[nflug] [Fwd: [social] Wireless Networking in Linux - Redux]

[Cyber Source]

I really have not had much (if any) trouble with wireless in Linux and I 
find it to be extremely stable when running. I have had zero problems 
with PCI cards and the only time I have had troubles was with USB 
wireless (impossible). If native drivers aren't available then the 
ndiswrapper is an easy, workable solution. No, installing one is not an 
exercise for a Linux newbie, but plenty of help is around (nflug). The 
wpa, wep stuff can be a drawback if it's not supported for your card as 
this will leave you to open up your router a little more but it's really 
not a concern for Linux boxes and there are other ways to tighten up 
your router (static ip's, limited number allowed, etc.) so windows boxes 
might be a little more secure (if that's possible ;) ).

anthonyriga wrote:

>Yea I know your pain. I have some sucess with Knoppix
>and wireless, But you are right its a nightmare
>getting wireless to work . Drivers are the big issue. 
>
>--- Greg Neumann <DadNeumann at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Just for comments:
>>This poor guy's been fighting this for awhile. My
>>instinct is that 
>>hardware is the core of his issue. Windows specific
>>hardware has always 
>>been a nightmare for Linux. Any comments or ideas??
>>
>>-------- Original Message --------
>>Subject: 	[social] Wireless Networking in Linux -
>>Redux
>>Date: 	Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:57:44 -0500
>>From: 	Rod Engelsman
>>Reply-To: 	social at openoffice.org
>>To: 	social at openoffice.org
>>
>>
>>
>>Gentlemen, Comrades, Friends, and Associates:
>>
>>   I have a statement to make that you will all
>>probably find 
>>provocative -- perhaps even offensive -- but I
>>believe it is true 
>>nonetheless.
>>
>>"At the current state of the art, the Linux
>>operating system is a 
>>security hazard when employed on computers
>>communicating via wireless 
>>networks."
>>
>>Which is to say, unless you are a) very lucky or
>>very careful in 
>>selecting hardware, b) reasonably proficient with
>>the command line and 
>>configuration scripts, and c) willing to do a BUNCH
>>of homework and 
>>experimentation, setting up a secure wireless
>>network is probably beyond 
>>your capabilities and may be entirely impossible.
>>
>>We all know that an unsecured network is... well,
>>insecure, duh. And WEP 
>>is easily broken with modern hardware and freely
>>available GNU/Linux 
>>hacker tools. The only decent wireless security is
>>some flavor of WPA, 
>>preferably WPA-RADIUS with 802.1x authentication.
>>This provides 256-bit 
>>encryption with rotating keys and centralized
>>challenge-response 
>>authentication. For home users WPA-PSK (which
>>utilizes pre-set keys for 
>>authentication, rather than a central server) is
>>reasonably secure.
>>
>>I have three computers in the house -- four if you
>>count this dual-boot 
>>box as two, which it is in a very real sense, since
>>what is a computer 
>>without an OS? A Dell laptop that came with a
>>wireless card, a Toshiba 
>>laptop that I stuck a Linksys card into, and this
>>box with a D-Link 
>>wireless pci card. The Dell runs XP and the Toshiba
>>runs FC4. The dual 
>>boot box runs both.
>>
>>Frankly, it was enough of a trick just to get the
>>wireless cards working 
>>at all under Linux. Fortunately, the D-Link card has
>>an Atheros chipset 
>>so it will work with mad-wifi. I "only" had to
>>install a custom kernel 
>>and screw around for half a day to get WEP to work.
>>
>>The Toshiba required a distro with ndiswrapper to
>>use the Windows 
>>drivers since there are no Linux drivers for that
>>card. First I tried 
>>Ark Linux. That would only get a little way through
>>the install before 
>>it would eject the cdrom and reboot for no apparent
>>reason -- it's now a 
>>shiny coaster. Then I tried Mepis. I got it to
>>actually install the 
>>drivers and it worked unsecured, but for some odd
>>reason every time I 
>>would log into KDE it would launch three -- not 1,
>>not 2, but 3 -- 
>>instances of KWiFiManager that would sit there and
>>blink and tell me it 
>>couldn't connect, even though I could close them out
>>and use Firefox 
>>just fine. Weird.
>>
>>So I got tired of trying to figure out where Mepis
>>keeps the config 
>>files -- what little I know of Linux is
>>Redhat/Fedora -- and then the 
>>stupid thing totally locked up on me, for about the
>>5th time -- 
>>requiring a power-off reboot. Got out my FC4 discs
>>and installed 
>>something I halfway understand. Then I had to
>>sneakernet a few packages 
>>over to it and got the wireless working --
>>unsecured. Let it do about 
>>198 updates -- no exaggeration -- and then installed
>>ndiswrapper and 
>>wpa_supplicant from ATRPMs. I have spent probably a
>>week and a half now 
>>Googling, asking around on newsgroups, and studying
>>the sample config 
>>files, etc. trying to get this all to work together.
>>
>>And that's where I stand. I'm not an expert at
>>Linux, but I'm also not 
>>stupid, and I actually DO know a thing or two about
>>networking. This is 
>>just too hard, too convoluted, too poorly
>>documented, and consists of 
>>entirely too many moving parts. I have to face the
>>reality that this 
>>particular combination of hardware, software, and
>>protocols simply may 
>>not be capable of functioning.
>>
>>Wireless networking is not particularly new. It's
>>not an odd corner of 
>>computing that one should maybe expect to have
>>trouble with. How many 
>>people out there have laptops that they would like
>>to connect wirelessly 
>>to the Internet? More and more every day. The Linux
>>community HAS to get 
>>a better handle on this.
>>
>>It baffles me why some of the major distributions
>>don't tackle this head 
>>on.
>>
>>Rod
>>
>>BTW, it takes all of about 10 minutes, tops, to set
>>up a secure wireless 
>>network with "that other" OS.
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>nflug mailing list
>>nflug at nflug.org
>>http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>
>	
>		
>__________________________________ 
>Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 
>http://mail.yahoo.com
>_______________________________________________
>nflug mailing list
>nflug at nflug.org
>http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug
>
>  
>
_______________________________________________
nflug mailing list
nflug at nflug.org
http://www.nflug.org/mailman/listinfo/nflug