How to Configure Wireless 802.11
 

I just installed Linux on my laptop, which has Wireless capabilities, and many of the buildings that I have classes in only have Wireless connections to the newtork. Does anyone know how I can enable wireless networking in Red Hat 7.3 with Kernel 2.4.18-10? Are there drivers and programs right on the CD's or will I be looking at downloading? I have my ethernet connection working just fine, but I cannot even begin to think of how to enable wireless.... Is this even supported in linux? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Wireless networking is supported in linux. Your wireless card will appear as ethx (either eth0, eth1, etc). When you perform an ifconfig -a does it appear?

This is what ifconfig -a returns, along with info about the loopback device. eth0 is the ethernet card, but there was no indication of the wireless card (which is internal, not PCMICA). Is there some way to enable it, because in WinXP i have to activate the card to use it.

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:E2:81:6D:67
inet addr:204.38.201.97 Bcast:204.38.201.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3509 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:36 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:417076 (407.3 Kb) TX bytes:4889 (4.7 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000

try iwconfig to check if your wireless card is present?

You need to find out that the wireless lan from which the building you are accessing is using infrastructure or ad-hoc mode. From there you can configure you wireless NIC. Some info, eg ESSID, WEP key, you might want to find out more.

Try lsmod to look for the wireless module that is loaded if your hardware is detected. If you know your hardware, that will be easier to re-install the latest wireless NIC driver.

This is what the WindowsXP device manager tells me about my wireless card.

IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini PCI Combo Card
Manufacturer: Actiontec Electronics, Inc.
Location: PCI bus 1, device 5, function 0

I will check using lsmod to see if I can find it.

Here is a huge list of wireless drivers available for Linux. Try to search your hardware here.

here's what I find in the Control Panel of KDE3.

01:05.0 Network controller: Harris Semiconductor: Unknown device 3873 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Action Tec Electronics Inc: Unknown device 0406
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at 80300000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4k]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

I know that this is the device because it shows that the IRQ is 11, and Windows showed that too, same memory address too...

What model is the wireless card... I've never heard of a chipset from Harris Semiconductor before, great a new one!

Cheers,

Finegan

it's built in to the laptop.... I figure it's some cheap generic thing with the IBM logo slapped on it.

I just upgraded to RH 8.0, and There's supposedly wireless support built right in. I searced and found out that I can use the Lucent Orinoco/Prisim 2 driver set... IRQ is 11, but I can't figure out what eth it is.... I am assuming that the Wireless card and the wired NIC are both on the same card, seeing as when I look at the PCI settings they both use IRQ 11..... What's going on there? The wireless feature is built in to the laptop... not a seperate PCMICA card... I don't know anything about laptop hardware, so any insight would be helpful

This is the information that Win XP Pro gives me on the wireless card
(General)
IBM High Rate Wireless LAN MiniPCI Combo Card

Device type: Network Adaptors
Manufacturer: Actiontec Electronics Inc
Location: PCI bus 1, device 5, function 0
(Resources)

Memory Range: 80300000 - 80300FFF
IRQ: 11

The only wireless card I know of on the market from Actiontec is an 802.11a card, is that what you have? If so, post back as much info you can give us on it... there's a driver in the works for it, very alpha, but 802.11a isn't compatible with 802.11b...

Weird,

Finegan

Hi ppl. I'm glad I found this thread cos I'm having the exact problem with this. Anyway, lemme help by providing some details for this IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini PCI combo card -

Actiontec Electronics, Inc
PRISM Wireless LAN

Network Driver Version 1.07.25
Configuration Utility Version 1.07.25
NIC Firmware Version 1.03.03.00

Dunno if this helps

Rengoku

the card appears to be a 802.11b card.... on actiontec's website I found what I figured to be the card... it's a 802.11b wireless and 56.6k winmodem combo card and uses a prisim chipset.

If its PCI and indeed a prism card, you probably want to look into either the orinoco modules... which might or might not do a good job of running the card, or the www.linux-wlan.net project's gear... which may or may not work at all.

The orinoco modules are already onboard, so just try:

modprobe hermes
modprobe orinoco
modprobe orinoco_pci

and see if anything kicksm if not, you probably have an eth1.

Cheers,

Finegan

I get nothing, except for a command prompt after I do the modprobe for these modules. what does this mean exactally??