Trouble using wireless

[m.roth at 5-cent.us]

Hi, Margaret,

> My friend has  a 2.4.21-15EL OS and a RedHat contract.  He would like

Is there some reason he doesn't want to upgrade to a 2.6 kernel/newer
release?

> routinely add the updates to his computer from home.  However, he is
> having trouble connecting to his wireless network.
>
> He has a USB wireless, Linksys connection.
>
>
> "I tried using the linux wireless tools which I got on the
> web.
>    First ifrename, then ifup, then I tried using the script
> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless
>
> I would usually get something like:
>
> eth0:  no wireless detected.

Wireless doesn't always show as ethX; my wireless card that I've used a
couple places (this is in a tower system) showed up at ath0, or wlan0.

Try ethtool <NIC name> (as root), and see what it tells you.
<snip>
    mark