[D-community-newbie] Wireless - How do I connect tot an existing wireless network?

[Chris Lale]

I have posted this question from the NewbieDOC wiki. [1]

Hello Daniel,

A little more information would help. Are you running Etch, Lenny, etc. Is
wireless built-in or are you using a PC card (which card) etc? Please reply with
more details. Meanwhile, here are some suggestions.

> 
> This question consists of several parts:
> 
> 1) How do I know whether my device is recognized by the system and whether a 
> driver for it is installed or not?
> 
Device: run the command lspci and look for your wireless card in the resulting
list of PCI devices.

Driver: this is either already in the kernel, or needs to be installed as a
kernel module. Install the wireless-tools package. Run the command iwconfig. If
you see an entry with configuration information about a wireless device (eg
wlan0), the driver is already installed. Otherwise, install the appropriate
module for your device (see below).

> 
> 2) How and where can I find the driver, and how to install it?
> 
Check the chipset [2]
and the appropriate driver. Check for the module using lsmod. If necessary,
compile the module from a Debian source package using module-assistant [3].
Install the module using modprobe.

> 
> 3) How to configure the connection?
> 
In Gnome, you can configure Network Settings (Lenny: System -> Administration ->
Network or Etch: Desktop -> Administration -> Networking)

Alternatively, you can modify the file /etc/network/interfaces beginning with a
line like
	iface wlan0 inet static
or
	iface wlan0 inet dhcp


[1] http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/Questions
[2]
http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/How_to_set_up_a_wireless_network_card_using_drivers_from_Debian_packages#Find_out_your_card.27s_chipset
[3]
http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/How_to_set_up_a_wireless_network_card_using_drivers_from_Debian_packages

Regards,
-- 
Chris.