I've put together a computer whose function is to take an internet connection from wlan0 and broadcast it out via eth0... After a few days I got everything working with a Debian installation and all was well. I put the computer in my car and drove to my parents, where I wanted to set it up, and suddenly now that I get here, the wireless card has stopped working.

SPECIFICALLY:
If I use iwconfig to try to connect to my router it doens't give any errors, but it also doesn't connect.... also, there are no lights working on the back of the wireless card... I've tried trading PCI slots with other devices... doesn't help

So does this mean that I somehow wrecked my wireless card on the way, or can anyone think of what might have happened and also, preferrably, ideas on fixing it...?

Thanks!

Nick

Hummm, I bet if you ran "modprobe ndiswrapper" again as root, it would load the module again and you'd have wireless. You might have to run "ifup wlan0" right after as root to get an ip. (assuming wlan0 is your wireless) Probably the problem is that it's not loading the module on boot. When you're using ndiswrapper, "modprobe ndiswrapper" temporarily loads the module for your wireless so it works right away. However, in order for it to load after a reboot, you need to tell it to load the module you've installed on boot. I don't know exactly where to set this in Debian, but in Suse you can configure the wireless card to "start on boot" and set the eth0 or wired card to only come on "on cable connection" in the network configuration gui. I think most distibutions use /etc/modules to know what modules to load at boot. I'd check the bottom of this page: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation Hope this helps!

Thanks, Agentvenom, for the reply... I'm afraid that's not it though - I believe that since ndiswrapper is listed when I give an lsmod command after startup it has indeed been loaded. Either way, I have tried rmmod'ing the ndiswrapper module and then re modprobing and it doesn't seem to help. I continue to have the sinking feeling that my hardware is to blame....

Shame on me for not paying attention!!! However, it was 3 am. You are indeed correct. If lsmod shows ndiswrapper, then the module for the ndis driver should indeed be loaded. I'm not sure if faulty hardware is to blame or not. I don't know how just moving the computer could kill your hardware. In the few days that it was working, did you reboot the machine? Or the only time you shut it down was to move it?

I'm afraid that I rebooted the machine several times during the course of setting it up, having the network interfaces started manually at first, then testing them starting automatically. Since I was preparing this computer to be used as a router with no human intervention I was fairly thorough about testing.

I agree with you, though, I can't imagine what would have damaged only my wireless card on a trip... the card itself was new only a few days earlier though, so maybe I just got a dud. I think that I will have to return the card and try the whole thing again.

If it's new, you can always return it and try again to at least eliminate one possibility. Stinks to start over though....good luck!