YDL [not OSX] with linksys wireless router?? [long rant -- sorry!]

[Spliced Networks]

On Thu, 27 Mar 2003, Beartooth wrote:

Hi,

I have a Linksys Wireless Access Point/Router, it is model # BEFW11S4 v2.
It is the model with a 4 port hub integrated into the back, and a WAN
port. I simply powered it up, plugged my laptop (running RedHat 7.3
at the time) into it via ethernet, ran dhcpcd, and then pointed Mozilla
at the WAP. 

It works flawlessly, I even have WEP 128 bit encryption working :)
I had it running in a matter of minutes without encryption, with WEP it
about an hour or so to get it working right. For WEP, I used 128 bit
keys, and had the linksys generate the key. I then took the key and
hardcoded it into MacOS X, YDL 2.3, Red Hat and Windows XP. The worst
problems I had were with Windows XP, I ended up turning off Windows XP's
internal wireless support and used the Linksys software. This was WEP
related though, without encryption, it was a cake walk to setup :)

My only comments about the access point:

a) would like SNMP support for stats and config
b) The WAN port is only 10, not 10/100. 

I know that the thinking behind the WAN port being 10BT is that you
are supposed to plug a cable modem or DSL modem into the WAN port,
and that the majority of those are only 10BT, and you only get about
2MB/sec out of most residential cable providers anyway. I have the
linksys sitting behind a linux firewall, so if the WAN port did support
10/100, I could have used the 10/100 ports on the hub part of the linksys
rather than running extra cables from my office to my Cisco catalyst. :)

It looks like Linksys is going to be bought by Cisco, so we might see
some nice features added to their products :)

To get my iBook running, I simply started up YDL 2.3, and then:

modprobe airport
iwconfig eth1 essid "mySSID"
ip link set eth1 up
dhcpcd eth1

After I first set it up, I wanted to see if I really needed the WEP
encryption. I took my iBook and went for a short drive around the
neighbourhood, pinging my access point. I was able to ping the gw up to
about 2 blocks in either direction of my house.

In YDL 3.0, I created /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 to read:

================

USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no
GATEWAY=xx.xx.xx.xx
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=eth1
HWADDR=mm:mm:mm:mm:mm:mm
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
ONBOOT=yes
DHCP_HOSTNAME=ibook
IPADDR=
NAME=
DOMAIN=
ESSID=mySSID
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Managed
KEY=keygoeshere
RATE=11Mb/s

=================

1. replace xx.xx.xx.xx with the ip of your access point.

2. replace mm:mm:mm:mm:mm:mm with the mac (hardware) address of your 
   airport card.

3. replace mySSID with your SSID

4. replace keygoeshere with your 128 bit key, or leave blank for none.

I'll put a full howto on the TuxPPC site, when the new site goes up later 
this year.

Thanks


> On 26 Mar 2003 23:43:13 -0500, on yellowdog-general (digest, Vol 1
> #729), "Tony K." <nebenkabon@charter.net> wrote inter alia :
> 
> > I have a Linksys Wireless Access Point Router (802.11b), Model
> > #BEFW11S4, and basic functionality works fine with my iBook (600MHz)
> > YDL2.3 and airport card and my Red Hat desktop.
> 
> /rant on/
> 
> 	I'm not beginning to get my question across, alas! 
> 
> 	TonyK says it can be done, and that's encouraging. But (as I
> obviously should have said at first) I've been fighting with this thing
> (along with several other people) for a couple of months.
> 
> 	The rest of what he says is either stuff I know to the point
> where I use it in my sleep -- to curse with -- or else it has only to do
> with Apple, at least apparently. The transfer to YDL may be obvious to
> the meanest intelligence, but not to mine.
> 
> 	Catch-up (background I should've given):
> 
> 	I'm in process of moving. I *had* both OSX *and* YDL connecting
> to DSL just fine, with an Apple wireless hub, at the old house. Now I'm
> stuck with this never to be sufficiently to be execrated piece of
> Linksys -- which finally turns out, after a $200 bill for diagnosing it
>  (not repairing it!) to have two dead ports out of four.
> 
> 	Not quite all of the grief is Linksys's fault -- the desktop
> which I also want it to work with turned out to have a defunct ethernet
> card -- which had worked fine with the apple hub. That confused things.
> 
> 	But the iBook works fine; and I bought the Linksys here, and
> can't have damaged it in moving. Besides, the dead ports are the middle
> two, the ones least exposed to mishap.
> 
> 	Anyway, the linksys tech I called stayed on the line as long as
> I wanted, and worked hard the whole time -- but he'd never *seen* OSX
> (which linksys claims to support), and couldn't even make OSX connect. I
> finally let him go because I felt sorry for him -- and eventually got
> help from a friend online, who desn't know linksys, but does know apples
> -- and the Net.
> 
> 	All that took most of two months, off & on -- all my time, 
> whenever I spent a few days at this end.
> 
> Present situation :
> 
> 	I now have the iBook connecting with OSX wirelessly through the
> Linksys. Only with OSX (where I can never find anything! It drives me
> crazy.), *not* with YDL. I want to make YDL connect, and then download
> 3.0, and upgrade.
> 
> 	But the website Tony named is for the Apple hub! Maybe all the
> rest of you know enough to find translating that into linksysese trivial
> -- but I can't begin to do it at all. (I said that, didn't I? I may yet 
> scream it ... <wry grin>)
> 
> 	The friend got OSX to connect, as I say (with a couple of *long*
> phone calls). But even now, with the linksys configured to a
> fate-thee-well (SSID, password, and all!), when I reboot to YDL, it
> won't connect. Not even to http://192.168.1.1. Nor will it ask my ID and 
> password when I try -- though it does both on the RH 8.0 desktop,
> 
> 	On login, I get some sort of failure message about
> /btth/home/.DCOPserver_localhost.localdomain__0 -- and yes that's a
> double underline mark just at the end. It says to make sure the DCOP
> server is running -- and nothing in the GUI even seems to point near any
> way to start *or* reconfigure it; I've even combed through the KDE
> menus.
> 
> 	When I su to root and do cd /home/btth and then ls -a, sure 
> enough, there is a file named .DCOPserver_localhost.localdomain__0 -- 
> and file .DCOPserver_localhost.localdomain__0 tells me it's plain ascii 
> text. So I pico it (only editor I know, alas!): its content is 
> 
> local/localhost.localdomain:/tmp/.ICE-unix/dcop1193-10487791751193
> 
> which tells me zilch to the square root of minus one.
> 
> 	Nothing on the ydl nor terrasoft websites talks about linksys,
> afaict -- and I can hardly blame them.
> 
> 	It's very odd: Linksys has a good reputation in Northern 
> Virginia (which I have just left), but an abysmal one in Western 
> Virginia (where I am now) -- and also in Southern California, 
> apparently, according to a friend there whom I talked with last night.
> 
> 	In fact, the contrast is startling. I ignored it at first,
> because I couldn't credit it; but now I'm so disgusted with *my* linksys
> that today I grabbed a Network Everywhere brand router, model NWR04B,
> which appears to be the same design as the linksys except for having a
> metal case and only one rabbit ear. I haven't broken the shrinkwrap yet
> -- but could it possibly be any worse? Or enough different to be *more*
> trouble than one with half its ports dead? Anybody know?
> 
> 	I'd like to trans-plug every wire & cable from the linksys to
> the NW, and just take the linksys to the rifle range, along with my old
> W98 drive of evil memory ...
> 
> 	At this point, I'd be glad of *any* way to get connected and 
> download 3.0! (Short of using something from Microsoft, of course.)
> 
> /rant off/
>