Adventures in Linux, Wireless Department 0

I travel. Since I am a trainer, it’s often more cost-effective to bring one trainer to many trainees than vice versa.

From time to time, I’m trapped in a hotel that does not have proper internet service. Instead, they have (gasp) wireless.

Because they are too cheap to pay someone to pull cat 5 through their building.

So I decided I’d better figure out wireless for my laptop, which, natch, is a Linux box. (Have I mentioned what a relief it is not to have to constantly scan the box for adware and spyware?–most of that stuff doesn’t speak Linux. I scan once a week for viruses, but that’s about it.)

So I went out and got a D-Link access point to add to my network here at Pine View Farm Central and a Linksys PCMCIA card for the trusty laptop. (By the way, PCMCIA stands for “people can’t remember computer industry acronyms.”)

Then I went to Linuxant and grabbed the WLAN driver to help me use the Windows PCMCIA driver in my Linux laptop.

Worked like a charm.

Then I turned the encryption on in the access point.

No more charms. Can’t get an IP address.

(By the way, anyone setting up a wireless network really ought to turn on encryption–otherwise you are running naked through the network, and folks can park their cars in the street in front of your house and use your network).

So, I still need to figure out how to pass the encryption password to the PCMCIA card in Linux, but, fortunately for my main goal, most hotels do NOT encrypt their networks. They may password-protect their connections, requiring you to accept the “terms of service” before they allow you to connect, but they don’t keep you from getting an IP address, so I’m good to go for my next foray as a road warrior.

Which is coming up far too quickly.

Linuxant rocks.