Hi all,

I am attempting to use a Linksys WGA54G "game adapter" to provide a wired connection to a desktop. I have a wireless network to which I want a computer without a wireless card to connect. I purchased the game adapter, which is basically a silly name for a wireless-ethernet bridge, and hooked it up (configuring it via a Windows machine).

The adapter is properly configured and can "see" the wireless network. Then I ran the wired end of the adapter to a switch, to which I attached a Windows 2000 machine and a Debian Linux (Sarge with 2.4.twenty-something) machine.

On the Windows machine I disable the LAN connection and re-enable it. After a short wait it comes up, and I have a wired connection via the game adapter. I can ping the wireless router, browse web sites, etc.

On the Linux machine I run "ifup eth0", which proceeds to ping the broadcast for an IP. No responses are ever heard, and the network remains unreachable. If I manually configure an IP address (an address that is on the same subnet as the Windows machine and every wireless client in the house) on the Linux machine, the Linux and Windows machines can see each other, but the Linux machine cannot see the router or the outside world.

So to summarize... Windows can use DHCP to get all the necessary information about the wireless network (by way of the adapter) to get online, but Linux cannot. When manually configured, the Linux machine cannot see the router or the outside world, but can see other machines within the subnet.

Any hints / thoughts / wild conjectures are greatly appreciated!

- Nate

Some more information. I ran Feather Linux (a live cd) on both the Windows machine and the Linux machine. It can connect and work just fine on the Windows machine, but has the same problems as the native install on the Linux machine. This would indicate that it's a hardware problem... except for the fact that the machine can ping and communicate with any machine in the local subnet. So it seems to work... except for dhcp.

Any hints? I'm stuck..

Anyone find a solution to this? I am expiriencing the same exact problem.
Thanks.

Try adding a default gateway and DNS information, in addition to the IP address.

So I would use the gateway of the wireless controller. I am trying to get DHCP, so would I still need to add an IP address? Also, for the dns, should I just use 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.3?

The OP could ping and access machines locally (I assume by IP address), but could not get to a FQDN externally. That's typically an indication of missing DNS and gateway info.

I would use the DNS servers provided by your ISP unless they are notoriously slow.

I don't have any explanations for why you (or the OP) could not obtain an IP via DHCP through the bridge.

Well I found the answer. I entered DNS addresses AND told the machine to use the ISP dns addresses. This apparently conflicted so I just unchecked the box that told it to use ISP addresses. Thanks for your help!