Hi all,

I am having trouble determining the correct settings for connecting to the Net via my laptop' s wireless card. system-config-network recognizes the card, seeing it as eth1. If I configure the device profile to automatically obtain the IP number using DHCP (with the " automatically obtain DNS information from provider" option turned on) and try to activate the network interface, the program spends a minute or so saying

and then ends with failure.

However, if I supply an IP number manually, say 192.168.1.2, the connection comes up almost instantly, but DNS lookup doesn't work, hence I can't browse or do anything.

I have several DNS servers listed on the DNS page and I tried deleting them, leaving everything empty, but then the RJ45 wired connection doesn' t work either.

Suggestions anyone?

You didn't say anything about the DHCP server. Why?

Regarding DNS servers, what does /etc/resolv.conf contain currently?

Well, I assume that is running on the router, right? And I am trying to connect in public spaces, like cafes with hotspots, so I don't always have specific configuration information.

This was generated by the LAN login. For some reason, the WLAN doesn't do the same.

DHCP client access failed as you've seen already. You would see in the system's log files that no DHCP server answered or no DHCP server could be reached.

If a manually added nameserver entry makes it work completely, that's something where to start trouble-shooting.

Actually, I was entering an IP number for the local host (ie, my laptop), not a remote nameserver.

FWIW, here is the contents of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Nothing seems to work [sigh].

That doesn't work for statically assigned IP addresses anyway. I'm no longer sure what you're trying to achieve. For DNS lookups to work you need to set up name servers with e.g. system-config-network, so they appear in /etc/resolv.conf

I am trying to connect to WiFi hotspots in public places like cafés and hotels where I have no control over or even access to the server configuration. I can't manually enter a nameserver in this context because I have no idea to which network I am connecting.

Quote:

For DNS lookups to work you need to set up name servers with e.g. system-config-network, so they appear in /etc/resolv.conf

This is, in my experience, not entirely correct. For eth0, my LAN connection, I can leave the DNS page of system-config-network empty. I have automatically obtain IP address and automatically obtain DNS information selected in the device profile, and I can simply connect an RJ45 cable from the laptop to an ADSL modem/router and activate the interface; the connection comes up almost instantaneously and the program itself creates the appropriate nameserver entries in /etc/resolv.conf. I assume that the same settings should work for a WLAN connection, because I see Windows and Mac laptop users doing this all the time in the above-mentioned locations, but with Fedora Core 2 on my laptop I have been unable to do so up until now.

Thanks for your feedback.

You misunderstand me. The ifcfg-eth1 file you quoted is not set up for DHCP-based WLAN access. I try to make sense of the two things you mix all the time: 1) statically assigned private IP with no DNS servers , 2) dynamic DHCP-based retrieval of IP and DNS servers. And then we're back at the beginning and the initial questions.

I am sorry if I appear to mix statically-assigned and DHCP-assigned IP numbers, but I do understand the difference. I only mention static IP numbers because in my experiments I have noticed that when I assign a static IP number the system, the WLAN connection does work -- only DNS lookups don't work.

In any event, what are the correct settings for a WLAN interface? I have searched the net and posted queries in several forums, and up to now the only thing I have found is someone with the same problem: https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedo.../msg06956.html. Alas, I couldn't get his solution -- manually running dhclient -- to work for me.