jhsu

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I'm using a Linksys WPC54GS version 1.1 wireless card. I think I finally got it to work, but I'm not sure.

The link light and commands like iwlist and iwconfig show that my wireless card is working. However, WiFi Radar and the NM Applet show no evidence that it is.

Unfortunately, I live in a small town with no WiFi venue open. With another WiFi card (that has always worked right out-of-the-box), I can see the presence of networks in WiFi Radar and NM Applet.

With my Linksys WPC54GS version 1.1 wireless card plugged into my laptop, I get the following lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX]
01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX Audio]
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

BCM4306 is the driver I need, and bcm43xx-fwcutter is the package that has it, so I used Synaptic to download and install the program.

When I enter the command "sudo modprobe -r bcm43xx && sudo modprobe bcm43xx", the link light on the wireless card suddenly comes on. However, I have no idea what this command means or how it activates the wireless card. Can anyone explain?

I get the following "iwlist scan" output:
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:15:6D:10:0C:92
ESSID:"XTI-11"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Encryption keyff
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
Quality=82/100 Signal level=-74 dBm Noise level=-68 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 52ms ago
Cell 02 - Address: 00:16:B6E:BF:64
ESSID:"mort"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Encryption keyn
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=78/100 Signal level=-80 dBm Noise level=-68 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 116ms ago
Cell 03 - Address: 00:15:6D:54:AC:AB
ESSID:"XTI-Dassel-S"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
Encryption keyff
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
Quality=82/100 Signal level=-74 dBm Noise level=-68 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 3240ms ago

I get the following iwconfig output:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSIDff/any Nickname:"Broadcom 4306"
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.437 GHz Access Point: Invalid
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

I get the following "lshw -C network" output:
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
logical name: eth1
version: 03
serial: 00:13:10:47:e7:93
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bcm43xx driverversion=2.6.24-19-generic latency=64 module=bcm43xx multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b/g

In other words, the lit link LED on the wireless card and the outputs of all these commands indicate that my wireless card is working.

However, WiFi Radar does NOT show these networks - it's completely blank. The is true when I go to NM applet and click on "edit wireless networks".

My questions:
1. Why don't WiFi Radar or NM Applet 0.6.6 show any evidence that my wireless card is working even though commands like "iwlist scan", iwconfig, and "lshw -C network" and the link LED on the wireless card show the presence of networks in my area?
2. If WiFi Radar or NM Applet are somehow incompatible with this wireless card, is there another wireless network GUI I should use instead?

clayb226

Try to start the interface, then run "tail dmesg" to see what the kernel says about the situtation.

salasi

In comparison:
iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: **:**:**:**:**:**
ESSID:"660HW-G"
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=84/100 Signal level:-50 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
Encryption keyn
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=000000e539225183
Extra: Last beacon: 12ms ago

pan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

In your case, you have a signal level which is smaller than the level of noise (Quality=78/100 Signal level=-80 dBm Noise level=-68 dBm) which seems a bit suspect, although it does get a 78/100 quality rating. in mine, I get Signal level:-50 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm[/b], so my signal level is 30 dB higher than yours and my noise level is 59 dB lower than yours. Although all those dBs only get my quality rating up to 84/100, which doesn't seem that big an improvement on your 78, given that I've got an 89 dB (massive!) better sig:noise ratio.

My guess is that there is a bug in one of the bits of software (-127dBm sounds awfully close to the theoretical best value, so that sounds just a bit too good to be true...OTOH your situation in which the noise is 12 dB higher than the noise sounds likely to be unworkable). In any case, is there any chance of getting more signal? Failing that, why is your noise level so high? Is this a sign of some equipment turning out interference in your vicinity?