Hi all,

I have a brand new laptop (Linux Certified) with Fedora Core 2 installed and I am experimenting with the built-in wireless card. I am away from my home at the moment and I don't have a wireless AP in the place I am staying, but I would like to try get online in one of the many cafés in Seattle with open WiFi spots. System-config-network recognizes the wireless card, but I don't know how to configure it with the necessary SSID and other settings, Is there a program that can be used to scan for Access Points to get this kind of information? How do all the Win/Mac users I see around me do this?

Thanks for any assistance.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Wireless Networking and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Command line: iwconfig
KDE: KWiFiManager
Gnome: Wireless Network Manager (I think that's the name)
Fedora also has NEAT from the Red Hat days - another network device GUI

Thanks for the suggestions. Alas, the project page for the GNOME Wireless Applet hasn't been updated for two years, so the project looks like it is in deep hibernation: http://gwifiapplet.sourceforge.net/

KDE WiFi Manager looks slightly more promising, but the last Red Hat RPM is from April 2003 for RH8 and doesn't install under Fedora. See: http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=52104
I tried compiling it from source but got error messages.

I have been looking at the iwconfig man page but don't see a way of using it to scan for Access Points.

As for NEAT, isn't that just the standard system-config-network program included in Fedora? Yes, it works for configuring the wireless interface but not for scanning.

KWiFiManager is now part of KDE. Sorry for not mentioning that, so if KDE is installed on your system (at least a relatively current one), KWiFi is there.

To scan for wireless network with wireless tools:
iwlist eth0 scan
Substitute your wireless card's interface for eth0.

Hi again,

Ah, this is very helpful. When I run iwlist, I get a list of broadcast nodes and can connect to one. One hiccup though: DNS lookups don't work. What should I use for DNS settings? I tried leaving them blank and that didn't work. (I am configuring DNS in the DNS page of system-config-network. Normally I have several entries for my ADSL ISP at home)

Thanks again for your assistance!

FWIW: KWiFiManager doesn't appear to be part of the standard Fedora distribution

I parted company with Red Hat after tiring of their non-standard kernels, truncated versions of OpenSSL and XMMS. Sad to see the tradition continues with a non-standard KDE.

If possible, use DHCP and pull the DNS from the DHCP server.
ifup ethx should do it.

Otherwise, you'll need to enter the DNS by hand and will need to get that info from whatever ISP you're connecting to. Ugh.