I recently installed Fedora Core 6 on my laptop, my first experience with Linux.

On boot, while starting networking, I get the following message:
ipw2200 device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization

The laptop in question is a Sony Vaio VGN-FS742/W and FC identifies the card as an "Intel Corporation 82562ET/EZ/GT/GZ - PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller Mobile". On the laptop itself, there is a switch to turn the card on or off, but regardless of setting, the computer still can't initialize the card.

Does anyone know what this means or why it's happening? Or, more importantly, how to fix it?

May be you'll find something useful from this other thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=513834

Almost works, but not quite.

I installed the utility "wireless-tools" (that's the yum name). It can find the card, it can find various networks around my house (including mine), but can't connect to a network using AES encryption.

I need to know for sure, the bottom part of this didn't work?: http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml

If so, try:
iwconfig eth1 mode managed
iwconfig eth1 key restricted xxxxx (replace with you key)
iwconfig eth1 essid your_lan's_name (replace with your lan)
ifconfig eth1 10.0.0.10 netmask 255.0.0.0 (replace with your ip and mask if needed)
route add default gw 10.0.0.253 (replace with your gateway if needed)
/etc/init.d/networking restart

This is for having in your /etc/network/interfaces:

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-essid wifipucp
wireless-key ********** (replace with yours)

Let me know, with some useful details.

It's not a WEP key. It's a WPA-PSK using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) certified by the NSA. There aren't any WEP networks in my vicinity that I have the password for, but it appears that WEP-encrypted networks work now.

I'm reinstalling the OS (I found a book showing me how to use a few advanced options), but after I've done that I'll tinker with it. If I get it to work, I'll let people know how I did it. If I don't get it to work, I'll tell people what I've tried and ask for suggestions.

Sorry, sorry. Can this be somewhat helpful?: http://www.dw-itsecurity.de/content/view/65/120/
And I've seen interesting points in the wpa howto, first chapter: http://www.bughost.org/ipw/wpa_howto.txt

That is absolutely great.

Hmm... I somehow seem to have killed the computer's ability to connect to the internet. Strangely, it seems to have happened while using KYum, after I had downloaded the list of available updates, but before I was able to install the wlassistant. That does not make a whole lot of sense. The computer I'm using to post this message is connected to the same router, and both are using wired LAN.

The eth0 connection (wired LAN) shows as "active", and can be disabled, then re-enabled without problem, but neither yum nor Firefox can connect to the 'net. Thus far, I've tried rebooting the laptop, cold booting the laptop and resetting the router. No dice.

Anyone got any clues at all as to what I did? My first clue that something bad was happening was yum could not find its repositories.