RT61 Wireless Chipset, anyway to Plug and Play?
 

I have a wireless card which uses the RT61 chipset and I've always had trouble getting it to work right. I got it working with Ubuntu with the official linux drivers (from ralink), but I do not like the fact that you have to change the configuration file when you change access points, because every time I messed with it, I would have a hard time getting it to work again. It's embarrassing going to someones house, and taking an hour to connect to their wireless network. I've seen that they have some open source RT61 drivers here:
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/...itle=Downloads

But these are in beta. My question is do these support the plug and play functionality I'm after? If not, is there a way to pull it off with this chipset?

I would definitely use the rt2x00 drivers rather than the official Ralink ones.

They are built on the original drivers, and even though they are listed as BETA they are very stable. I have never had a problem with them. Granted I have not used the RT61 branch of the drivers, only the RT2500/RT2570 drivers.

The driver has nothing to do with the config files though. Anytime you are connecting to a different network, the config files need to be changed, either at the command line or by editing them.

You'll want 2 packages installed - iwconfig and wpasupplicant. Iwconfig is small and fast, and great for connecting to unsecured networks, or those protected with WEP. Wpasupplicant is for connecting to wpa encrypted networks. It can also be used on WEP, but I prefer iwconfig because it is what I am more familiar with.

Connecting to a new network literally can be accomplished in about 15 - 20 seconds as long as you know the passwords or have someone with you who does. I would do it like this, either as root or with the sudo command:

That would do it. Obviously the interface can be different, for me my wireless card is eth1, but you also see alot of cards identified as wlan0 and other names. So if your friend was running an open network (aka bad idea), you could leave the key part out. If they have a WEP key, and it is say abCde, then with a wireless card of eth1, the commands would be exactly:

Game over. For wpasupplicant you usually need to physically get the key via usb stick, then point wpasupplicant at that key.

In any case, I don't know what you were doing, but it sounds like you were screwing up the files with manual editing if it was taking you half an hour. Try things out by going to coffee shops and see how quickly you can get on their open networks. That should be super quick as they tend to be open.

Peace,
JimBass

I'm sorry, but I guess I wasn't clear. The config file I was referring to was the RT61sta.dat file that is required by the official RaLink drivers. With the official drivers, this file has to be edited each time you change access points, and is a huge pain in the butt, because sometimes it doesn't even work right.

That is very strange. I would certainly pursue the open sorce driver mentioned above. There should be no need to edit a driver based on what network you connect to, the driver should just provide the OS with a way to access the card, not configure the card for use. They are mixing functions there. Sorry for the confusion.

Peace,
JimBass

No problem, it's all very confusing lol. I guess the driver uses this configuration file, instead of the ones that are regularly used. As you can tell, it's very troublesome.