Re: Some questions

[Robert Moskowitz <rgm htt-consult com>]

Dan Williams wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 08:19 -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>   
> > Hello, I am new here.  Running 0.6.4 in Centos 5.1 on an HP nc2400 
> > notebook with the Intel ipw3945 dkms code from rpmforge.
> >
> > I just switched my operation over the this nc2400 from my old nc4010 
> > which had an Atheros card using the madwifi dkms code from rpmforge and 
> > I did everything via wpa_supplicant.conf (and the wpa_cli program!).
> >
> > So with this install, I could not get the wpa_supplicant working.  Seems 
> > like it only supports the ipw2200 card?  And I found NetworkManager; 
> > good job! So far  :)
> >     
>
> As Ryan pointed out, NM will work with any card that properly supports
> wireless extensions.  For RHEL5 (because the kernel is slightly older)
> that means ipw3945 (_not_ iwl3945), iwl4965 (as a tech preview only),
> airo, orinoco/hostap, atmel, ipw2100, ipw2200, ipw2915, zd1201, and
> bcm43xx.
>
>   
> > I am plowing through the archives to find answers, but this is slow!  No 
> > way that I can find to download them and import them into Thunderbird 
> > for better searching.  So here goes:
> >
> >
> > The nc2400 expects the OS to manage the card.  There are no buttons to 
> > turn the radio on and off like on my old nc4010.  Here I am on a plane 
> > with the radio on.  Now I work with Boeing people (and work on 802.11 
> > standards), so I have some inside knowledge of 802.11 and airplanes in 
> > flight, but that is not the point.  The radio is eating power!  I need 
> > that  battery life!  How can I turn off the radio.  I tried iwconfig 
> > eth1 power on (to turn on power management), but the card is still 
> > happily scanning for APs, I think.
> >     
>
> If you uncheck "Wireless Enabled" after right-clicking the applet, this
> should down the interface, which if the driver is correctly written
> (some are not), should turn off the wireless power to the card.  If your
> card doesn't turn off the TX power when you run 'iwconfig eth1 down'
> then it's a driver bug.
>   
No such command as iwconfig eth1 down.  You mean ifconfig eth1 down?

I just went trough a 'farrowing' time with this.  Everything wireless 
stopped.  So I tried this.

I could not get the wireless back up.  Rebooted a number of times.  No 
wireless at all!

Then the LED came on and things started working after I did a dmesg 
command, which makes no sense that that turned the radio on.  Could just 
have been a heat glitch.  But in all this I learned that iwconfig eth1 
down is not a valid command  :)

One of the joys of a meeting like the IETF is there are lots of APs 
visable with lots of clients around and all sorts of nonsense to make 
wireless go bump in the middle of a lookup.  IEEE 802.11 meetings are 
just as bad!  Interop has been worst (all those vendors running their 
own wireless demo network).  If you want to test out your code, go to a 
big conference or trade show!


>   
> > I seem to recall a way with lmsensor to turn the LEDs on and off, but I 
> > think that only tied the LEDs into the reality of the operation of the 
> > card, not impacting the card at all.
> >
> > This notebook also has builtin ethernet.  But shortly I will be at the 
> > IETF conference in Philly, and I want to run Firestarter with its NATing 
> > functions so I can plug another computer into the notebook to give it 
> > access through my one wireless connection.  How can I get NetworkManager 
> > to leave the wired alone so Firestarter can manage it and run services 
> > like DHCP?
> >     
>
> Add the line "NM_CONTROLLED=no" to
> your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 (or whatever interface
> name your wired card is) and NetworkManager will ignore it.  NM will
> still manage the default route then when wireless is enabled and active.
>
>   
> > My home network runs WPA-PSK (yeah, I know the risks, I wrote the attack 
> > paper, but my Radius server is currently down).  I frequently run into 
> > the situation where NetworkManager is not succeeding in authenticating 
> > to the AP.  I have no sniffing data; I would like to see some packets, 
> > but Wireshark does not show interface eth1 (the wireless one).  I end up 
> > having to reboot to get wireless working, or switch to wired.
> >     
>
> You probably have to switch the ipw3945 into monitor mode; if you google
> around you can probably find out how, but I think it includes inserting
> the ipw3945 module with the "rtap_iface=1" argument, then 'ifconfig
> rtap0 up' and then using wireshark.
>
>   
> > Now I notice that my AP is on channel 1, and I am picking up "Oakland 
> > Wireless" also on channel 1.  This should NOT be causing the problem (I 
> > hope), but I add the data point.  Actually I would like the option to 
> > tell NetworkManager to ignore "Oakland Wireless" when I am at home, just 
> > not when I am over at the local park, come springtime.  When I used 
> > wpa_supplicant.conf, I could comment out various configs (or uncomment 
> > them) and reload the conf file at least.  Ah the pains of a real nice 
> > integrated gui!
> >     
>
> NetworkManager will attempt to connect to the network you last used (via
> a timestamp of the last successful connection).
>
> Dan
>
>
>