Newbie question about setting up a wireless USB device as a router.

Themaister · 2008-08-08 05:48:37

Hi. I have this Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector, which used to be very useful for getting my DS and Wii online (I don't have a wireless router.)
By using some modified drivers from Buffalo I think, I eventually manage to install it as an ordinary wireless device and later set it up as an all-purpose wi-fi router device. I want to do exactly this in Arch if possible.

As far as I know, there are no real drivers for this device, but I tried some, and got stuck later on.

I basically want to simply be able to use my laptop, PS3, Wii and DS on it. Nothing fancy, and no encryption, as I only use it when necessary.

After plugging the device in the USB, I ran

$ hwdetect --show-net
NET    : forcedeth ppp_generic slhc mac80211 rfkill rt2500usb rt2x00lib rt2x00usb cfg80211

I looked like it's was quite ordinary actually. So I tried modprobing rt2500usb (should I modprobe the 2 others too?).
Surprise, surprise! I haven't edited my /etc/rc.conf at all yet.

$ iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Well, at least it detected my wlan. I haven't been able to test if I can actually get online with this thing as there is no network to try on around here.

So, where do I go from here? The KISS way, if you know what I mean, hehehe

- Thanks in advance.

This is my ifconfig -a if useful:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:60:87:18:D5  
          inet addr:10.0.0.2  Bcast:10.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:60ff:fe87:18d5/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2783 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2272 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2401773 (2.2 Mb)  TX bytes:450333 (439.7 Kb)
          Interrupt:23 Base address:0x6000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:280 (280.0 b)  TX bytes:280 (280.0 b)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0D:0B:C3:18:F2  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wmaster0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-0D-0B-C3-18-F2-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Checked around, and I need master mode to be able to do this, however, the drivers I have don't support it :\ Any way to get better drivers somehow?:p

Last edited by Themaister (2008-08-08 06:41:30)

Megamannen · 2008-08-09 12:49:54

You can always do a "man iwconfig"
"iwconfig wlan0 mode master" is the command you are looking for, google it to find more about it. . It sets the wlan-card to work as an access-point. Unfortunatly not all card supports this, I don't think your does, but you can give it a try.
And remember to pacman the firmware for the card too, I think your card needs it.

- Edit - Missed your edit, sorry, you had already found the information I gave you

Last edited by Megamannen (2008-08-09 12:50:38)

tomk · 2008-08-09 13:15:17

rt2x00.serialmonkey.com is where you need to go. It's possible the legacy driver supports master mode.

Themaister · 2008-08-10 19:39:20

Thank you. Got a bit further, but probably not in the right direction : [

Figured out that the WFC uses the rt2570 chipset (according to wikipedia), which I downloaded from the link you gave. Installed it, and had to blacklist the other ralink-modules that were present for it to work.

Now, my iwconfig looks like this:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

rausb0    RT2500USB WLAN  ESSID:""  Nickname:""
          Mode:Monitor  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=0/100  Signal level:-120 dBm  Noise level:-82 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Well, it apperaently did something.
By looking at the lsmod it only shows up the rt2570.

Well, sudo iwconfig rausb0 mode master returns the same error I had ... :[

Does this mean I'm screwed? xD

EDIT: The forums on that site suggested that the master mode was disabled in the legacy drivers (and the other drivers for that matter) :[
Well, dual boot here we go

Last edited by Themaister (2008-08-10 19:48:36)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-08 05:48:37

Newbie question about setting up a wireless USB device as a router.

#2 2008-08-09 12:49:54

Re: Newbie question about setting up a wireless USB device as a router.

#3 2008-08-09 13:15:17

Re: Newbie question about setting up a wireless USB device as a router.

#4 2008-08-10 19:39:20

Re: Newbie question about setting up a wireless USB device as a router.

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