If you need help getting a "non-standard" 802.11b/g wireless card to work with Linux, I strongly suggest using NdisWrapper. This is a GPL-licensed package which enables you to use Windows-based 802.11b/g wireless drivers with Linux. Linux-Wlan-ng can also be used with older Prism-based wireless adapters if you need it.
This is just a list of quick and dirty commands I use to manage wireless connections in Fedora Core 4. All of the commands are to be entered into a terminal screen.
| Command Syntax | What it Does | Do you need to be root to do this? |
|---|---|---|
| iwlist wlan0 scan | Lists all of the wireless access points that the wireless adapter using interface wlan0 can see. Thanks to Marcel Gagné's excellent explanation of this. | No |
| iwconfig wlan0 essid yourAccessPoint | Associates wireless adapter wlan0 with access point yourAccessPoint. This command should return no output if it is successful. |
Yes |
| dhclient wlan0 | Obtains a DHCP-assigned IP address for wireless adapter using interface wlan0. You need to associate with an access point first before you do this. Of course, it only works if there is a DHCP server on the wireless network. This command should return no output if it is successful. Note - This command returns no output even after it times out and fails to obtain an IP address! Use the ifconfig command to verify that an IP address was indeed obtained. |
Yes |
| ifconfig wlan0 | Shows settings information for the network (it does not have to be wireless) interface wlan0. If you leave off the wlan0, you will see information for all network devices known to the operating system. This command can also be used to assign a static IP address to a network interface. |
For viewing settings, then no. For making configuration changes, then yes. |
| mii-tool | Shows type of physical connection for wired network devices. | Yes |
If you do any sort of system update which results in the Linux Kernel version changing, you will need to recompile either NdisWrapper and/or Linux-Wlan-ng.
Well, it worked with Fedora Core 4 and NdisWrapper 1.8 on a Compaq Presario M2105US :)
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