m'kaay...
a while back, i installed ndiswrapper on my slackware laptop and was able to get my netgear ma521 wireless card up and running on it. well...almost running...
you see, every time i need to connect i have to start out by entering the commands:
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig wlan0 essid phar66
ifconfig wlan0 up
dhcpcdwlan0
and then everything's up and running. i know there's a configuration file that i need to edit, but i'm still not quite sure which one or how.
last time i tried to edit a file like that i had to reformat
.
anyway, this problem isn't so bad. i can actually get used to it.
the main problem is that i'm not always able to connect this way. sometimes, when i enter "iwconfig wlan0 essid phar66", nothing happens. normally when i press enter on that command my network card's link light comes on. when it doesn't, i try typing in "iwconfig", but it still shows the essid as off/any. and if i type in "iwlist wlan0 scan" i get a list of networks which consists of my parents', my neighbors, and...what i think is city hall (not too far from where i live).
i've also been monkeying around with something on the kdesktop called "kwifimanager". when i scan for networks using that i see the same networks and also that their signal strength is pretty good.
i've been playing around with other iwconfig commands. i tried "iwconfig wlan0 mode ad-hoc" which, if i understand right, will allow me to communicate with other wireless computers and devices in the area(?). it makes that link light come on and when i use "iwconfig" it shows that i'm connected to phar66. but when i change the mode back to "managed" the light goes out and i lose that essid again.
i also tried "iwconfig wlan0 ap" along with the address i see when i use iwlist. oh, and "iwconfig wlan0 commit". neither of those seem to do anything for me.
well...perhaps they just silently laugh at me...
so...as far as i can tell, my laptop is seeing the network i'm trying to connect to, but...just won't let me? is there a way i can force it to accept the essid that i'm trying to connect to. or what about off/any? why can't i just connect to whatever network happens to be around?
i don't know. when i'm able to get on the interweb, my connection is flawless. my brain hurts.
any idears?
pretty please?