wireless lan configuration - why is it wlan0 and not eht1?
 

i have 2 usb wlan adapters, edimax 7117U (zydas 1201 chipset) and a white brand (atmel chipset)

i started by trying to install wlanctl-ng (for the 7117U) but i gave up and decided to try the atmel drivers, and they worked.

my problem is that i don't know how to request a IP from the DHCP server (on a PC running Windows). For the ethernet card i do it the only way i know, i just type "service network restart". But restarting this service doesn't include wlanX interfaces!

(there is a service named "wlan", but i don't know if this service was installed by the wlanctl-ng, or was damaged by it, it doesn't work)

So, how can i get an IP address for my wireless interface? Or how can i make it eth1 instead of wlan0?


Thanks

dhcpcd wlan0

dhclient wlan0 will get you an ipaddress.

Trick is to get the script to do what you need on startup and on restart of the network service. On redhat and redhat based system there are files in the folder /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices and in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts in the network-scripts folders are examples and in the networking/devices folder are the ones run when you start and stop the network service.

Modifying or adding files in the networking/devices folder will likely resolve your problems. Make sure you have wireless tools installed so iwconfig works.

it works - sort of
 

ok, i now have wlan0 working, i can get an ip addr by dhcp, (which means i am communicating with my Windows PC), and i added the ifcfg-wlan0 to that directory, so the network service also includes wlan0, but...

I have no internet/network access. I get an IP address from my windows pc (192.168.0.1) but i can't even ping that machine

another thing is also strange... when i see the wlan0 properties, by typing iwconfig, it says i have a good signal (almost 100) but the "Link" is 0!

any thoughts?

I would ignore the link stats for now, lots of drivers just don't implement that feature. Type route and show us the output.

route results
 

(not including the 169.x network and 127.x loop)

connected with ethernet:
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default universo.mshome 0.0.0.0 UG equal above



when connected with wireless the "default" route takes a while to appear, and is "192.168.0.1" instead of "universo.mshome"

Does the eth0 change to wlan0?
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
172.16.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
loopback localhost 255.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 lo
default homeportal.gate 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

Is about what it should look like.... If it doesn't you need to set the default route to use iface wlan0

wlan mistery
 

yes, it appears wlan0

default 192.168.0.1 .... UG .............. wlan0


why is it that the default route for eth0 is universo.mshome and the default route for wlan0 is 192.168.0.1?

Just one point in answer to below: according to README,linux-wlan-ng packages only partly implement the 'wireless' features, so iw* commands give unreliable info, such as only polling certain features. They recommend using the wlan* controls, which aren't much fun to use.

>>another thing is also strange... when i see the wlan0 properties, by typing >>iwconfig, it says i have a good signal (almost 100) but the "Link" is 0!