How to configure wireless network card

[Timothy Murphy]

On Tuesday 05 December 2006 15:56, Matthew Saltzman wrote:

> >> Did you "chkconfig NetworkManager on" (so it starts at boot) and
> >> "chkconfig netowrk off" (so NM manages the network) and "service network
> >> stop" and "service NetworkManager start"?
> >
> > I didn't chkconfig NM on, I just ran "service NetworkManager restart".
> > Does it really have to start at boot-time?
>
> It doesn't really, but IMO the most useful operational mode (for a laptop,
> at least) is to have it start at boot so it can connect on login.  (There
> was some discussion of supporting a mode that would connect on startup
> without logging in.  Not sure what the status of that feature is.)
>
> > Also I didn't stop the network service,
> > since it does not say one should do that in what little documentation
> > accompanies NM in Fedora.
> >
> > I'll try both.
>
> It may no longer be necessary, but it couldn't hurt to not run the regular
> network service when running NM.  You can probably start the network
> service, but you should set the interfaces to not start at boot.  Having
> them up will almost surely confuse NM.

I must report that I now have NM working perfectly.
Thanks very much for the advice I was given.

I'm not sure precisely what got it working -
I have NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher chkconfig-ed in,
and network chkconfig-ed out.

A couple of things about the system puzzle me slightly,
but these are not very important.

1. If in fact one has to run NM and NMDispatcher,
why are they not combined in one service?

2. I did not find that nm-applet appeared automatically.
For a while I had to start it with "nm-applet &",
but now autostart seems to remember that it must be started.

3. nm-applet usually (about 2/3 of the time) links automatically
to my access point,
but sometimes it sees it, but I have to left click on the icon
and choose it.
I've no idea why I sometimes have to do this.

Thanks again for the help and support.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland