Arch Linux

Xs1t0ry

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2007-07-01

Posts: 181

netcfg vs. wireless_tools problem & other random questions

1. I connect to my home network using a network-profile and netcfg. When I go to school, I have a network-profile for my school network (which is an open WAN), but it won't work! I get a message saying "could not obtain dhcp ip lease"  or something similar. Strangely, I can connect to it manually by doing

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "MyEssid"
# dhcpcd wlan0

and then it works just fine. I do not have the network daemon running. So I am wondering why this could be. I made a script to connect manually using the 3 cmds above, so its no big deal, but I would like to know for my own knowledge. Why is netcfg failing?

2. Also, is it really necessary to define INTERFACE= in /etc/rc.conf? I can seem to get by without it... if I do define it (as wlan0), should I also add wlan0="dhcp" or leave it alone?

3. The netcfg wiki page says that if the dhcp lease attempt times out, then to increase DHCP_TIMEOUT, but it doesn't say where this variable is. Is it in /etc/network.d/interfaces/<interface>?

4. With the new netcfg update, to enable roaming, the wiki says to set  WIRELESS_INTERFACE=wlan0 and add net-auto-wireless as a daemon, but you still need an appropriate network-profile, so what did this even change? Isn't that the same as before? Shouldn't you be able to type "netcfg essid" and then be prompted for a passphrase and then it connects?

5. Say you are out and about, like at a coffee shop that has free wifi. You don't want to make a new network-profile just to connect to it, so would using 'iwconfig wlan0 essid "networkName" &&  dhcpcd wlan0" be the best way to do this? Is this basically what programs like NetworkManager do? I don't want to install network manager since I already have netcfg and wireless_tools but I'm just curious.

6. What does the network daemon do? Is it necessary for connecting to networks in any context? Does it bring up all your interfaces? (i.e. if I don't have the daemon enabled, it says 'wlan0     Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
' and then I have to do 'ifconfig wlan0 up'... does having the network daemon on avoid this?)

7. I noticed that I can connect to a network with netcfg and then do 'ifconfig wlan0 down' and then I am still connected to the network. What's going on there??

Sorry for so many questions :S

pointone

Wiki Admin

From: Waterloo, ON

Registered: 2008-02-21

Posts: 379

Re: netcfg vs. wireless_tools problem & other random questions

1 & 3) Try increasing TIMEOUT and DHCP_TIMEOUT; variables mentioned in the Network Profiles wiki page are often ones you can use in a network profile (/etc/network.d/<profile>).

2 & 6) The network daemon reads INTERFACES and brings up specified interfaces (cat /etc/rc.d/network).

4) "The new automatic connection has proper roaming support and will prove more reliable than the old setup - particularly with more complicated wireless configurations." (http://www.archlinux.org/news/487/)

5) Wireless management and wifi-select should be useful.

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M*cr*s*ft: Who needs quality when you have marketing?

Xs1t0ry

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2007-07-01

Posts: 181

Re: netcfg vs. wireless_tools problem & other random questions

Thank you!

I'm sorry but I don't understand your answer to number 4. What is exactly *is* "proper roaming support?"

ps. So the network daemon can be used in conjunction with other networky daemons, like net-profiles, net-auto-wireless, etc?