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Advanced Desktop: Setting up Wi-Fi 

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Setting up WiFi is a breeze in PCQLinux 2004, because of two things: KDE 3.2 and kWiFiManager. These two, in conjunction with iwconfig, make it very easy to set up a WiFi network. Although we have included kWiFiManager as a separate installation, KDE 3.2 now has it included by default. 

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These days Linux supports near about all cards based on PRISM 2/2.5/3 or Orinoco (formerly Lucent). The only major breed of cards that is not supported out of the box in PCQLinux 2004 is the Texas Instruments ACX100-based ones. We did not include the driver for this card because it is still in its development stages and is very unstable. However, if you wish to experiment with your TI-based cards, you can download

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`kWiFiManager and KDE
kWiFiManager is included in KDE, but cannot be installed if you are not installing KDE. We have kept an extra copy of kWiFiManager for those who want this option. 
So, if you have a wireless card, and opt for installing

KDE, then two copies of kWiFiManager get installed, and you will get two icons for it in your KDE menu. If you are planning to install

KDE, then we recommend that you deselect kWiFiManager at the package selection screen of the installer.
If you are not installing

KDE, then follow the process outlined above, from PCQLinux 2004 CD 3. The wireless network plug-in will not be available in this case

When you insert a new WiFi card in PCQLinux 2004 and if it is a Prism/Orinoco card, Kudzu will detect it easily and load the module for it. If you are installing PCQLinux 2004 on a machine with a wireless card already installed, Kudzu will detect it once the installation is complete and the system has restarted and it will load the module. After the module is loaded, log in to your KDE desktop and open a terminal. Here, you have to set the IP, essid, channel, etc to your card so that it can connect to your access point. To do so, run: 






#ifconfig wlan0 192.168.x.x netmask 255.255.x.x up





Here, replace <192.168.x.x> and <255.255.x.x> with the appropriate values of your network. Now run:





#iwconfig wlan0 essid your_essid mode managed channel 6





Replace the ‘your_essid’ with the essid of your access point and your network card will be ready to access your network wirelessly.






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kWiFiManager is installed automatically when you opt for KDE to get installed. But, if because of any reason it is not installed (for instance, when you have not chosen KDE), just place the PCQLinux 2004 CD 3 in your PC and install the rpm called kwifimanager-1.0.2-1.i386.rpm like this






#rpm —ivh kwifimanager-1.0.2-1.i386.rpm







kWiFiManager is a tool that shows you all the important information that you need to know about your WiFi network, such as your configuration set, access point and signal strength. When minimized, the application docks into your task bar and shows the signal strength (as in Win XP).

KWiFiManager, when installed as part of KDE 3.2, has a plug-in called ‘Wireless Network’ that can be found in the KDE Control Center and can be used to set up and manage four different WiFi profiles. This is very useful if you use different WiFi setups in different places. You can even set scripts that will be executed when a profile is selected. For example, you can save the earlier ‘iwconfig’ command to a shell script and hook it to a profile, say ‘Office’, such that when you activate the ‘Office’ profile your setup is automatically done. Not only this, from this applet you can also set up different operational modes, power management and cryptography for your different WiFi profiles.

Anindya Roy

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