Re: Mysteries of WiFi #1 - which interface?

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On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 7:39 PM, Timothy Murphy <gayleard@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Paul Johnson wrote:
>
>  The card I am using in this ThinkPad T43 laptop at the moment is
>  an Orinoco Classic Silver PCMCIA card.
>  Actually, I have it working at this instant under NetworkManager (NM).
>  Typically, it didn't start when I re-booted under NM.
>  Then when I booted again it did.

Most wireless drivers have an option to turn on verbose debug
information.  I've done it with ipw3945.  I suggest that would be your
next step.

I think you are mistaken in saying that "/sbin/iwlist scan" is not
useful. It tells you if your computer can see any wireless routers,
and it gives their names and channels.  Sometimes getting
system-config-network to work properly is as simple as setting the
channel, name, and wep key correctly.

Similarly, "/sbin/ifconfig" shows you if the wireless device has
obtained an IP number.  It is important to know that.  It shows if the
card has a driver loaded.

I'm a little puzzled that you say you have 2 identical laptops with
orinoco_cs and one does associate and the other does not.  If you have
exactly the same hardware in the same place at the same time, it seems
to me that they will behave in the same way.  IF they don't, it makes
me suspect a pcmcia card or port is damaged.

Nevertheless, on the one that sometimes joins and does not, I'd  say
you are close to getting at the source of the trouble, but relying on
NetworkManager won't help you figure out what it is.

Instead of rebooting, I usually do this

/sbin/service NetworkManager stop
/sbin/service NetworkManagerDispatcher stop

/sbin/rmmod iwl3945
/sbin/rmmod mac80211

(use /sbin/lsmod to see modules you have loaded, for me these are the ones)

Then if you try "/sbin/ifup eth1" again, it should trigger a reload of
the modules, and you can durn dmesg to try to track the association
process.

As long as you keep trying on the same wireless network, this will be
informative.

if you move to a new one, well, you see that apparently random
inexplicable behavior. I'm especially disappointed to learn that the
only place where NetworkManager on my laptop can get an IP address is
a coffee shop where I hate the coffee.  In my home, where I run the
router, NM has never never worked.  For some reason, it just can't
send a WEP key through properly. wifi-radar can do it, and so can
s-c-n.   How disappointing.

I used to have an orinoco_cs silver card and it did work pretty well.
But, to be honest, all of the laptops we have now have the builtin
wireless.  I guess you choose your poison.

Out of curiosity, I went and read some emails in the orinoco_cs user's
list.  This one seems to indicate problems with that driver and newer
kernels

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=47A8BD2A.5040608%40research.telcordia.com&forum_name=orinoco-users

The part that still has me stumped is that two similarly configured
systems with orinoco_cs behave differently.  I wouldn't have expected
that one.

-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas

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