Recently in Wireless Internet Category

Getting wireless working was easy. I had this guide on my hard drive (and readable in a Web browser at file:///usr/share/doc/handbook/network-wireless.html), and my Cnet CWD-854 USB WiFi adapter (as rum0) was easy to configure.

Just like in OpenBSD, networking in FreeBSD is extremely solid.

After Ubuntu 8.04 crashed once again while running the Cnet CWD-854 USB WiFi adapter, I realized that I've been meaning to try another NIC I have sitting around.

The Airlink 101 AWLL-3028, which I've had for a few years now, never seemed to work in Linux. Lengthy "recipes" using the dreaded ndiswrapper also never worked for me.

But I decided to try it again on the Toshiba laptop with Ubuntu, and this time it lit up and presented me with four WiFi networks with which to connect. None of them worked, mind you, but that's not unusual for this location. I did get a request for a WEP key on one, so that means it must be working.

The real test will be getting the laptop and Airlink adapter in front of a WiFi source that does work. And then the testing will begin. I knew that spending $9.95 on a WiFi adapter would eventually pay off in Linux and OpenBSD (which I heard also finally supports the Realtek chipset in this adapter).

I've spent the early afternoon at Starbucks putting this week's print column together, and I did type in a few logins and passwords that weren't over encrypted connections.

Bad idea.

Banking Web sites don't have the "https://" in front of their URL for nothing. From a trusted source, that "s" means a secure, encrypted connection that even over Wi-Fi should be OK on which to log in to your account.

Here are some problem areas:

http://twitter.com/login is NOT secure.

But if you manually type (or better yet, bookmark) https://twitter.com/login, you'll be adding a great deal of security in the form of strong encryption to the transmission of your login and password over the network.

Adding the "s" for secure and encrypted to http:// works much of the time. Gmail has it. Yahoo Mail has a secure login, but the rest of your session is in the clear. That means a Wi-Fi snoop can potentially see the mail you're transmitting and receiving.

One of my e-mail providers, who shall remain nameless, offers neither a secure login or session.

For a couple of my personal e-mail accounts on my hosted server, I have encryption set up, and I use POP with the Thunderbird mail client software to securely receive and transmit the messages from my PC.

The morale of this story is that you shouldn't do anything too "sensitive" over a public Wi-Fi connection (or over any Wi-Fi connection without WPA encryption) unless you're absolutely sure you're connected to a secure server, in which the https:// appears before the URL ... and you trust the source NOT to be serving up an https:// address without the encryption (which has been known to happen).

Even so, I'm here at Starbucks using the WiFi because it's just so damn convenient. It's far from the ideal situation as far as security is concerned.

Summing up, it's a crazy world out there, and a little paranoia isn't the most unhealthy thing.

(Yes, I do have the OpenBSD T-shirt with this design. It doesn't get more geeky.)

I'm getting ready to give the $0 Laptop (Gateway Solo 1450) to our daughter to run her educational games (Childsplay, Gcompris, TuxPaint) on Ubuntu Hardy with the non-crashing Xfce window manager instead of the crashy version of GNOME in this Ubuntu build.

To replace that machine for me, I pulled a Toshiba Satellite 1101-S101 laptop from the boneyard.

With a 1.3 GHz Celeron processor, 248 MB RAM (how it has this amount, I don't know) and a 20 GB hard drive, the specs are pretty similar to the Gateway, except for the Gateway's 1 GB of memory, which I'll probably split between the two machines.

The Toshiba came to me with Windows XP, and this time I wanted to preserve Windows and dual-boot it with a FOSS OS. The CD/DVD drive is extremely flaky. I think it's dying. It does better with "commercial" CDs, and I did get it to boot Partition Magic so I could shrink the NTFS Windows partition and set it up for Linux.

The only Linux CD I could boot was Debian's Etch and a Half. Something was squirrely on our network, and I couldn't get DNS working in the installer. I could've done a minimal install, fixed /etc/resolv.conf and then brought the rest of Debian into the box, but I took this opportunity to go in a different direction.

With all the CPU fan issue on the Gateway, I could never run OpenBSD (or NetBSD or even FreeBSD after the first boot) because I couldn't get the noisy CPU fan under control.

I powered up the Toshiba, which couldn't get networking in Windows either. Since I don't yet have the administrator password, I couldn't update the DNS settings.

I went to an OpenBSD mirror and downloaded a floppy image plus a DOS/Windows utility that helped me create a bootable OpenBSD install floppy. (Before anybody mentions this, I know I could've just as easily created a Debian boot floppy.)

The Toshiba successfully booted off the OpenBSD floppy, and I was able to plug in a mirror and do a full install over the network.

This was my first dual-boot install of OpenBSD, and after the install was done, the machine wouldn't boot at all. I hadn't installed a bootloader and thought the box would boot into Windows, where I planned to modify that bootloader to choose between Windows XP and OpenBSD. Instead I got a "no operating system" message.

And I don't have a Windows XP disc from which to "repair" the master boot record.

So I rebooted with the OpenBSD floppy, dropped down to a shell and added the OpenBSD bootloader at the prompt:

# fdisk -u wd0

Then I rebooted and was in OpenBSD. There is a GRUB package for OpenBSD, and I'll probably install that so I can easily dual-boot either Windows and OpenBSD or eventually Linux and OpenBSD. There are other alternatives as far as bootloaders go, but my familiarity with GRUB is what is governing my decision in this case.

I'm also going to add rsync as well. I have no skills when it comes to OpenBSD's dump and restore utilities, so having rsync is another plateful of Linux-like comfort food that will help me get along in OpenBSD.

Other packages I've installed thus far: nano, mc (the Midnight Commander file manager), Rox-filer (my favorite X file manager), Geany (X text editor) and the Firefox (I probably should've gotten the version with Java, but I'm going to try to add the Java developer's kit and get the Java runtime that way) and Opera Web browsers.

Opera came via a port and not a precompiled package, and it took a lot longer to install this time than the last time I installed it in OpenBSD (on the Compaq Armada 7770dmt), if I recall correctly.

When you download the ports tree and install from there, everything is fetched for you and compiled when needed. Looking at all the output in the terminal, it looks like these ports could never work, but in my experience with OpenBSD they always do. This time was no different. It took maybe 45 minutes to get all the dependencies plus Opera, but after that it worked immediately.

I've grown accustomed to OpenBSD's default window manager, Fvwm2, and I'll probably stick with it for at least awhile before adding any others. Unlike Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, etc., installing an app in OpenBSD doesn't automatically update the menus, so you have to manage this yourself. Getting into the guts of the .fvwmrc file is more instructive than not, and once I figured out how to do it, it got less arduous.

I still don't like waiting for ports to download, compile and install, so having 4000+ precompiled packages for i386 is a very good thing.

After a year of strugging with and complaining about the Gateway fan blasting away under OpenBSD, I couldn't believe that I was running OpenBSD 4.4 on the Toshiba with no CPU fan problem whatsoever. Everything from autoconfiguration of my two network interfaces (one Realtek 8189 wired Ethernet, the other an Orinoco WaveLAN PCMCIA wireless) to a perfect xorg.conf made this OpenBSD install go .

I haven't checked audio yet, but I've never had OpenBSD fail to configure the sound card.

I've always read that most OpenBSD developers use laptops to code in the OS, and now that I have this Toshiba running OpenBSD better than anything I've tried before, I'm amazed at how well it installs and runs on this specific platform.

I've probably written a half-dozen posts about exactly why I'm running OpenBSD, and I'll probably write another one as time allows in the week ahead.

And I'll be either ordering a CD set or contributing directly to the OpenBSD project in the days ahead.

It hadn't occurred to me that if you — like me — are running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, upgrading to the just-released Ubuntu 8.10 requires a little operator intervention.

In non-LTS installations, the system prompts you with the choice of upgrading to the newest version, but since 8.04 is a long-term support (hence the LTS) release, it defaults to waiting for the next LTS before automatically offering to make the upgrade.

But you still can easily go from 8.04 LTS to 8.10. You just have to change a setting in Software Sources (get there from the System--Administration--Software Sources menu item).

The Ubuntu Geek Web site explains it better — and in greater detail, so go there for the full instructions.

I'm not in any hurry to upgrade my Ubuntu-equipped Gateway laptop, especially since I've just "stabilized" the whole installation by turning off automatic suspend/resume feature in the Power Manager.

Like I said then, once the Ubuntu download mirrors quiet down a bit, I will grab the entire ISO file, burn it to disc and run the live CD to see how my hardware reacts and whether or not my Airlink 101 AWLL 3028 USB wireless adapter works automatically. If it did, I would probably upgrade, since this particular laptop has a busted PCMCIA card slot and the only USB wireless adapter I have is the Airlink, which I got for $10.

By the way, if you are "fortunate" enough to have the Airlink 101 AWLL 3026 USB wireless adapter, which looks the same as the 3028 but is based on an entirely different chipset, you're in luck because it reportedly works with Ubuntu 8.04. And yes, I wish I had one (and thought that by now the 3028 would/should/could have a native driver for Linux).

I'm going to haul the circa-1999 Compaq Armada 7770dmt laptop to the public library where I can run it with free WiFi and see if Seamonkey (in Puppy) and Firefox (in Damn Small Linux and OpenBSD) perform acceptably with my upgraded RAM.

Since there's no WiFi at the Daily News, I probably should just bite the bullet and get a PCMCIA Ethernet card. And if it turns out that I can use a Mozilla browser and not have it run like so much sludge, that's my next move. (Note: Since this post was originally written, I have gotten an Ethernet card for the Compaq).

Aside on memory: While 128MB is probably the absolute minimum to run X, I don't feel comfortable until I have 256MB. Of course 512MB or more is better, but with 256MB, most systems that will run at all will perform well enough for the user not to tear his/her hair out.

Running Puppy with WiFi

I get to the library, boot the Compaq with Puppy 2.13, and the first thing I notice is that Seamonkey starts in just about 30 seconds.

Thirty seconds. That is excellent performance. Remember, this is a 233 MHz processor. That alone is enough to pull Puppy Linux to the front of the pack.

And I'm able to use Movable Type. That's the key. Such a relatively "heavy" browser-based application does require a good WiFi connection. With a flaky connection, it just doesn't work, but with this good 802.11b hookup (I'm using an Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA card), I'm able to run MT just fine in Puppy.

Again, that 30-second load time for Seamonkey is absolutely huge. Graphical performance is also quite good.

Next: Trying OpenBSD

I addressed the performance of OpenBSD in a recent entry. One thing to remember about OpenBSD is that the system known for its security and cryptography isn't a "fast" system, especially running X on older hardware. On newer PCs, assuming that you can get all the hardware properly configured, the speed difference between OpenBSD and a given Linux distribution either won't be noticeable or will be more than acceptable for those who want the other things that OpenBSD brings to the table.

But on a system as challenged as this one, the performance tradeoffs just might be too great to justify running OpenBSD.

I say might because I've very much enjoyed running OpenBSD on this laptop, and the ease with which I was able to add quite a bit of software that I needed, believe it or not, rivaled even Debian and Ubuntu.

Once i had my PKG_PATH set up, I was able to use OpenBSD's superb package management system to bring plenty of desktop-friendly applications to my system, and in almost all cases those applications were put together quite well — often better than their equivalents in Debian, Ubuntu, Puppy and Damn Small Linux. Not faster, but better in other ways in terms of functionality.

So while day-to-day computing on this system might be better with Puppy Linux, if my daughter wants to use GCompris, Tuxpaint or Childsplay, keeping OpenBSD as an operating system is something I might very well do.

Previously:

• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part I — Puppy or Damn Small Linux
  
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part II — OpenBSD or Debian?

Coming up:

• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part IV — Wolvix Cub is surprisingly strong
  
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part V — Where I'm headed
  
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part VI — Younger Puppies
  
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part VII — Debian with Xfce and Fluxbox calls
  
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part VIII — Final thoughts (aka "Why?")

In the battle for which operating system runs best on the $15 Laptop, Puppy Linux has pulled out front as the fastest system with the most features I need and best functionality on this 1999-era Compaq Armada 7770dmt.

In case you're wondering, here are the specs of the Compaq:

233 MHz Pentium II MMX processor
144 MB RAM
3 GB hard drive

I recently bumped the RAM from 64MB to the maximum of 144MB. Before this increase, running Linux or OpenBSD (which I have installed on the hard drive) with the X Window System was difficult at best.

Smaller applications like the Dillo Web browser, the Abiword and Ted word processors, the Geany and Beaver text editors ran pretty well in 64MB of RAM.

But the 500-pound gorilla of graphical applications is Firefox.

It would be nice to get by with Dillo, but many — if not most — of the things I need to do with a computer these days require a fairly modern browser.

Whether it's blogging, working on Dailynews.com, or on the Movable Type back end, it all happens in the browser.

And for that I need, at a minimum, Firefox 1.5.

Now that Damn Small Linux offers Firefox 2 (under the name Bon Echo, but for all intents and purposes an early release in the FF 2 series), that system is more than fair game for use on this laptop.

Unfortunately, while the browser runs great, other things in DSL have not been working so well.

For some reason, the desktop wallpaper doesn't work. Instead, I have a plain, gray X Window background. And while JWM (Joe's Window Manager) is the default in Damn Small Linux like in Puppy, switching over to Fluxbox in DSL has been problematic. Some builds have allowed me to use the Fluxbox menu, but others don't seem to work at all.

I could live without desktop wallpaper (or I could figure out a solution to the problem), but with Puppy Linux (I'm currently using version 2.13 but could easily upgrade to the newer 4.00 at any time) I get a nice-looking desktop, the Mozilla-based Seamonkey Web suite, Abiword (about as fast as DSL's Ted word processor but with the added ability to read and write .doc files), the Geany text editor, the ROX filer and quite a few other applications I've grown to like very much over the year and a half I've been using Linux.

And as far as speed goes, Puppy and DSL are quite equal on this hardware.

Coming up:

• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part II — OpenBSD or Debian?
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part III — Browsers and wireless
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part IV — Wolvix Cub is surprisingly strong
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part V — Where I'm headed
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part VI — Younger Puppies
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part VII — Debian with Xfce and Fluxbox calls
• In search of the best OS for a 9-year-old laptop: Part VIII — Final thoughts (aka "Why?")

Rick Coca of the Daily News had a story on the cover today concerning an FBI warning about hackers who set up their own WiFi router with the same SSID name as the public WiFi router you wish to connect to, with the purpose being to steal vital passwords and other information during your wireless Internet session.

While the article was short and didn't go very deep into the security issues surrounding WiFi and Internet networking in general, and laptop computers in particular, users of WiFi in general and public WiFi in particular need to be aware of what they should and shouldn't do.

The article did say that it's a good idea to have your computer configured to CHOOSE the WiFi router to which you wish to connect, because the consequences could be, for lack of a better word, bad:

Once in, a hacker can steal passwords and credit-card information and install viruses, worms and other malware — malicious software — on a computer that can spread to other systems you run.

(FBI cybercrimes supervisor Bryan) Duchene recommends that Wi-Fi users change their settings so they have to manually input the Service Set Identifier (SSID) they want to log on to.

While free-access seekers spawned the "wardriving" phenomenon — Wi-Fi users drove around with GPS systems and Wi-Fi-seeking laptops, marking locations of unsecured, free Wi-Fi sites — that practice eventually piqued the interest of criminals, Duchene said.

While WiFi does increase the risk of "bad" things happening, and the lack of encryption on almost all public WiFi connections doesn't help matters, I'm pretty confident in saying that if you are entering logins, passwords and other "sensitive" information over a secure connection — one with https:// in the Web address instead of just plain http:// — you are pretty safe, even over public WiFi.

But in cases where your login or password is NOT sent via a secure, encrypted connection, or for regular Web browsing on non-secure connection, it's quite possible that others can see what you're doing on the Internet.

That may bother you, or it may not.

But especially when it comes to e-mail, make sure you are using a secure, encrypted connection, either through a Web-browser interface, or via the settings in your e-mail client, be it Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, the Apple Mail program or whatever else you're running.

The worst thing you can do is send sensitive information -- or any personal or private information -- via unencrypted e-mail over an unencrypted WiFi connection. That's just too much of a risk.

I've often said that I wish all Internet traffic — e-mail, Web browsing, file transfers, etc. — took place over secure connections. I think we're headed in that direction.

So here's my quick guide on what to do and not do over a public WiFi connection:

E-mail: Only read and send e-mail via a secure encrypted connection. That means if you're using a Web interface, make sure the ENTIRE session, from login and password to composing and sending the e-mail and logging out -- takes place in a secure environment with the https:// in the address box.

For Gmail, you can choose a secure connection with https://gmail.com ... BUT the last time I read about it, your Google login and password is stored as a cookie on your computer for easy access, and it can be easily stolen over a public WiFi connection.

For Yahoo! Mail, your login and password is entered in a secure environment, but the rest of your e-mail session is unencrypted, so don't use Yahoo! Mail over a public WiFi connection.

If you have an office-provided e-mail service via a Web browser, look for the https:// instead of http:// and ask your system administrator about whether your connection is secure the whole way through.

If you use an e-mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird, make sure your e-mail server allows secure connections -- and make sure your client software is set up properly to use it.

There are e-mail services that offer more security. For the extremely paranoid, there's HushMail, but my favorite is Fastmail.fm. Just make sure you use the secure version. I'll also put in a plug for my ISP, DSL Extreme, which offers Web-accessible e-mail in a completely secure session.

Antivirus, antispyware, firewall protection: Whatever you do, and especially if you're using Microsoft Windows, make sure you have up-to-date antivirus and firewall programs. This excellent though aging Washington Post page has links to many vendors of these programs, some of which are available free. For the PC, I prefer Avast. Avast also runs on Linux, although with that operating system you're only likely to pass along a virus, because almost all malicious code is aimed at Windows computers, which are much easier targets.

Web: For Web browsing, if you are on an unsecured connection, it's easy for snoops to figure out the URLs of the Web pages you're visiting. And from there those snoops can see what's on those pages, too.

While it's not conducive to privacy, this might not be a problem, depending on where you're browsing.

But ... if you're entering any logins, passwords or other sensitive information, make sure you're on a secure connection before beginning. AND make sure your computer is NOT set up for file sharing.

To be more clear, if your computer is free of malicious software -- key-loggers that record every keystroke, spyware, etc. -- an encrypted connection should give you enough security over WiFi.

IM is a problem: Most instant-messaging traffic is unencrypted, so don't IM anything you don't want others to potentially see. The last time I checked, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, AOL's AIM and Microsoft's MSN Messenger are all unencrypted.

And do yourself a favor: NEVER, EVER, EVER NEVER, install any kind of software from an untrusted source, over WiFi or a wired Internet connection. That's when the bad stuff happens -- when malicious software makes its way onto your computer. It's easier by orders of magnitude to attack from the inside than from the outside.

WiFi at home and work: Wireless routers that you control at your home or workplace can be set up for encrypted connections only. Don't use WEP encryption because it can be easily cracked. Instead, use WPA or WPA2, which are much, much more secure and robust.

And like it says in the Daily News article, make sure you change the SSID name of your router to something other than the default (usually something like Linksys, Netgear, or the name of whatever company made the router), and also make sure you have your computers set to only connect with YOUR router.

For more on this subject, here are a few links:

• USA Today's Complete Guide to Wi-Fi Security (make sure you read ALL the pages)
• Ask Metafilter discussion on encrypted WiFi
• Coffeeshop WiFi for Dummies
• Using Public Wireless Networks More Safely (from Microsoft)

I ran into trouble in Debian Lenny while trying to use ndiswrapper to get my Airlink 101 AWLL3028 USB WiFi adapter to work. The modprobe ndiswrapper line at a root prompt wouldn't load.

So I tried Wolvix Hunter, after I su to root and doing the Ubuntu instructions, removing sudo as necessary.

It seemed to work, but the ndiswrapper module wouldn't load after rebooting. I checked /etc/modules, and the line ndiswrapper was in there.

Googling ndiswrapper and Debian helped a bit, and I'll have to take another look before I solve the problem.

But for Wolvix, I found the answer in the Ndiswrapper page on Sourceforge. On the installation page on the wiki:

Once everything works fine you can write the correct modprobe settings to load ndiswrapper automatically when the wlan0 interface is used, by running ndiswrapper -m Note that this doesn’t automatically load ndiswrapper module at boot time. If you want the module to be loaded automatically at boot time, you should configure your module setup, which depends on the distribution. Most distributions will load all modules listed in /etc/modules at boot time. Mandrake 10.x uses /etc/modprobe.preload. For them, you can add a line ndiswrapper in /etc/modules. For Fedora Core5, add a line alias wlan0 ndiswrapper in /etc/modprobe.conf.

If this does not work, instead add a line modprobe ndiswrapper in /etc/rc.d/rc.local

I did the latter, adding modprobe ndiswrapper to /etc/rc.d/rc.local. That worked.

Now I need a live WiFi connection to try this out. Another trip to the library (where I was yesterday testing the wireless in the $15 Laptop, which has a plug-and-play Orinoco WaveLAN Silver card (I can't recommend the Orinoco cards highly enough -- this one works on both my old Mac (Powerbook 1400), as well as in every Linux I've tried and in Windows. In Linux and Windows, it's plug-and-play. (I had to install software to get it to work on the Mac, but that's normal for a 1996 Powerbook that was created well before WiFi.)

Anyhow, I'm far enough along in Wolvix and Ubuntu with the Airlink 101 AWLL3028. I'd rather have the AWLL3026, which is autodetected by Ubuntu, I've heard, but if this works, I won't be complaining too much.

Note: While I managed to get Wolvix to recognize the Airlink USB WiFi adapter, I couldn't connect to a network. I'm going to replace Wolvix with Ubuntu and see if that helps.

Update on 2/4/08: So far I've gotten the computer to recognize the wireless adapter in Ubuntu 6.06, Wolvix 1.1.0 and Puppy 3.00. The latter two I've tried in the presence of actual wireless networks, but I still can't get a DHCP connection. I doubt it'll work in Ubuntu, either. In Debian Lenny, I got stopped at modprobe ndiswrapper, which didn't work.

(Original post begins here ... proceed knowing that this so far hasn't worked for me)

Only a few days ago I said I never had any luck with ndiswrapper -- the program that enables you to use Windows drivers to configure networking devices in Linux and BSD.

A few months ago, when I heard that the Airlink 101 AWLL3026 USB Wi-Fi adapters, which go for $10 at Fry's during periodic sales, worked out of the box in many Linux distributions, I decided to buy one.

Well, it turns out that I got the newer model, the AWLL3028, which has an entirely different chipset -- it's a Realtek 8187b. It didn't work with anything. I couldn't even get it to work in Windows XP without the driver.

Anyhow, I decided to Google my way into the problem today, and I found the following:

You need to use the Windows 98 driver to get the AWLL3028 to work with ndiswrapper

How to install and configure ndiswrapper in Ubuntu

How to troubleshoot your wireless connection, especially with the Realtek 8187, in Ubuntu

A modified Linux driver for the Realtek 8187b, with explanation

Hacking the RTL8187b

I knew it was only a matter of time before a wireless adapter sold for $10 at Fry's became usable in Linux. Let's hope it's plug-and-play -- and we won't have to do any of this -- very soon (perhaps in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS).

I decided to try ndiswrapper on my test box running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. Instead of downloading and compiling my own ndiswrapper, I just searched for it in Synaptic and installed it from there.

Then I did the following:

Go to Places -- Home Folder and make a new folder (or "directory" if you want to put it that way) -- call it wireless -- for the two Windows drivers. Then open the new wireless folder.

Then, put the Windows driver CD in the CD drive, open it with the file manager (double-click on the CD icon on the desktop).

In the CD window, navigate to the Windows 98 folder and drag the two drivers, with filenames rtl8187B.sys.sys and net8187b.inf, into the wireless folder.

Then open a Terminal window and do the following:

You should already be in your home directory, so chage to the new wireless directory you made:

$ cd wireless

Now start using ndiswrapper to make your new wireless driver:

$ sudo ndiswrapper -i net8187b.inf

Verify the installation:

$ ndiswrapper -l

Put the ndiswrapper module into the Linux kernel:

$ sudo depmod -a

$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

Then run dmesg and look for something like "ndiswrapper version version loaded" in the output:

$ dmesg

Create an alias for wlan0:

$ sudo ndiswrapper -m

Make sure ndiswrapper is loaded at boot:

$ echo "ndiswrapper" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

Then reboot. At this point my wireless adapter began flashing, and wlan0 was among the choices System -- Administration -- Networking.

But since there's no wireless in this room, I'll have to try again tonight, except this time in Debian Lenny or Wolvix Hunter 1.1.0. (In those, instead of sudo, I'll just open a root shell with su).

Thanks to Kevdog, from whom I got all of this information. I made some modifications to his instructions, substituting pointing and clicking for work in the terminal (and leaving off a few precautionary checks) where possible.

And I'll tell you later whether or not this actually worked. I did this all in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, but I don't see why it wouldn't work in Debian, a newer version of Ubuntu, or just about any other version of Linux (I plan to try in Puppy and Damn Small Linux at some point, too).