[SATLUG] Re: How to connect to wifi access points in Linux

[Borries Demeler]

> 
> Does anyone know how to connect to wifi access points in Linux. I use mostly
> Open Suse
> 11 and Ubuntu Hardy. Well I have both wifi radar and kwifimanager but I
> cannot see the access points when I visit Burger King or on campus at San
> Antonio College. I know that
> airport card in Mac OS X (iMAC) has no problem picking up the signal and my
> college amigos can do the same with Vista based notebooks. Wny does Mac and
> Windows seem to do wifi easy but Linux there is so much tweaking?
> 
> Reggie B

Here is how I do it - as root I issue:

iwlist eth1 scan

This is assuming that eth1 is your wireless interface, and that the
accesspoint actually broadcasts it's name. If you have a different device,
replace eth1 with your wireless interface.

When you issue this command, you will then get a listing of the wireless
sites that exist in your neighborhood.

To connect, you will have to set a few parameters:

iwconfig eth1 essid "ChoiceOfEssID" key "keyIfNotOpen"

After setting this, I just issue:

dhcpcd eth1

to get an IP address.

good luck, -borries.