• WiFi

This portal deals with the hardware installation of Wi-Fi cards in general. The installation of a card is essentially two steps that are installing the driver (also called the driver or module), and setting up your WiFi network.

Be aware that a WiFi base are operating on an electronic chip called Chipset. We can find the same chip in several different cards. Consequently, the pilot manages this chipset will be the same for all these cards Wifi.

A WiFi interface is an Ethernet interface that also gives access to the configuration parameters peculiar to the Wi-Fi. These parameters are controlled using the iwconfig program.

• Contents

  1. Tools prerequisites
  2. Install Driver
     1. PCI Cards
     2. USB Cards
     3. PCMCIA Cards
     4. Routers
  3. Setting your WiFi device
     1. Identify your network
     2. Configure Interface: AP mode
     3. Configure Interface: Ad-hoc mode
  4. Check the proper functioning
  5. Resources
  6. External Links

Tools prerequisites

• wireless-tools, tools for manipulating Linux Wireless Extensions (installed by default on Desktop & Laptop installation)

• For system with GUI: NetworkManager (installed by default on Gnome-Desktop & Laptop installation)

• module-assistant (tool to make optional module package creation easier).

• wpasupplicant, client support for WPA and WPA2 networks (provides 'wpa-' options to /etc/network/interfaces)

Install Driver

Before you buy, you would check the list of hardware with Linux driver (or check for the Linux logo in the box of the WiFi card).

This section presents a list of WiFi cards sorted by manufacturer. It will show you the documentation page of the chip and thus its pilot. We recommend that you retrieve information identifying material.

This list consists of two elements: the device name and the hardware ID. The list is categorized alphabetically by the manufacturer's name and the name of your card.

See the Linux Kernel Driver DataBase for hardware and protocols know by the Linux Kernel

PCI Cards

This information is derived from command:

lspci -nn

See HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI for more information

Legend :
= OK ; Unsupported(No Driver) ; = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
= Configuration Required; = Only works with a proprietary driver

• An extended list of PCI-IDs to kernel-module mapping is available at DeviceDatabase/PCI.

USB Cards

This information is derived from command:

lsusb

See HowToIdentifyADevice/USB for more information

• An extended list of USB-IDs to kernel-module mapping is available at DeviceDatabase/USB.

PCMCIA Cards

See HowToIdentifyADevice/PCMCIA for more information

Routers

Setting your WiFi device

Identify your network

• Network Name
  • Parameter security

  • WPA

  • Mode: Access Point / ad-hoc

Configure Interface: AP mode

NetworkManager is a user-friendly program to control network interfaces. It's especially useful for WiFi. (it's available for Gnome and KDE).

Otherwise, you can use /etc/network/interfaces. here's a sample fragment of :

• # WiFi card section
  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet dhcp
  wpa-essid WANADOO-1418
  wpa-psk "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
  

See also /usr/share/doc/wireless-tools/README.Debian and README.Modes (WPA) for other examples.

Configure Interface: Ad-hoc mode

You haven't Acces Point, and you want connect 2 PC directly. Image 2 PC: calling hostA et hostB.

Wifi: Configure Wifi on your 2 PC:

• iwconfig ath0 mode Ad-hoc
  iwconfig ath0 essid MYNETWORK
  

Control on your 2 PC:

• iwlist ath0 scanning
  ath0      Scan completed :
            Cell 01 - Address: 02:0F:B5:4F:74:ED
                      ESSID:"MYNETWORK"
                      Mode:Ad-Hoc
                      Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                      Quality=42/70  Signal level=-53 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                      Encryption key:off
                      Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                                9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                                48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                      Extra:bcn_int=100
  

IP: Configure IP on your hostA

• ifconfig ath0 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
  

Configure IP on your hostB

• ifconfig ath0 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0
  

Control on your hostB:

• ping 192.168.1.1
  PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
  64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.073 ms
  64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.061 ms
  64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.062 ms
  64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.063 ms
  
  --- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
  4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3001ms
  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.061/0.064/0.073/0.010 ms
  

Check the proper functioning

Resources

• DebFrWifiTopo (in french)

• iproute.

• ifconfig

• iwconfig

• NdisWrapper - use Windows drivers under Debian/Linux.

• Internet Connection Sharing

• Network

External Links

• Wi-fi definition

• http://www.linuxwireless.org , including devives and drivers.

• http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/#howto The Linux Wireless Compatibility and HowTo.

• http://hostap.epitest.fi/

• http://www.linux-wlan.org

• D-Link DWL-650+ on Debian Linux Mini Howto

• Linux installation of Wi-Fi card Proxim Orinoco Silver and Belkin !F5D6020 ver.2 on kernel 2.4

• Belkin !F5D6020v2 on kernel 2.6

• DVD over Wi-fi

• Linux on the Fujitsu P2110 has an example of using pcmcia-compat.sh and /etc/network/interfaces to achieve the same end

• Appaji shows how to use guessnet to switch between locations.

• Configuring multiple setups and switching between them can be done with ifscheme. alwayssunny.com You can see a worked example of this. Some people think ifscheme is obsolete, and recommend network-manager instead. Others think the future is netconf

• Linux home networking wiki page about wireless networking.

• Linux and WiFi

• WiFiLinux LiveCD.

• Upgrading to Linux from a VX Works Router.

CategoryPortal CategoryNetwork