I have successfully used my Aironet 350 card at a particular hotel that has a Linksys access point. The last time I was here, the AP must have been set to channel 1, but this time when I scan the network, it appears the AP is on channel 7:

[root@localhost net]# iwlist eth1 scanning
eth1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:0C:41:75:67:66
ESSID:"linksys"
Mode:Managed
Ch 07--> Frequency:2.442GHz
Quality:0/10 Signal level:-16 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption key:off
Bit Rate:1Mb/s
Bit Rate:2Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
Bit Rate:11Mb/s
Bit Rate:18Mb/s
Bit Rate:24Mb/s
Bit Rate:36Mb/s
Bit Rate:54Mb/s

When I try to change the channel of the card to match the AP (using either iwconfig or redhat-config-network), it doesn't return any errors but a subsequent iwconfig makes it appear like the change is ignored:

[root@localhost net]# iwconfig eth1 channel 07
[root@localhost net]# iwconfig eth1
eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency: 2.412GHz <--- Channel 01 Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:176/10 Signal level:-96 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:3 Invalid misc:1583 Missed beacon:0

So, the question is, how do I actually change the channel so that it matches the AP? Right now, I can see the DHCP attempts, but of course, it's not connecting.

Thanks!

-Tim.

Try removing the leading 0 in the channel number, also if that does not work the try channel 6 (factory default on linksys).

Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
(replace 192.168.1 with your network)

DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
TYPE=Wireless
MODE=Managed
ESSID=linksys
CHANNEL=7
KEY="restricted [1] XXXXXXXXXX"

Thanks for the quick reply.

I had actually already tried it without the 0, same effect.

I looked at the ifcfg-eth1 startup script and it actually had CHANNEL=7 in there already, I guess from when I used iwconfig or redhat-config-network. So why doesn't iwconfig eth1 show the proper frequency? I also tried channel 6 even though the scan seems to say it's using channel 7, and I tried setting the frequency using "iwconfig eth1 freq 2.442G", but all to no avail.

Thanks,

-Tim.

what driver are you using?

Check FAQs or google for your driver and iwconfig, etc.

For linux-wlan:

linux-wlan does not support the iwconfig "write" features. In other
words, you cannot use iwconfig to set channel, key, etc. It is
currently a read-only interface.

You need to use wlanctl-ng to configure the driver.

I'm not sure how to check that. When I do lsmod, I don't see anything related to wlan, but there are two modules for the Aironet: "airo" and "airo_cs". Are those the drivers and how can I check to see if they can be written using iwconfig?

Thanks a lot for your replies.

it is aironet driver.

Might also check /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts

I don't see anything in the wireless.opt file that would affect this.

Does the airo driver support writing the parameters via iwconfig? How can I determine that?

Thanks