Wireless Internet

hi everyone!

i d like to ask if i can connect to free available wireless networks
through my wireless card in suse in order to connect to the internet.

can suse find these networks? and what must i do to connect to the internet?

WIRELESS CARD: INTEL 3945ABG
Thanks

For configuring your wireless, there is mention in the openSUSE-10.3 release notes:
http://www.suse.com/relnotes/i386/openSUSE...OTES.en.html#14

Intel Wireless Link WiFi Drivers

Two drivers are available now: the traditional ipw3945 driver is installed by default and the new iwlwifi driver is an alternative offer. Note the following caveats:

* ipw3945 works on hidden networks. It does not survive suspend/resume cycles.
* iwlwifi does not work on hidden networks. It supports suspend/resume cycles.

You can change the default using YaST. Click "Software" -> "Software Management" and remove the ipw3945d package. Then the alternative iwlwifi driver gets automatically selected for installation.[/b]

As for finding "free wireless networks", ... this is not a hackers forum. You may find wireless access provided in some coffeeshops, or other such venues.

hi everyone!

i d like to ask if i can connect to free available wireless networks
through my wireless card in suse in order to connect to the internet.

can suse find these networks? and what must i do to connect to the internet?

WIRELESS CARD: INTEL 3945ABG
Thanks
[/b]

the card in my laptop is the same as yours, and i use the ipw3945 driver. had problems with knetworkmanager with this, and not sure if it's been fixed yet. anyway, you may want to try wifi-radar for finding and connecting to networks. and yes, you will be able to connect to networks at coffee shops etc etc which are unsecured. any problems with this card post back, i have had many issues with getting things sorted so know a fair bit about getting this card running. with wifi-radar you should be set perfectly though. its really straight forward.

iwlwifi does not work on hidden networks. It supports suspend/resume cycles.

what do you mean by hidden networks?
could you make me clear about what i wiil achieve by installing iwlwifi?

what do you mean by hidden networks?
could you make me clear about what i wiil achieve by installing iwlwifi?
[/b]

When one sets up a wireless network, one can decide to either broadcast the SSID, or not broadcast the SSID. One needs to know the wireless network's SSID, to connect to that wireless network. Note all internet cafe's or coffee shops (with wireless) that I have been to, will broadcast their SSID. They want people connecting.

I assume that a "hidden" network is one that is not broadcasting its SSID.

Not all software will connect to a network that is not broadcasting its SSID.

Now with the right "hacking" tools, its very very easy to find out the SSID of all networks in the area, hidden or not hidden (ie broadcasting or not broadcasting).

Because of tremendous abuse by some unethical individuals, some governements are "cracking" down and making the discussion, installation, and use of forensic tools (such as determining SSIDs, faking MAC_IDs addresses, and testing the security of wireless networks, as an illegal activity - note also that such recent government laws are considered ludicrous by many, and they have NOT been tested yet in a court of law). So this subject is not with out some controversy, and as a moderator from one of those countries (with the recent drakonean laws), I am pushing a very conservative line on this, to minimize any discussion on "hacking" (or indeed even "testing") the security of wireless networks, on this forum.

iwlwifi does not work on hidden networks. It supports suspend/resume cycles.

what do you mean by hidden networks?
could you make me clear about what i wiil achieve by installing iwlwifi?
[/b]

a hidden network is a network which does not broadcast the SSID. you have to enter it manually as far as i'm aware, i have never connected to a hidden network, but know the SSID is not broadcasted, so programs like knetworkmanager etc will not show it up, even though it will be receiving the signal.

whether unsecured places which you want to connect to i don't know whether they will have suspend/resume cycles, but they can interrupt the connection, so you may be disconnected using the ipw3945 driver if the network does have this; however, i struggled to connect to any network using the iwlwifi driver so uninstalled it so naturally the ipw3945 was the default. if i were you, speaking from experience with the card in question, use the ipw driver, for me, once set up, it has proved reliable; along with using wifi-radar as your program.

a hidden network is a network which does not broadcast the SSID. you have to enter it manually as far as i'm aware, i have never connected to a hidden network, but know the SSID is not broadcasted, so programs like knetworkmanager etc will not show it up, even though it will be receiving the signal.

whether unsecured places which you want to connect to i don't know whether they will have suspend/resume cycles, but they can interrupt the connection, so you may be disconnected using the ipw3945 driver if the network does have this; however, i struggled to connect to any network using the iwlwifi driver so uninstalled it so naturally the ipw3945 was the default. if i were you, speaking from experience with the card in question, use the ipw driver, for me, once set up, it has proved reliable; along with using wifi-radar as your program.
[/b]

οκ ipw3945 is now installed on my laptop. but i can not connect to the internet, although my wireless
card is on. suse does not recognize "see" available wireless networks in my area.
could you give me the steps i have to follow in order to connect? i am a new linux user.

οκ ipw3945 is now installed on my laptop. but i can not connect to the internet, although my wireless
card is on. suse does not recognize "see" available wireless networks in my area.
could you give me the steps i have to follow in order to connect? i am a new linux user.
[/b]

reboot your system and ensure that the network card is configured properly in yast, yast should automatically pick it up as the card it is (see my screen pic). you can make it set to activate at boot. once installed properly and rebooted to check you can try kinternet to connect if you don't have wifi-radar. if they still aren't finding any networks at all post back.

edit: you may want to try and remove any traces of the iwlwifi driver by yast>software management. this is what i did. check module name is ipw3945 in network devices too.