RedHatLinux9.0 a solution for establishing Wireless LAN with Tp-link550G

RedHatLinux9.0 and Tp-link550G to build a wireless LAN Solution-Linux Enterprise Application-Linux server application information, the following is read details. In the past two days, according to the needs of the lab, we have been constantly looking for available wireless NICs in linux, and we have also GOOGLE a lot of information. However, there seems to be a lot of information, but there are very few that actually meet my needs. The main problems are as follows:

I. Mostly about using ndis wrapper. This method seems difficult for kernel version 2.4.20 and is not available for its windows xp driver 100%. RH 9.0 uses 2.4.20, Which is troublesome if you need to change the kernel. It is best to use the driver to compile the module for direct loading.

II. the wireless network cards mentioned here are mostly PCMICA and USB, and there are few lectures on standard PCI.

3. the wireless network card is not necessarily easy to buy in the market. For example, for the network cards that currently sell more TP-link and D-Link, it is difficult to clearly determine whether an answer is available. The answer is often ambiguous.

In view of the above analysis, I tried the madwifi Driver (see my analysis in other posts on the Forum) and used the best and cheapest (of course, the most fake). This Nic is a standard PCI, with the tp-link domain expansion function. It is a representative product of TP-link 802.11g. The main reason for using tp-link is that it is cheap or expensive.

Next, I will not do any analysis, just follow the steps I have implemented.

1. I got a tp-link 541G Router from a computer business friend in Silicon Valley and a 550G wireless network card. 550G only has "Domain Exhibition" (yo? Too many tasks? Yi yarn? 00 meters, not tried in person) No "Speed show" (the maximum speed is 108 Mb/s, and compatible with the standard 54M device ). Originally, I was planning to take the network card of the slave g, because the slave G is a new product of both. However, it is said that the volume G is small, so it is difficult for the manufacturer to return the goods if I fail to try it. It's hard to force it. 550G is also good.

2. Call the AP first after it is retrieved. Let's briefly talk about our current network environment. We have a single house, more than 20 machines, and a m external LAN line from the above switch. The subnet on the switch is 159.226.204.0/255.255.255.0 ., the gateway 159.226.204.199 is followed by the level-1 downstream score of Multiple hubs.

Iii. AP installation is relatively simple. Find a HUB port and connect one of the four LAN ports of the AP to the HUB. Find a notebook and connect it to the HUB. Change the IP address of the notebook to 192.168.1.250/255.255.255.0. Open a browser to access AP http: // 191.268.1.1: 80, in this WEB interface, set the IP address of the AP to 159.226.204.250, essid to wifiap, and WEB encryption mode. The 128-bit Shared Password wifi000000001 (13-bit ASCII Code) is used ). After the device is set up, restart the system. Find a Chinese version of the laptop and test the AP in windows. You can connect it.

4. The following describes the configuration of key wireless NICs. Find a machine with both windows xp and redhat 9.0 dual-systems installed, and remove the original LAN Nic from the dismounting box and change it to 550 GB.

5. If windows is advanced at startup, you are prompted to find the hardware. Search for the 550G/G directory driver on the drive disk with the card (it seems that the driver does not need to be restarted after installation ). Then, we are installing the TP-link management tool. Find the 550 GB/Gbit/s directory on the CD in my computer and complete the installation of setup.exe. Search for the AP on the Network (remember that essid is wifiap) and enter the password to access the Internet. The same applies to IP addresses. In short, the installation in windows is very simple, and the instructions are very detailed.

6. Restart red hat 9.0. During the startup process, the system prompts that the original Nic cannot be found. ignore this. Check whether there is any source code in/usr/src/linuc. If not, use rpm? Hvi kernel-source-2.4.20-8.rpm (as if in 3rd) mounted.

7. Prepare the source code directory:


# Cd/usr/src/linux
# Make menuconfig // After the dialog box appears, select exit and save the configuration.
# Vi Makefile // find "EXTRAVERSION = 8-custom" at the version number and change it to "EXTRAVERSION = 8"
# Make dep // note that you only need make dep and do not need make

8. download the latest source code package madwifi-cvs-current.tar.gz.

9. Compile and install the driver:


# Tar zxvf madwifi-cvs-current.tar.gz
# Cd madwifi
# Make KERNELPATH =/usr/src/linux
# Make install
#/Sbin/modprobe ath_pci

The above steps may cause problems. Use your wisdom and experience to solve them.


# Dmesg

After successful configuration, the last output in dmesg should be able to see the information of 550G.

10. At this time,/sbin/ifconfig can only see one lo interface.


#/Sbin/ifconfig ath0 159.226.204.197 netmask 255.255.255.0

Configure the attributes of the API ath0 in the preceding sentence. The interface is created, but it cannot be accessed. You need to use iwconfig to configure wireless parameters.


#/Sbin/iwconfig ath0 essid "wifiap" mode managed key "s: wifi000000001" rate auto

Then you can use iwconfig to check that the network card is successfully connected at a rate of 54 M. At this time, you can ping the ap:


# Ping 159.226.204.250

However, the Internet and the Internet do not work. Because the route is not configured. Add a default route:


# Route add default gw 159.226.204.199

Then you can access the Internet.


# Lynx www.google.com

11. After the configuration is successful, you can modify the system configuration so that the restarted machine will automatically take effect.


# Cd/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
# Cp ifcfg-eth0 ifcfg-ath0
# Vi ifcfg-eth0 // change the first ONBOOT = yes to ONBOOT = no
# Vi ifcfg-ath0 // change the header DEVICE = eth0 to DEVICE = ath0
# Vi etc/sysconfig/hwconfig // copy a PCI device, change the driver to ath_pci, and modify desc as needed.
# Vi/etc/rc. d/rc. local // Add/sbin/iwconfig ath0 essid "wifiap" mode managed key "s: wifi000000001" rate auto

12. Restart the machine and test again. All things done.


The above is the whole process of establishing a Wireless AP and using a wireless network card in linux. In short, it is relatively simple. This madwifi driver applies to almost all Enis on the Atheros chip (note that only PCI, mini PCI, and pcmica are supported, but USB is not supported). The kernel can be 2.4 or 2.6, that is to say, it can be used from red hat7.3 without re-coding the kernel. I hope to provide some reference for users who use wireless devices in linux.