[vox-tech] Wireless Networking Confusion

[Alex Mandel]

Ken Bloom wrote:
> On Sunday 11 June 2006 18:12, Richard Crawford wrote:
>> On Sunday 11 June 2006 16:07, Richard Harke wrote:
>>> My laptop is configged to use a wired connection also. I have a
>>> jack in the dining area in case I work on the dining room table.
>>> But I found I had to do a ifdown eth0 (the wired connection) before
>>> eth1 would work. eth0 is auto but eth1 is not. I also want to use
>>> the wireless at hotspots and that turned out to be quite a hassle.
>>> I have a mapping stanza in the interfaces file and that took a
>>> while to get working. What works is
>>> LOGICAL=HOME ifup eth1   The environment var LOGICAL is then
>>> used in my script that is called from mapping stanza. There is
>>> another name for a hotspot config. One issue remains.
>>> If I go out to a hotspot, when I come home it does not work
>>> cleanly. I have to manually modify resolvconf as it continues to
>>> have the hotspot DNS enteries.
>>> This is Kubuntu, Breezy Badger
>>> Richard harke
>> I ended up simply creating two separate stanzas in
>> /etc/network/interfaces, and commenting out the undesired one
>> depending on my location.  It's kind of a hassle, but I don't go many
>> places with hotspots all that often.
>>
>> I'd like to see more details about how you did this.
> 
> My laptop's configuration is approximately as follows:
> 
> #eth0 is *not* auto, because I don't want it
> #to slow ntpdate during boot when I'm not connected
> iface eth0 inet dhcp
> 
> #Bring up this configuration as #ifup wlan0
> #this is for connecting to networks without WEP
> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
> 	wireless-essid any
> 	wireless-key open
> #those are essential to clear the settings from whatever network you may
> #have previously been connected to.
> 
> #bring this up as #ifup wlan0=ling
> #take it down as #ifdown wlan0
> iface ling inet dhcp
> 	wireless-essid LingCogLab
> 	wireless-key 0123456789
> 
> #bring this up as #ifup wlan0=home
> iface home inet dhcp
> 	wireless-essid kenapt
> 	wireless-key 0123456789
> 
> (etc...)
> 
> And I have sudo configured to allow ifup and ifdown without a password
> And I have a menu in fluxbox for connecting/disconnecting from all of my 
> various wireless networks. I'm very particular to use the menu to 
> connect/disconnect because I don't want to accidentally shut down eth0 
> on my desktop while I'm connected by ssh. I suppose it's also possible 
> to use ifrename or udev to rename eth0 on your laptop to something else 
> so that it doesn't match your desktops/servers, so you can't take down 
> your desktop/server's eth0 by autopilot.
> 
>   [submenu] (Internet)
>     [exec] (Connect to Ethernet) {xterm -e sudo ifup eth0}
>     [exec] (Disconnect from Ethernet) {xterm -e sudo ifdown eth0}
>     [nop]
>     [submenu] (Connect to Wireless)
>       [exec] (Home) {xterm -e sudo ifup wlan0=home}
>       [exec] (IIT) {xterm -e sudo ifup wlan0=iit}
>       [exec] (LingCog) {xterm -e sudo ifup wlan0=ling}
>       [exec] (Sunnyvale) {xterm -e sudo ifup wlan0=svl}
>       [exec] (any) {xterm -e sudo ifup wlan0}
>     [end]
>     [exec] (Disconnect from Wireless) {xterm -e sudo ifdown wlan0}
>   [end]
> 
> I haven't figured out how to make wpasupplicant work for me in Debian 
> yet.
> 
> I have the resolvconf package installed to manage /etc/resolv.conf
> 
> [bloom at cat-in-the-hat ~]$ apt-cache show resolvconf
> Package: resolvconf
> Priority: optional
> [...]
> Description: nameserver information handler
>  Resolvconf is a framework for keeping track of the system's
>  information about currently available nameservers. It sets
>  itself up as the intermediary between programs that supply
>  nameserver information and programs that use nameserver
>  information. Examples of programs that supply nameserver
>  information are: ifupdown, DHCP clients, the PPP daemon and
>  local nameservers. Examples of programs that use this
>  information are: DNS caches, resolver libraries and the
>  programs that use them.
>  .
>  This package may require some manual configuration.  Please
>  read the README file for detailed instructions.
> (For me, it didn't require any manual configuration)
> 
> --Ken Bloom
> 

I've had similar experience, network-manager worked for me under Breezy
but has since stopped working in Dapper, it doesn't detect any of my
wireless cards. I occasionally have luck with wifi-radar but that's hit
or miss and usually only works once I have the ssid in my interfaces file.

Manual ifup/down with a quick comment or uncomment seems to work the
best when I move locations. On that note, I've actually had to start
waiting until after boot before I put my card in, otherwise it just
doesn't work at all even though Hal sees the card.

On the bright side of things my Broadcom based card works in Dapper, I
could never get it working before even with ndiswrapper. So it's not all
a loss.

Alex