How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

riwa · 2006-06-19 15:52:16

I just installed ndiswrapper and got my "wi-fi-button" glowing. However, how can I "browse" the available networks? In Windows i recall having a list of available networks to choose connection. Does Arch do it for me? Is it possible to do it manually?

augustob · 2006-06-19 15:55:59

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

should do the trick

riwa · 2006-06-19 16:00:52

Thanks. But will I automaticly connect or do I have to choose myself?

augustob · 2006-06-19 16:30:24

You have to choose yourself. The iwconfig utility does that, taking ESSID and key as paramenters. A "man iwconfig" should help you through.

Also:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup

You seem to be a more GUI-oriented kind of guy, though, so I suggest you look around for a graphical utility to do that for you. Gnome has one, if you're using it.

riwa · 2006-06-19 16:34:55

I just did everything the Wiki pages told me. I don't care if it's a gui or text based as long as it's relatively simple. Automatic connection would be nice though.

[edit] I use Xfce4.

The_Nerd · 2006-06-19 21:02:17

"wifi-radar" is a great little app in community which i use for my wireless.

use it with 'gksudo wifi-radar' from your normal user account and you should be set, provided you have sudo setup properly.
otherwise you can use gksu and type in your root password each time.
it shows networks, allows you to set profiles, and lets you connect to wireless networks with a single click.

hopefully it works for ya, its done me well for quite a few months now so i'd definately give it a shot!

riwa · 2006-06-21 14:07:47

I'm checking it out. I usually don't use sudo but I'll do the su variant. However it would be preferable to just type some command and connect to the network.

160332/home/riwa# iwlist key
lo        no encryption keys information.

wlan0     2 key sizes : 40, 104bits
          4 keys available :
                [1]: off
                [2]: off
                [3]: off
                [4]: off
          Current Transmit Key: [0]
          Security mode:open
          Authentication capabilities :
                WPA
                WPA2
                CIPHER TKIP
                CIPHER CCMP
          Current key_mgmt:0x0
          Current cipher_pairwise:0x0
          Current cipher_group:0x0


eth0      no encryption keys information.

sit0      no encryption keys information.
160214/home/riwa# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:70:8E:04
                    ESSID:"mine"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-87 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0
                    (Unknown Wireless Token 0x8C05)

Is there no way to just: iwlist connect_to_server_command

riwa · 2006-06-21 15:07:29

Hmm. I tried wifi-radar and got one hit. I double click, remove my ethernet-cable but the internet doesn't work. Do I need to somewhat disable eth0 to use wlan0?

kth5 · 2006-06-21 15:26:13

riwa wrote:

I'm checking it out. I usually don't use sudo but I'll do the su variant. However it would be preferable to just type some command and connect to the network.

why don't you try the network profile functionality in arch? more info can be found here

name the profile exactly like one of the connectable essids, then run something like this:

iwconnect.sh

#!/bin/bash
ifconfig wlan0 up
sleep 5
for fn in /etc/network-profiles/*; do
  profile=`basename $fn`
  available=`iwlist wlan0 scan | grep ${profile}`
  if [ ! -z ${available} ]; then
    echo "$profile is online, connecting..."
    netcfg $profile
  fi
done

riwa · 2006-06-21 15:44:26

I followed the profile guide through just to end up at nothing. I have a profile but have no idea what do do with it. Here's the output of iwlist wlan0 scan.

174229/home/riwa/# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:70:8E:04
                    ESSID:"mine"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-90 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0
                    (Unknown Wireless Token 0x8C05)
          Cell 02 - Address: CA:1A:DE:CB:3D:21
                    ESSID:"mine"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Ad-Hoc
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

The profile I created is called "mine". Now how do I connect?

[edit]
Trying your script now. It failed.

kth5 · 2006-06-21 15:53:36

two ESSIDs called "mine" on the same channel don't do any good of course. your card will not know to which it should keep the connection allive unless you provide the accesspoint's macaddress. i urge you to fix your setup though.

riwa · 2006-06-21 15:57:42

How do I fix my setup then?

kth5 · 2006-06-21 16:02:38

riwa wrote:

How do I fix my setup then?

switch one of the accesspoints to another channel. maybe one to channel 4 and leave the other on 11.

riwa · 2006-06-21 16:06:38

I don't understand any of this. I just followed Wiki to configure it. Didn't see anything about channels.

kth5 · 2006-06-21 16:08:34

riwa wrote:

I don't understand any of this. I just followed Wiki to configure it. Didn't see anything about channels.

this is not about your arch setup, you have the two accesspoints set up you want to connect your arch box to. but they are set up so, that linux can't decide which to connect to. in order to fix this, you should reconfigure one of the two instead of your arch box first.

riwa · 2006-06-21 16:12:38

So how do i reconfigure it? I haven't even configured it in the first place..

kth5 · 2006-06-21 16:13:28

riwa wrote:

So how do i reconfigure it? I haven't even configured it in the first place..

unfortunately i can't help you with this. this is your network, isn't it?

riwa · 2006-06-21 16:20:55

No it's actually my neighbors. I'm just trying to configure it because my friend only has wireless, and I can't configure it at his house (without internet). So I need to make sure it works with another connection before I try it at his place again.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-06-19 15:52:16

How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#2 2006-06-19 15:55:59

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#3 2006-06-19 16:00:52

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#4 2006-06-19 16:30:24

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#5 2006-06-19 16:34:55

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#6 2006-06-19 21:02:17

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#7 2006-06-21 14:07:47

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#8 2006-06-21 15:07:29

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#9 2006-06-21 15:26:13

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#10 2006-06-21 15:44:26

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#11 2006-06-21 15:53:36

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#12 2006-06-21 15:57:42

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#13 2006-06-21 16:02:38

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#14 2006-06-21 16:06:38

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#15 2006-06-21 16:08:34

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#16 2006-06-21 16:12:38

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#17 2006-06-21 16:13:28

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

#18 2006-06-21 16:20:55

Re: How to make sure that my wi-fi works?

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