I am running Fedora core 1 on my desktop and winxp on my laptop. I have the desktop set up as a samba server. I thank I have most of the things configured at least close to right because sometimes in windows I can navigate to the linux folder I want to share At other times I can't even see the server on the network or it drops in the middle of a file transfer. My network has my laptop with a built in 802.11g wnic and my desktop has a pci 802.11b wnic. I would appreciate any help to solve this problem.

thank you

Hi Damon Spector,

Wireless wont work because you are running such an old OS. Do yourself a favour and upgrade to Fedora Core 3. Core 1 was never designed for wireless.

Wasn't designed for wireless?! Utter nonsense.

Wireless drivers have been in the kernel for years. I've been using wireless since Red Hat 7.3 and I was not on the cutting edge by any stretch.

Damon,
Your symptoms are consistent with poor signal quality or interference from another radio source - microwave oven, cordless 2.4GHz phone, another wireless ,etc.

What make/model wireless devices are you using? Are they set up as ad-hoc? If not, what router make/model? What does iwconfig tell you about the signal strength and noise level? What does the XP box report in terms of signal strength?

If you run a continuous ping, do you get any dropped packets?

I have been running this laptop for about a year and haven't found another wireless network around my house in all that time. the microwave and the cordless phone may be a problem but I don't know if they were in use at the time.

I'm not sure what I have in my windows laptop because it is built right in but I have got an ADMTEK 8211 chipset on my wireless card in my desktop. both computers are setup as ad-hoc.

here is the output of iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"mine" Nickname:"me"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:2.417GHz Cell: 023:BE:133:00
Bit Rate=11Mb/s Tx-Power=28 dBm
RTS thr=2346 B Fragment thr=2344 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100 Signal level:0 Noise level:102
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

for the xp box signal strength is excellent.

When I ping from the xp box I get a reply from the liunx box ip address.

As soon as I turned off my firewall on the windows box I started receiving replies to pings on my linux box and the network worked for about five minuets. Then windows dropped the connection and said I don't have permissions to view my network when I tried getting back on. Linux starts saying host is unreachable and windows starts saying the request timed out when I try pinging again.

I'd focus on the Windows end, especially if you are using Wireless Zero Config to manage the connection.

Make sure that 802.1x is not checked in the adapter advanced properties.
Look at the device properties and in the BIOS for power save settings and disable them.
Try turning the WZC service off and using the manufacturer's utility to manage the connection.
Make sure the drivers are up to date.
Leave the XP firewall off and disable any third-party firewalls, at least for testing.

XP dropped connections is a pretty common problem, but one with many potential causes and it can take a while to track it down.

I was surprised to find anyone still using Fedora Core 1 and trying to use wireless with it, given that the tools that are now being written generally require a 2.6 kernel (okay he might've upgraded). An odd situation which generated a standard response from me and if it was incorrect advice I gave then I apologise. Perhaps I responded in haste. Damon, I hope your problem comes to a quick resolution.
Regards
Chris

the 802.1x is not checked.
the power save settings are disabled
i thank the drivers are up to date
i cant seem to find the manufacturer's utility and i am using the WZC service
and my firewall is off

I can see the shared folder on windows but i can't navigate to it on the network but if i use the link i can get to it and it remains accessible as long as i don't transfer a folder that takes longer than 1 minute.

oh i found out that i am using a Broadcom 54g MaxPerformance 802.11g card in my laptop

do you have any other ideas i can try

Look in XP's event log as well as the logs on the Linux box to see if there are any additional clues. Otherwise, I'm stumped.