Setting Up Your Wireless Card

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Setting up a Linux-compatible wireless PC Card is relatively simple. It is probably best, though not essential, to go through the setup process in the vicinity of a wireless access point so that you know that you’ve succeeded. Therefore, if you have your own WAP at home or in the office, connect your WAP to your Internet source, and then turn the WAP on. If you are only going to be using public WAPs, perform the setup process on your next visit to Starbucks or another wireless hot spot.

Once you’re within reach of a WAP that is up and running, plug your wireless NIC into the PCMCIA slot on your computer. Almost immediately after doing that, you should hear two beeps, which tells you that all is going to be well. Any LEDs on the card may light up at this time. If not, they will do so after you finish configuring the card. If you hear only one beep after inserting the card, then it is most likely not compatible with any of the preinstalled drivers.

If your machine does not allow you to hear system beeps or other sounds for some reason, or if you’re just the double-checking kind, you can visually check to see whether or not the drivers for your card have been loaded by using the lsmod (list loaded modules) command. To do this, open a new Terminal window, type in /sbin/lsmod, and then press ENTER. The results should look something like those in Figure 18-4 on the next page. The driver for your card (orinoco_cs in the example) should appear near the top of the list and also next to pcmcia_core. Of course, your card may use one of the other drivers listed earlier, so your results may be considerably different.

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Figure 18-4: Results of the lsmod command showing the loaded drivers for a wireless NIC

Once your card is inserted into the PCMCIA slot and the appropriate drivers are loaded, it is time to configure the system to deal with the card, which is all very easy. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the Network Configuration window by going to the Main menu and selecting System Settings > Network. As most computers these days have Ethernet support built onto the motherboard, an Ethernet device will very likely be listed in the window, as is the case in Figure 18-5. If you are not connected to the Internet or another network via that device, its status will be appropriately listed as Inactive, so you can safely ignore it.

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    Figure 18-5: Network Configuration window

  2. Next, you need to add your wireless device to the device list, which you can do by clicking the New button. This will bring up a wizard for adding network devices, shown in Figure 18-6.

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    Figure 18-6: Adding your wireless device with the Add Device wizard

  3. On the Select Device Type page, select Wireless connection and then click Forward to move on to the next page of the wizard.

  4. On the Select Wireless Device page, two listings should appear: one showing your card by name, and one that says Other Wireless Cards. Select the listing with your card’s name and then click Forward to move on. Note that the name in the listing for your card might be different from what is written on the card’s label, though that is not a problem.

  5. On the Configure Wireless Connection page, accept the default settings unless instructed otherwise by your Internet provider. Click Forward when you are done. (You can always go back and change these settings later if your connection doesn’t work.)

  6. On the Configure Network Settings page, if your Internet provider automatically provides IP addresses via DHCP (as discussed in Chapter 4), simply accept the default settings by clicking Forward. If, however, your provider does not utilize DHCP, you will have to get the necessary settings from the network administrator or service provider, enter them yourself on this page, and then click Forward.

  7. On the Create Wireless Device page, you will see a summary of all the choices you have made thus far. Click Apply.

  8. Once you’ve completed the wizard steps, a small window will open asking whether you want to save your settings. You do, so click Yes.

  9. You will then be presented with yet another, albeit smaller, window telling you that the changes have been saved and that you might have to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. Click OK.

This will leave you with the Network Configuration window, where you will now see your wireless card in the device list (see Figure 18-7).

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Figure 18-7: A new wireless card added to the list of network devices

Before you close the Network Configuration window, there is one more thing I strongly recommend you do in order to make activating your wireless card more convenient. If your device is not already highlighted, click on it once to select it. Once you’ve done that, click the Edit button. This will bring up the Wireless Device Configuration window, where you should click the box next to Allow all users to enable and disable the device, as shown in Figure 18-8. This will allow you to activate and deactivate your card without first becoming root. Once you have done that, click OK, which will close the Wireless Device Configuration window. You will then be asked in another window if you want to save your changes (click Yes), and then be told that your changes have been saved (click OK). You can then close the Network Configuration window.

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Figure 18-8: Configuring your wireless NIC to allow for easy user activation



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Linux for Non-Geeks. A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook
Linux for Non-Geeks: A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook
ISBN: 1593270348
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 188

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