wifi

[llewelly at xmission.com]

"James A. Feister" <openjaf at yahoo.com> writes:

> I have a netgear WG511t wireless card on a dell
> inspiron 1550.  I am using the current freebsd
> release.

I don't understand what you mean by 'the current release' - do you
    mean 4.9, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2-current cvsupped whenever ...
    4.9 is the most recent production release. 5.2 is the most recent
    development relase. I believe there are 5.2.1 release cannidate
    iso images availible.

Could you post the output of 'uname -a' ?

> When inserted on boot-up the card dose not get
> recognized.  I do have 
> the ath and ath_hal in my kernel.  
> On first insertion after boot up a message comes back:
> cbb0: CardBus card activation failed
> When reinserted the second time I get the following:
> ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xf6010000-0xf601ffff irq 16
> at device 0.0 on cardbus0
> ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 5ghz radio 4.6
> ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
> ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps
> 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36M
> bps 48Mbps 54Mbps
> ath0: 802.11 address: 00:09:5b:95:16:fa
> 
> I then run ifconfig:
> ifconfig ath0 ssid <insertname> wepmode on wepkey
> 0x<26char wep key here>
> 
> then again with the following output:
> ath0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>         ether 00:09:5b:95:16:fa
>         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet
> autoselect
>         status: no carrier

'no carrier' usually means you are too far from the access point or
    other antenna. Sometimes walls and furniture can block
    transmissions, so don't just assume you are close enough, make
    sure you are close enough.

Additionally, double check the configuration of the other end.

>         ssid MCNET2002 1:MCNET2002
>         channel -1 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF

You may be missing a channel option (channel -1 is not a valid
    channel):

    # ifconfig ath0 channel 11

> powersavesleep 100
>         wepmode MIXED weptxkey 1
>         wepkey 1:104-bit
> 
> from there I've got nothing. can not ping, no ip.  Is
> there something I am missing.

If you do not plan on bridging the wireless nic to another nic, you are
    missing an ip address. You can set it like this:

    # ifconfig ath0 192.168.0.20

And test to see if you can ping the interface:

    $ ping -c5 192.168.0.20

If you wish to DHCP your box, see the appropriate handbook section:
    http://xrl.us/bhoq

If you are trying to configure your box as a wireless access point,
    you are missing 'mediaopt hostap' :

    # ifconfig ath0 mediaopt hostap

There is an example in the handbook: http://xrl.us/bhom , and one in
    the ath(4) man page. Note that your wireless nic does not need an
    ip address if you are setting up a bridged access point.