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PCMCIA/Network/Wireless considerations, Fedora Core 1:
The wireless network adapter I'm using is a NetGear MA401 based on the
Prism II chipset together with a NetGear ME102 Access Point. Earlier I flashed the firmware in the AP from a windows machine to get 128 bit
WEP support, because standard was only 64 bit. Here
is the firmware (local copy and manual).
At first bootup the system finds a "Intersil PRISM2 11 Mbps Wireless Adapter", so this looks good. It is also loading the "hermes" and "orinoco" modules. Looking great, so far.
I edit the "/etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts" so it looks like this:
case "$ADDRESS" in
# The Family Settings:
*,*,*,*)
INFO="The Family Network"
# ESSID (extended network name) : My Network, any
ESSID="MYWLANID"
# Operation mode : Ad-Hoc, Managed, Master, Repeater, Secondary, auto
MODE="Managed"
# Bit rate : auto, 1M, 11M
RATE="auto"
# Encryption key : 4567-89AB-CD, s:password
KEY="1111-1111-1111-1111-1111-1111-11 restricted"
# Other iwconfig parameters : power off, ap 01:23:45:67:89:AB
IWCONFIG=""
;;
esac
I am also running ipsec (VPN) on my WLAN for better security, so I had to install FreeSwan on the machine. On the RedHat boxes I have, I've just downloaded the appropriate kernel .rpm from as described on the downloadpages for FreeSwan.
Luckily, they have made these packages for Fedora Core 1 as well. :) So for the unpatient, type on one line:
"ncftpget ftp://ftp.xs4all.nl/pub/crypto/freeswan/binaries/RedHat-RPMs/`uname -r | tr -d 'a-wy-z'`/\*"
... or you can download the local copy of the kernel module and the userland utilities.
Now I type "rpm -ivh freeswan-*" to install the two downloaded packages.
Then type "service ipsec start", and the first time you get some info about the pre-installation of the module.
Now it's time to edit the file "/etc/ipsec.conf". Mine looks like this (192.168.1.254 are my VPN gateway):
# basic configuration
config setup
interfaces="ipsec0=eth0"
klipsdebug=none
plutodebug=none
plutoload=%search
plutostart=%search
uniqueids=yes
# defaults for subsequent connection descriptions
conn %default
keyingtries=0
disablearrivalcheck=no
leftrsasigkey=%dnsondemand
rightrsasigkey=%dnsondemand
conn WLAN
left=192.168.1.75
right=192.168.1.254
rightsubnet=0.0.0.0/0
rightnexthop=
auto=start
authby=secret
And the file "/etc/ipsec.secrets". Mine looks like this:
------------
# myIP IPCop-ip : PSK "MySHaredSecret":
192.168.1.75 192.168.1.254 : PSK "MySharedSecret"
Now when everything is up and running, I discover one thing: After reboot, I get a lot of errors on the modules for the networkcard and ipsec. After a few Marlboros, i try this:
mv /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S24pcmcia /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S09pcmcia
That makes the pcmcia module load a bit earlier in the bootprocess, and VIOLA, everything runs smooth!
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