Sure it would be nice to live in a geek house wired with CAT5 but I don't. I ran CAT5 along the baseboard and can't cross doorways unless I run them over the door jamb. I have a PC that's barely 10 ft from the switch, but it might take 50ft or more of cable to wire it up by going around the room. The USB adapter barely cost more than a premade 100ft cable. Laptops are especially a hassle with wired Ethern

Absolutely

[NineNine]

Absolutely. Wi-Fi is no where as near as reliable as good ol' ethernet, and won't be for a while. Certain cordless phoens even disrupt wi-fi. It's cute for home use, but I would *never* rely on wireless for a business use. It's just not reliable enough. I *need* my network up 100%, or my rent doesn't get paid. Wi-fi is cute, but it doesn't cut it for me. On top of that, ethernet is cheap, and very, very easy to run. At my business, we have suspended ceilings with hundreds of feet of Cat 5, and a few

Zuh?

[Ayanami Rei]

Don't you have network jacks every few feet along the walls?
Or in the floors in access panels?

That's how we do it here. We can move furniture, racks or equipment around, just replug the stuff in to whatever's closest. It's all on the same switch, so it's no big deal.

Renewed competion between broadband providers

[j1m+5n0w]

Besides user convenience, one of the benefits of wireless networks (particularly long-range wireless) is that they can compete directly with DSL, Cable modem, and landline phone service. My parents live out in the country on a hill about five miles from the nearest large town (McMinnville, OR). They have fast internet service thanks to a reasonably forward-looking ISP who set up a wireless network using radios from waverider [waverider.com]. Unfortunately, the waverider site doesn't list prices anymore (I believe they u

Re:Renewed competion between broadband providers

[metlin]

Wireless at school is simply very useful.

For instance, I take my notebook with me and I can access the net from my classrooms, cafeteria, park, conference rooms and just about any place.

And it sure as hell beats having to carry around a cable everywhere, and having to provide network access points all over the place.

I'm now at my internship, and a bunch of us in the apartment complex have pooled in and gotten a single Internet connection with a wireless router, so that the rest can access it.

And when I

Re:Is it just me...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Three months ago, I probably would have thought the same thing. For fixed systems, wired is IMO the way to go whenever possible, and I've run over 1000ft of wiring to make this possible.

I use both wired and wireless now. At work, I have a dock for my laptop that includes a PCI network card, the dock has three normal PCI slots.

At home, I just use the wireless card so I can use my laptop on my dining table or my lap in the living room rather than going to the den.

I have also set up an outdoor wireless sy

Re:Is it just me...

[DrCode]

Same here. I think it's partly a case of 'high-tech burnout'. Whenever I think of buying something new, I can't figure out which of the many choices is best, and I fear that whatever I buy will be hopelessly obsolete within a month.

Linux and Wireless

[duncanmacvicar]

I was one of those users who read about DWL-650, went to buy one and came back with a DWL-650+ without noticing it. It sucks. At my Computer Sciense Departament (like 12 AP), my laptop gets frozen because the driver and the computers turns very unstable. At home it works well because I have only one AP. Wireless tools are very primitive also. You can't scan networks not being root. I started writing a KDE tool emulating the funcionality of the new Win XP Service Pack 2 wireless tool but libiw is a pain. I ended importing a patched sources (from some Ximian guy) to use it. Still havent figured how to scan available networks being a user. Design flaws from a server oriented operating system.

Re:Linux and Wireless

[OblongPlatypus]

Still havent figured how to scan available networks being a user.

$ /sbin/iwlist eth1 scanning
eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:04:E2:XX:XX:XX
ESSID:"XXX"
Mode:Master
Encryption key:off
Frequency:2.437GHz
Quality:24/0 Signal level:-61 dBm Noise level:-85 dBm

Not too hard, is it?

Re:Linux and Wireless

[jpetts]

I was one of those users who read about DWL-650, went to buy one and came back with a DWL-650+ without noticing it.

It gets worse than that: there were at least two major versions of the DWL-650 (excluding firmware revs), one with the fan-shaped antenna, and one with the square, similar to that found on the DWL-650+. Only th eone with the "fantenna" has the widely supported Prism chipset. The square one is currently available in BestBuy for $39.99 with a $20.00 mail-in rebate.

The "fantenna" ones are curre

Problems with DWL-G650

[Mr. Sketch]

Does anyone else have problems under linux with a DWL-G650 (802.11g) card using the Linuxant drivers? I'm using the latest drivers from DLink, but for some reason randomly, the device just stops working, but looks like nothings wrong. The device is still 'up', the lights are blinking normally, the routing table is still okay, and no errors in the dmesg, syslog, messages, it just stops working, can't ping the ap or bring up websites. I have to do quite a bit to reinitialize it (so much that I created a sc

Re:Problems with DWL-G650

[mahdi13]

It's a D-Link, that's what they do

I got rid of all my D-Link equipment after about 2 weeks (it took 24 hours to return the PCMCIA card)
If you can get them to work in Linux, great job!
If you can get them to work in Windows, you got lucky!

I'd get LinkSys as I've had zero problems with their wireless equipment and perform very well. Cisco is another great choice if you can afford their hardware (3-4X the price of LinkSys)

DWL-650

[Nemi]

I just got this card working on an IBM thinkpad 240. I spent a good week or more trying to get the prism2 drivers to work because all documentation I found said that that is the chipset it had.

After going through many different drivers and kernel compiles, I Later found that some 650's not only have an ADMTek chipset but some also have be a Realtek chipset. After trying the ADMTek drivers I found my particular card had a Realtek chipset and it came right up using the ndiswrapper driver using the windows Realtek driver (the driver supplied by d-link on the cd would not work. I had to get the windows driver from Realteks site). The thing works like a champ now with Fedora core 1.

Re:DWL-650

[Cereal Box]

A week of hacking around just to get the card to work? This anecdote really drives home the old "Linux is free if your time is worth nothing" saying, doesn't it?

Why didn't you just spend the $40 or so for a card that is absolutely known to work with Linux instead of wasting a number of hours (over the course of a week)?

Re:DWL-650

[Cereal Box]

Quick checking online told me I should have been able to get the DWL-650 to work with linux.

Yeah, but I don't consider having to use some other operating system's driver a "working" solution. What I meant to say is that if I were in your situation I would've bought a card with a native driver.

hate to say it, but if I just wanted it to work, I would have put windows on it.

That's exactly what I was driving at. It's good to hear that someone on Slashdot can be honest about the fact that stuff "just wo

Honesty In Advertising

[Croaker-bg]

I am an avid unix/linux user and I pretty much prefer to run my boxen in non-Windows mode. I also am an information security professional and use many tools such as Kismet to do wireless discovery. After much reading and research I decided on a Cisco/Aeronet card as my card of choice for both sniffing and wireless use in Linux. Well low and behold once I got the Cisco card, which was stated as being supported in the OS, I managed to get it installed and compiled to be used as a sniffer but to date and after a solid year of trying I have not been able to get the damn thing to work as just a network card. After months of frustration I finally gave up and went and bought an Orinoco card that I thought I would use for both sniffing and network access. Again, I managed to get things compiled and working this time with network support for the Orinoco card and no ability to sniff. Although both vendors claim full functionality within Linux I am to date still carrying around two wireless cards to get the job done. Sadly, when I boot Windows and plug in either card in XP they both seem to just work. Ah, the bitter irony.

Re:Honesty In Advertising

[SCHecklerX]

To sniff with the orinoco card you need to use the patched drivers to enable monitor mode. This was trivial for me on Mandrake 9.x and RedHat 8.

Directions here:

http://www.tipsybottle.com/technology/wireless/R ed Hat8-Kismet-HOWTO.shtml

Ah, the bitter irony

[lorcha]

Not sure why your cards working in XP is ironic, but whatever. Anyhow, what distro/kernel are you using? I ask, because under Knoppix, my D-Link and Orinoco cards "just work", as you say. I didn't have to compile anything, tinker with anything, or ... well.. frankly even do anything except insert the card into the PCMCIA slot.

Since you are into security, perhaps you would be happy getting an STD? Security Tools Distribution [knoppix-std.org], that is. That livecd will likely have any tools on it you need as well as det

stab

[lorcha]

I'm not in front of the machine right now, so I can't yank the card and look at it, but here is the contents of the stab file:

Socket 0: D-Link DWL-650
0 network orinoco_cs 0 eth2
Socket 1: empty

That box is a VIA MII10000 running Debian sarge, 2.6.6 epia patched kernel.

Yes, you got me to ssh into my home media center.

Hope That Helps. Have A Nice Day.

Re:Honesty In Advertising

[dr_dank]

If you can boot from the cdrom (if you can't, there is a great bootdisk available that the name escapes me), check out Knoppix-STD [knoppix-std.org]. You can boot right from the disc as with other Knoppixes and see if the card will work with their configuration of Kismet, airsnort, and other tools.

If you like it, you can do an image install easily with the included Knoppix install scripts and is easy to maintain with its Debian base.

Computer Book publisher's business plan

[cerebralsugar]

1.) Get a 'high-falootin' title (PHD, MSCE, etc).
2.) Paraphrase information freely available on the net.
3.) Blow college professors and get them to use it as a text book for their class!
5.) PROFIT!!

IPv6

[nsayer]

The idea of running alternative firmware in a netgear or linksys type box is intriguing to me for one reason in particular: The idea that one could very easily add IPv6 support (via 6to4). So long as there is an IPv6 firewall that's reasonably configurable, this would make it a lot easier for me to support my folks. Instead of having to perform rather unnatural acts with the router to get to the correct machine from the outside, I could just ssh/rdp/vnc directly.

The one downside is that if your outside IPv

Mapping Wi-Fi under Linux

[drewzhrodague]

There are quite an assortment of GIS tools available for Linux, too, for those of us mapping wi-fi [wifimaps.com]. Check out Mapserver [umn.edu], GRASS [grass.itc.it], and PostGIS [postgis.org].

this fixed wireless for me w/XP..

[greenskyx]

from: http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1080251780.html

If your connection is dropping and you're not being asked to connect to another network, make sure that you have not checked the "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network" checkbox, as this can also cause problems (but was not the root cause of this issue).

---

I'm not sure what IEEE 802.1x authentication does exactly, but turning it off in XP made wireless stable. Before that I could be really close to the wireless hub and I would be rand

Broadcom support

[Bull999999]

Do anyone here know when the support for Broadcom wireless chipsets will be included in the Linux kernel? It seems that many (at least Linksys) are moving away from Prism chipset (which I had good luck with Linux) to Broadcom chipset.

Re:Broadcom support

[Bull999999]

One more thing. As far as I know, there's no free solution for getting Broacom chipset based wireless NIC to work on a Linux box.

Re:Broadcom support

[Dielectric]

From my dealings with BCM, I wouldn't expect them, ever. They have a profit model where they provide basic functionality and docs with their product. Everything above that, including non-MS drivers, is pretty much an additional cost, typically assessed as an NRE, and can run to the tens of thousands of USD. So you get two results:
1. No 3rd party will write Linux drivers, nor will BCM, until there is a clear need from a profit standpoint. This is like trying to get major software vendors to make a port.

Power Save

[Foxxz]

Turn off the power saving options for the wifi card. do not allow windows to put the device in sleep mode and use the least power friendly option avalible for the card. these have to be changed in the driver prefs under the hardware management. i was getting the exact same problem even when sitting >10ft from the ap. when i turned off all the power save features for the card these problems went away.

-foxxz

screw it, use driverloader

[np_bernstein]

So I had a belkin card which was supposed to be based on an orionco chipset; it wasn't and it didn't work. I got a netgear, because that's what they had at comp-usa and I didn't want to waste all my freetime driving around looking for a prism2 chipset where I could be sure it was a prism2.... I got the thing, tried it, didn't work, got a copy of driverloader [linuxant.com] : done.

I'm three days into the evaulation period and I'm giving them my $20 for the software. It's too easy this way to go the free/annoying route. 'Sides, at the amount of money I end up earning/hour, spending two hours of my life to get a wireless card working it costing me more that $20.

Re:screw it, use driverloader

[santos_douglas]

I have a Belkin card and wanted to get Linux working with wireless on my IBM Thinkpad which currently runs Windows 2000 quite well. I loaded up Mepis Linux and then set about getting the WiFi card working. My Belkin F5D6020 uses the Atmel AT76C5 chipset which as luck would have it has a set of open source drivers over on sourceforge. [sourceforge.net] I thought I was golden until I started reading the directions...step 1 of about a dozen steps was: recompile kernel. Being a noob, I quickly decided this just wasn't going

Re:which are the best of the....

[BlueLightning]

If it's best in terms of support, at the moment I am using all Netgear products. I have an MA311 (PCI), MA701 (CompactFlash) and MA401 (PC card) and all of them work well in Linux, mainly because they're based on Prism2 chips.

I just wish manufacturers would stop radically changing the product without changing the model number, as wireless card manufacturers seem to like doing. It only adds to confusion.

That example seemed deliberate

[SeaFox]

Why do I feel like that Best Buy Puppet example in the begining of this story was tacked on simply to stick in a Microsoft Bash.

Since the book was about Linux, there was no real practical reason for including it. Is the book going to tell how to get around the XP problem?

No.

That's a lot of type to say simply "some wireless cards aren't supported by Linux out of the box".

Re:That example seemed deliberate

[jmulvey]

Microsoft sucks because they tried to make a wireless client that doesn't require you to be a DSP engineer in wireless chipset technology. It doesn't work *perfectly* (although there are easy solution that require you to [gasp!] uncheck checkboxes, instead of modify .conf files), so it sucks. And because you have the option to use a different wireless client instead of the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration service, they are leveraging their monopoly of the desktop to gain access into the highly lucrative

Re:That example seemed deliberate

[phayes]

No, MS sucks because they tried to deliver a easy to use wireless client, but it has a major bug that renders it unusable in many circumstances.

Ignoring bugs in your products/your customers usually brings criticism. Had MS acknowledged the bug & explained a (working) way to avoid it or delivered a patch that fixes the problem they would not be criticized.

Given that MS has decided to exit the wireless access market they wont be leveraging the desktop for wireless products anyway.

personal experience with xp & wifi

[Lord Haha]

as much as the many complaints about xp & wifi I have not had as many problems, I have found if you turn off wep (which is pretty much useless anyways) and leave only mac address protection to your wireless router the amount of lost packets/connection drops to next to nothing. Mind you it does mean someone might find out im posting at slashdot (oh the horror!) and I have to manually encrypt files that have sensative material (which you should anyways) Under Linux though as much as once the connection is started its great, getting that 1st connection is hard as hell, showing windows (in general) one point where it beats linux consistantly (and its not our exactly our fault either) hardware support.

Another Windows XP wireless bug

[Skuto]

There are, besides the SSID broadcasting issue, several other bugs in Windows XP wifi.

One of them happens with WPA (which I do hope you are using, given that WEP is so easily hacked), and causes you to disconnect after a few minutes. After reconnecting there are no further problems.

This appears to be a working fix, needs a registry edit:

>> This will solve your WiFi problem! although this
>> should be considered a workaround,
>> rather than a fix. With AuthMode set to 2 it means
>> Ma

Brain Hurts

[pete-classic]

I didn't read the actual review. I fear that I am already perminantly brain damaged from the summary.

I swear it said something like "This book is not about what the title says it is about, except that three chapters actually are about that, but the rest isn't. But that stuff is related. Fuck Mocrosoft."

Oh, and somehow it lead into all that with a reference to sock puppets.

I might be wrong, but I am mortally afraid of re-reading the summary given the results of the first read.

Is the actual review any better?

-Peter

Best wireless card for linux?

[ceswiedler]

Any recommendations on the best wireless card for Linux? Both PCI and PCMCIA.

Re:Best wireless card for linux?

[OblongPlatypus]

I would suggest SMC [smc.com]'s 2802W (PCI) and 2835W (PCMCIA). They're reasonably priced, and work flawlessly with the Prism54 [prism54.org] driver, which is part of the most recent 2.6 kernels.

Indeed.

[Ayanami Rei]

It supports WEP (coming soon, WPA), and monitor mode. Wheeeee!!!

Re:Best wireless card for linux?

[BlueLightning]

I don't know if the ones I use are necessarily the "best" overall, but my post on this is here:

http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=111297 &c id=9447856

Re:Best wireless card for linux?

[ejaw5]

no...it's the Orinoco Classic Gold PC Card 8410-WD that you want.

SuSE 9.0 & Linksys WPC11 v3 on Dell Inspiron 3

[spoonyfork]

Here's my journal entry [slashdot.org] on my experience of trying to get SuSE 9.0 & Linksys WPC11 v3 wireless pccard on a Dell Inspiron 3500 notebook to all play nice together.

Boring story short: it works, but damn is the YaST screen is nasty and watch out for non-acpi compliant (read old) mobos.

Linux Wireless Zero-Configuration

[akp]

As long as a lot of people are complaining about XP's wireless configuration, could someone point me in the direction of the corresponding tool for Linux? I'd really like to be able to bring my laptop out of suspend in a new place and have a little dialog pop up showing me what wireless networks are around.

For added points, it should work with any wireless card and driver that is supported under Linux.

-allen

Re:noooo

[stratjakt]

The cast of Friends and Star Trek certainly DO exist, excluding whichever ones died.

The characters they portrayed, however, do not.

Maybe it is just a pet peeve of mine, but it drives me nuts when people get all uppity over someone elses use of language, and attack with even poorer use of the language.

Re:noooo

[kfg]

. . .it drives me nuts when people get all uppity over someone elses use of language, and attack with even poorer use of the language.

I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!

I that case where would you like me to send your rocking instructions?

KFG

Re:If only USB adapters were supported...

[teqo]

There are loads of 802.11b USB adapters that are supported by Linux. Check out the AT76c503a BerliOS driver project [berlios.de] or the original ATMEL driver project [sourceforge.net], where you will find a list of supported WLAN USB dongles with the well-supported Atmel chipset. Otherwise, the Prism2 drivers [linux-wlan.com] support a number of WLAN USB devices, too. 802.11b USB WLAN devices should be available for around 20-30 Euros (approx. 25-35USD) each in some shop close to you...

Unfortunately, your WG121 is not among those, but the Linux Prism G [prism54.org]

Re:D-Link DWL-120+

[teqo]

Many, maybe you want to check out my former post [slashdot.org] on this and follow the links mentioned...