hey i just installed mandrake linux 2005 limited edition, and i cant figure out how to get the internet to work...im on a dell inspiron 600m with one of those intel(R) wireless cards built in...The internet works fine when im running windows...but when i get into linux, i can not get the internet to work. I think that i have tried everything but i hope not. Anyone know how to configure the card for a wireless connections that has encryption....please help...or if anyone has a link to How To's for mandrake and internet connections....
thanks a lot


speedy

This link is apparently outdated (i.e. it's for an old version of the drivers for the Intel Pro 2100 wireless chipset) but I found it very informative when I first tried to get wireless working under Linux. At the time I had Mandrake 10.1.

http://frealek.dotnode.com/blog/view/177

If you're using Mandriva, I would recommend two things: first, figure out exactly which card you have (if it's Intel, it will probably be Intel Pro/Wireless (or ipw) 2100 or 2200 -- you should be able to figure this out in Windows), and see if Mandriva included a driver in the kernel (I think they do for some reason):
If it shows, then you have the driver already, which means there's less work for you! You could try (as root, if you have the ipw2100 card; change it to ipw2200 otherwise):
This should bring the card up. Then, running (still as root) 'iwconfig' will give you a list of network interfaces and identify which one supports wireless. Let's say that eth1 is your wireless interface. Then the following will give you a list of wireless networks in range:Furthermore, the following: will get your card connected to your encrypted network (replace "mynetwork" and "mypassword" with your actual network name and password of course). And then will get the network up on that interface.

okay thanks a lot ill try that today...and hopefully it will work..but do you know if there is a graphical way to do it? just for future reference if im to bored to doo it this way lol :P

thanks
speedy

I believe the Mandriva Control Center has a whole network setup panel. There should be something like Configure New Wireless Connection in there. I don't remember that ever working for me, but that could be (1) because it was an older version of Mandrake or (2) I was missing something.

If you use the MCC from the network panel, first you could check if your wireless card has founds by the system during the installation procedure (select the 3rd option you find -I use the italian version and I don't know exactly the description you have- I have something like "change config on network card)in hte next page yuo'd choose between installed card, if you find your one, try to set the mode, the ESSID and the encryption into the "wireless" tab.
If you'll not find your one, go back and start to install a new card (1st icon of the screen) into the next step you must choose the type of connection. in this case a Wireless network -last choice-, and then the sytem'd detect the right driver you need, leave it selected and go on with the others configuration steps.

Pay attention, during my installation I needed to repeat this process many time because after the driver selection, the system asked me for further particular parameters needed by some card to work properly, of course I didn't know these params and I couldn't complete the installation, when I was deciding to close my linux adventure (I need to use the wifi card to connect to the web at home) I've done another test and the installation finished in the right way.

I hope I'd be usefull.

Doug, you are SOOOOO awesome...your explanation was clean, crisp, down-to-the-point, and it worked for me !!

99% of it did...the last command 'iwconfig <ETH CARD> up' didn't work...the response was it was un-recognized option. I went to the mandrake control center and did some fiddling...I just installed Mandriva LE and purposely skipped the setup set of configuring my wireless, so there was probably something I needed to do that I did that provided the last step to start the network up .

In the past, I had the same experience where then-Mandrake 10.1 control center did a horrible job configuring wireless...in fact I gave up on the linux solution and went to www.linuxant.com.

But this is MUCH better now (because it is a linux solution)! Hopefully when I re-boot my computer, wireless will start up right

For users wondering my computing platform, I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 with the 2200 ipw chipset.

THANKS AGAIN!

I'm glad to help, especially with wireless, which was a huge headache for me when I started out.

I know why the last command didn't work -- I screwed it up when I typed it in. The correct command is
with an "f" instead of a "w". I used to mess that one up all the time on the command line in Mandrake too.

The iwconfig options are wireless specific, while the ifconfig command controls networking in general.

Hmm... this doesn't seem to work for me. I can connect to the Open wireless network in my area, but no luck with the encrypted one I actually want to connect to.

Any ideas?

edit: nevermind lol, I figured it out I had to change the key index on the router to 1

Yeah, do that a lot too