Linux find and connect to wifi

dystopia · March 21st, 2005, 01:02 AM

Well, I finally got a decent open pc to make into a linux test bed for my own education...after a few tutorials on how to get my wireless card working, I remembered my college offers wifi around campus.

So, since I'll be using it for notes and such I might as well get all I can from the system. My question is, what program would you suggest to find and connect to their network and my network easily? Or will I simply have to run wlcardconfig everytime I want to switch networks?

If you can't tell, I'm brand new to linux, I used knoppix 3.7 install to hdd, so lamens terms are welcome.

Secondary question: I know linux isn't quite as plagued by viruses as windows systems, but I still believe an antiviral is a good idea, any suggestions, or is it really safe enough to skip this?

**GroundZero3** · March 21st, 2005, 08:36 AM

does your college use wep or anything special to log into the wireless? That would be a good thing to find out before you start trying to log on.

what wireless card do you have? As you may have noticed linux can be picky about what hardware it wants to work with

CMonster · March 22nd, 2005, 04:07 AM

no need for antivirus software

hacks and exploits are possible - keep things up to date, patched

What GZ said about connectivity.... have to admit though (sorry folks) - that I jump onto a guy's open wireless from one of the condos near my work - he didn't even password his router - never to snoop - just to use the email..... DHCP - all settings obtained automatically - SuSE 9.0 on my laptop, orinocco gold card

dystopia · March 22nd, 2005, 04:35 AM

My card ran suprisingly well from the get go, I was a bit suprised being an older belkin. wlcardconfig, netcardconfig and I was done for my home network in a matter of seconds. My only real issue is that I want to quickly swap between my home and school wifi, sort of like xp's "auto connect to prefered network" feature I suppose. Being new to linux, I haven't the foggiest what popular apps people use for the sort of stuff, even after extensive googling.

I'll be sure to keep up to date on the patches, though it still feels wierd.

krohnjw · March 22nd, 2005, 08:51 AM

If I recall correctly, Kismet will allow you to view available networks and associated info, however the card must be able to run in promiscious mode (for the orinoco driver at least this requires a patch to the module). I would also look into Kwifimanager, but I don't know if that will list multiple networks, just the network you are connected to.

originel · March 22nd, 2005, 06:45 PM

Is Kismet the one built into KDE? I seem to remember KDE having one.

If worse comes to worse you can do what i do and just keep a script that connects to each of my wireless networks.

If your school uses WPA, Protected EAP, or some of the other newer encryption methods (like my school), then you will need a tool called Linux WPA Supplicant. It's a real pain in the rear to setup and will cause you a lot of headache...but from what i've seen it's the only way.

krohnjw · March 22nd, 2005, 07:40 PM

kwifimanager is packaged with KDE, but not kismet.