How to use wireless with Debian

dalo · 05-20-2008, 01:20 AM

Hi all

Have installed Debian on my PC and am trying to work out how to set up my wireless internet connection. I'm in Australia and it is a Bigpond wireles modem with USB connection to PC. I am very new to this so don't really know the first step. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks Dalo

MS3FGX · 05-20-2008, 02:29 AM

Wireless and USB are already a bit worrying...

The first step would be to identify the chipset in the device. Try using the command "lsusb", which will show you some information on connected USB devices. You might also want to check the kernel/system logs (/var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog) to see if they mention anything when the device is connected. Also make note of any modules that may be loading when the device is connected with the command "lsmod".

dalo · 05-22-2008, 01:24 AM

Hi,
Tried the suggested lists, and got a lot of info I could not really understand. From the lsusb the only different usb item was Bus 003 Device 002:ID 16d8:6280. Unfortunately this does not really mean much to me. Any further comments appreciated.

Thanks Dale

IndyGunFreak · 05-22-2008, 06:24 AM

I've never had any luck at all w/ USB modems, Good luck on that one.

IGF

MS3FGX · 05-22-2008, 11:51 AM

You didn't even see any device names? Just the USB VID/PID? You could try specifying the "-v" option to lsusb to be more verbose, but I don't know that it would help in this case.

Nothing from the system logs?

farslayer · 05-22-2008, 01:07 PM

Is there a Model number printed on the Wireless device ?

Google shows several results for "Bigpond Wireless USB Modem Linux" but without knowing exactly what device it is....

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=517591

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=477067

http://www.swerdna.net.au/linhowtoevdoinsuse.html

http://www.linux.org.au/~quozl/mm-5100/