LanExpress Wireless configuration issues

[darth_tradd]

Hi!

I've using Fedora Core for almost 6 months now. I installed it on Compaq Presario Laptop 2500 with the following configuration:

Pentium IV processor
256 MB RAM
40 GB HDD
National Semiconductor PCI Ethernet Card
Lan-Express IEEE 802.11 PCI Adapter. (Wireless)

Currently, I have Fedora Core 2 installed with kernel 2.6.5. I have been able to configure almost every piece of hardware but the Wireless PCI Card. Fedora detects it as an Orinoco_PCI but when I try to setup a connection it says: "Trying to determine IP address for Eth1:" and after a while it says "Cannot activate device Eth1"

I've trying several solutions, but I haven't been able to make it work. I 've been trying to connect to a 2wire wireless switch, but it just doesn't see it.


Thanks in advance for the help.


Darth Tradd

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by darth_tradd
Fedora detects it as an Orinoco_PCI but when I try to setup a connection it says: "Trying to determine IP address for Eth1:" and after a while it says "Cannot activate device Eth1"

I've trying several solutions, but I haven't been able to make it work.

Could it be the wireless card is detected and the required modules loaded, but cannot get a ip address as networking (static/dhcp) has not been configured yet?

What have you tried so far (so we don't repeat what you have already tried)?

Tried any of the troubleshooting suggestions in some of the other wireless/wired ethernet card related threads (we have loads of them)?

Does

/sbin/lsmod

show the required modules such as orinoco_pci as being loaded?

[darth_tradd]

Thank you for your response, mdwatts.

I read a solution that said that (under RedHat 8) I should add the following line to my /etc/rc.d/rc.local file:

mod_probe orinoco_pci

I did so and I found by running /sbin/lmod the following modules

...
...
orinoco_pci 4876 0
orinoco 31500 1 orinoco_pci
hermes 6528 2 orinoco_pci,orinoco
...
...


so i think that the loaded modules are ok.

Then, on the 2wire site (my wireless switch manufacturers) I followed the instructions there to configure a wireless conection under RedHat 8. Basically it said that I should use either DHCP or static IP's. it gave a range of IP's (172.16.x.x.) and I used it since under WinXP the assigned IP is 172.16.1.35.


Now, when I try to activate the wireless connection using DHCP it gives the error I posted before (couldn't activate device eth1). When I use the static IP it activates the device! but I can't access any page on internet. Also, the 2wire switch I'm using has a local network led that should lit when there's a wireless conection (and it does in XP), but apparently it just doesn't "see" my laptop.

So far I think it's a problem of network configuration, so I reviewed the how-to's to make it work, but after reviewing my /etc/hosts and my /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 files I haven't find anything strange.


Thanks again for your response and your help.


Darth_Tradd

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by darth_tradd
When I use the static IP it activates the device! but I can't access any page on internet.

That is a common problem here at JL. Did you configure the gateway address and add your ISP dns servers to /etc/resolv.conf?

Does RH8 use eth# for wireless or wlan0? Any Redhat & wireless users here that can offer suggestions? Thanks

[darth_tradd]

Hi!

I've double checked my network settings and I have both my DNS server and the predetermined gateway configured.

I'm not sure, but if the device eth1 (wireless) is active, shouldn't the Local Network led in the switch lit on? I wonder if Fedora is really activating my device, because now I think that my network configuration is ok, but I'll check it again tomorrow.


Thank you for your help mdwatts.


Darth Tradd

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by darth_tradd

I'm not sure, but if the device eth1 (wireless) is active, shouldn't the Local Network led in the switch lit on? I wonder if Fedora is really activating my device, because now I think that my network configuration is ok, but I'll check it again tomorrow.


Thank you for your help mdwatts.


I would think the led should be on. Unfortunately I don't know much about Linux & wireless as even though I recently purchased a Linksys router/AP and pci/pcmcia cards, they are mostly for the gf's XP box and I haven't got around to configuring with Linux.

Are the modules still loaded (/sbin/lsmod)? How about ifconfig? Does ifconfig show any devices besides 'lo'?

You may want to have a look/search through the Networking and 'How I did it' forums for previous threads on wireless networking as some may provide you with configuration and troubleshooting tips.

Glad to at least try to help. Hopefully some of our wireless networking users will also be able to assist you. Hopefully!!

[darth_tradd]

Hi!


Thank you for all your help mdwatts. Believe you have helped me a lot. I will keep trying on this one, recently I found on Freshmeat.net a project called wireless tools. In the project homepage there are several how-to's about all this wireless stuff. I will check it thoroughly, hope it helps! :)

Anyway, I will also check what you just suggested. If i can figure out this one, I'll let you (and the forums here at JL) know how I did it.


Thanks again


Darth Tradd

[darth_tradd]

Hi everyone!

I just read that O'Reilly has just published a book about wireless networking. i haven't been able to solve my problem, but keep trying. The address of this book in O'Reilly's catalog is

O'Reilly's wireless book (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lnxunwired/index.html)

Hope it can be useful for someone. I will buy it as soon as I can.



Darth Tradd

[mdwatts]

You might want to search the JL forums for 'linuxant' and 'ndiswrapper' to find info and links to their websites and then check to see if your wireless card requires additional drivers either linuxant (need to purchase) or ndiswrapper (free).

BTW... Most recent distros already include the wireless-tools package as you can see from mine (SuSE 9.0) though I don't have any wireless devices in this particular pc.

rpm -qa | grep wireless
wireless-tools-26-80

[darth_tradd]

Hi!

So far, it seems that my card is configured, when I run ifconfig I get

ifconfig eth1
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:02:8A:7A:7F:77
inet addr:172.16.1.35 Bcast:172.16.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::202:8aff:fe7a:7f77/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:387 errors:3 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:44166 (43.1 Kb)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0x2000 Memory:d000a000-d000afff

And by running iwconfig i get

iwconfig eth1
eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"2WIRE984" Nickname:"localhost.2WIRE984"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:0D:72:28:3D:B9
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity:1/3
Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:3033-3334-3734-3636-3839-0000-00 Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality:62/92 Signal level:-56 dBm Noise level:-149 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:142 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


So it seems that is detecting the router, but the routher just doesn't "see" my laptop. i think is just a problem of DNS or something like that, or perhaps there's something with my router configuration. I will keep trying, since I still don't have Internet connection. I'll look up in the networking forums.


Darth Tradd

[darth_tradd]

Hi !

Finally I managed to make the wireless connection to work! Thanks to mdwatts that helped me to configure the card, but I didn't have any connection to the internet. But reviewing the output of my iwconfig eth1, I noticed that the encryption key wasn't the same I wrote. Since I had nothing to lose I put 0x before the WEP I got from my ISP. and voila! It started to work....

I feel ashamed because of this, because it was such a small problem that, after all the other work, was keeping me away from the internet.

Hope this could be useful for someone out there.

Thanks again


Darth Tradd

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by darth_tradd
But reviewing the output of my iwconfig eth1, I noticed that the encryption key wasn't the same I wrote. Since I had nothing to lose I put 0x before the WEP I got from my ISP. and voila! It started to work....

I feel ashamed because of this, because it was such a small problem that, after all the other work, was keeping me away from the internet.

That is something I would have never thought of. Good job figuring out the solution.

Not to worry as we all learned from this (I certainly did and have taken notes for whenever I get around to setting up and configuring my wireless).

Glad we all could help. Enjoy!!!

[darth_tradd]

Well, it's really satisfactory to make this card work. Now I can send this post from Fedora and no from Windows XP.
As I said, hope this could be useful for someone. And, as you say mdwatts: If Linux doesn't have the solution, you have the wrong problem!

Thank you for all your help!


Darth Tradd