Re: Some questions -- more radio misshaps

[Robert Moskowitz <rgm htt-consult com>]

 I am going to have to check my bios settings again. Almost like they
changed....

Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> Dan Williams wrote:
>   
> > On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 08:19 -0400, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> >   
> >     
> > > Hello, I am new here.  Running 0.6.4 in Centos 5.1 on an HP nc2400 
> > > notebook with the Intel ipw3945 dkms code from rpmforge.
> > >
> > > I just switched my operation over the this nc2400 from my old nc4010 
> > > which had an Atheros card using the madwifi dkms code from rpmforge and 
> > > I did everything via wpa_supplicant.conf (and the wpa_cli program!).
> > >
> > > So with this install, I could not get the wpa_supplicant working.  Seems 
> > > like it only supports the ipw2200 card?  And I found NetworkManager; 
> > > good job! So far  :)
> > >     
> > >       
> > As Ryan pointed out, NM will work with any card that properly supports
> > wireless extensions.  For RHEL5 (because the kernel is slightly older)
> > that means ipw3945 (_not_ iwl3945), iwl4965 (as a tech preview only),
> > airo, orinoco/hostap, atmel, ipw2100, ipw2200, ipw2915, zd1201, and
> > bcm43xx.
> >
> >   
> >     
> > > I am plowing through the archives to find answers, but this is slow!  No 
> > > way that I can find to download them and import them into Thunderbird 
> > > for better searching.  So here goes:
> > >
> > >
> > > The nc2400 expects the OS to manage the card.  There are no buttons to 
> > > turn the radio on and off like on my old nc4010.  Here I am on a plane 
> > > with the radio on.  Now I work with Boeing people (and work on 802.11 
> > > standards), so I have some inside knowledge of 802.11 and airplanes in 
> > > flight, but that is not the point.  The radio is eating power!  I need 
> > > that  battery life!  How can I turn off the radio.  I tried iwconfig 
> > > eth1 power on (to turn on power management), but the card is still 
> > > happily scanning for APs, I think.
> > >     
> > >       
> > If you uncheck "Wireless Enabled" after right-clicking the applet, this
> > should down the interface, which if the driver is correctly written
> > (some are not), should turn off the wireless power to the card.  If your
> > card doesn't turn off the TX power when you run 'iwconfig eth1 down'
> > then it's a driver bug.
> >   
> >     
> No such command as iwconfig eth1 down.  You mean ifconfig eth1 down?
>
> I just went trough a 'farrowing' time with this.  Everything wireless 
> stopped.  So I tried this.
>   
This time when things stopped working I looked first before typing.
Radio went off. I had unplugged the notebook and closed the unit. But I
have done that earlier today. I plugged back in and while I was doing
lsmod and dmesg commands, the radio came back on. More likely not
related, just with power it 'woke up'? ARGH.
> I could not get the wireless back up.  Rebooted a number of times.  No 
> wireless at all!
>
> Then the LED came on and things started working after I did a dmesg 
> command, which makes no sense that that turned the radio on.  Could just 
> have been a heat glitch.  But in all this I learned that iwconfig eth1 
> down is not a valid command  :)
>
> One of the joys of a meeting like the IETF is there are lots of APs 
> visable with lots of clients around and all sorts of nonsense to make 
> wireless go bump in the middle of a lookup.  IEEE 802.11 meetings are 
> just as bad!  Interop has been worst (all those vendors running their 
> own wireless demo network).  If you want to test out your code, go to a 
> big conference or trade show!
>
>
>   
> >   
> >     
> > > I seem to recall a way with lmsensor to turn the LEDs on and off, but I 
> > > think that only tied the LEDs into the reality of the operation of the 
> > > card, not impacting the card at all.
> > >
> > > This notebook also has builtin ethernet.  But shortly I will be at the 
> > > IETF conference in Philly, and I want to run Firestarter with its NATing 
> > > functions so I can plug another computer into the notebook to give it 
> > > access through my one wireless connection.  How can I get NetworkManager 
> > > to leave the wired alone so Firestarter can manage it and run services 
> > > like DHCP?
> > >     
> > >       
> > Add the line "NM_CONTROLLED=no" to
> > your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 (or whatever interface
> > name your wired card is) and NetworkManager will ignore it.  NM will
> > still manage the default route then when wireless is enabled and active.
> >
> >   
> >     
> > > My home network runs WPA-PSK (yeah, I know the risks, I wrote the attack 
> > > paper, but my Radius server is currently down).  I frequently run into 
> > > the situation where NetworkManager is not succeeding in authenticating 
> > > to the AP.  I have no sniffing data; I would like to see some packets, 
> > > but Wireshark does not show interface eth1 (the wireless one).  I end up 
> > > having to reboot to get wireless working, or switch to wired.
> > >     
> > >       
> > You probably have to switch the ipw3945 into monitor mode; if you google
> > around you can probably find out how, but I think it includes inserting
> > the ipw3945 module with the "rtap_iface=1" argument, then 'ifconfig
> > rtap0 up' and then using wireshark.
> >
> >   
> >     
> > > Now I notice that my AP is on channel 1, and I am picking up "Oakland 
> > > Wireless" also on channel 1.  This should NOT be causing the problem (I 
> > > hope), but I add the data point.  Actually I would like the option to 
> > > tell NetworkManager to ignore "Oakland Wireless" when I am at home, just 
> > > not when I am over at the local park, come springtime.  When I used 
> > > wpa_supplicant.conf, I could comment out various configs (or uncomment 
> > > them) and reload the conf file at least.  Ah the pains of a real nice 
> > > integrated gui!
> > >     
> > >       
> > NetworkManager will attempt to connect to the network you last used (via
> > a timestamp of the last successful connection).
> >
> > Dan
> >
> >
> >   
> >     
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