hello ,

how can i view the available wireless networks in range , so that i can choose which one to connect to ??
(both by graphical application and using the prompt line ??? )


-- another question , is there any way to connect to more than one wireless network , using one linux box with one wireless device ??

thanks ,

what distro/desktop environment do you use?

One way would be to use the iwlist command. As root you can type:
iwlist scanning
This will give you the cells that are in range for you to connect to for each interface that supports scanning.

Or you can use a gui like eg KWifimanager in Kde. You'll find it under the K-menu->Internet->More Applications.

As for your second question I don't really know but I think it's highly unlikely.

hi ,

i use mandriva 2006 -- KDE ... .. .

thanks ,

I'm getting trouble connecting to my wireless network on Mandriva 2006 as well. It finds my adapter OK as well as the network itself but it refuses to work on DHCP and when I use a static IP address it says that it is connected but I cannot access any part of the network (btw, I have to use DHCP to access the internet but usually I can still access router setting and the other computers with a static address on windows and other linuxes that pick up my adapter but not so on Mandriva 2006.) I have tried setting my DNS server to the broadband router but so far I have had no luck.

I'm on Mandriva 2006. I can see my wireless network and can even get an IP from the DCHP but nothing beyond that. I'm running GNOME. I've tried to configure the connection manually and with the termanal with no success. :-/

I can see the network but have no access to the internet. I can't even ping the F'ing router.

Little help?

I can't ping my router, even though the PC says that I'm connected and I definately have the correct IP address. I don't think I'm being locked out. I use KDE.

For setting the static IP address, I'm guessing that you've only
set the IP address and not fully set up the computer. In addition to setting the IP address, you need to set up a default gateway with the route command:

route add default gw xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Just replace the xxx bit with the IP address of your router. And then you also have to set up your /etc/resolv.conf file with your ISP nameservers. For each nameserver your ISP has (check your router, odds are you can find them there) you add a line like this:

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx


DHCP normally does all this for you, but if you set a static IP, you need to do it yourself.

As for DHCP not workging, I believe Mandriva uses the ifup script. So once you have the card properly configured, try issuing ifup eth1 (or whatever your wireless card is actually named) and see if that works. If you dont' get a functional connection, have a look in /var/log/syslog and /var/log/messages to see what is going wrong.

Handog, what about if DHCP is working, but you still do not have a connection. In my case my router has assigned me an IP address and I can clearly see the addresses of my name servers. (The gateway is also correct.) But I still can not connect or ping anything. It keeps saying connection refused. I've entered my router's security key properly. What could the issue be? Your help is greatly appreciated! :-)

Thats a pretty ugly situation. Do all web sites refuse the connection or just your router? And just to rule out any insanely obvious problems, could you post the route, ifconfig and iwconfig outputs from your card after DHCP has supposedly done its thing? Also, is there a firewall on this computer?

Kwifi is not included in Mandriva. Mandriva has their own proprietary wireless manager. Called Wireless Manager. You can access it by right clicking on the netapplet in your system tray and clicking on Manage Wireless Networks. Or go through the "Configure Your Computer" in K-menu > System

There's also a nice little program called "wlassistant". You'll have to set up urpmi using the easyurpmi link in my sig, wlassistant makes it really easy to roam between Wireless networks.

By the way, this is what I get when I use ifup

Also, what device is sit0?

Are you sure the card is configured correctly? If DHCP is failing then either the card isn't configured to talk to the router or there is some security in place (firewall or router config) that might be getting in the way.

If I remember correctly, sit0 is your IPv6 device (I believe it is a virtual device to allow IPv4 hardware to work with an IPv6 address). Since IPv6 isn't really used yet, I wouldn't worry about it. It probably just means your kernel has IPv6 enabled.

I've looked in those files and towards the end this appears a lot.
What's even more weird is that I'm running ifup as root.