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.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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).

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Wired article, seen via BoingBoing, makes an argument for running your wireless router completely open and unencrypted.

Bruce Schneier's argument takes into account security, potential violations of law and ISP policies, as well as the social benefit of both providing free WiFi and using it yourself when needed.

He does emphasize that keeping good security on your computer itself is important, and that the benefits of an open network outweigh the risks:

Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people -- and attracts the most criticism -- is the fact that I run an open wireless network at home. There's no password. There's no encryption. Anyone with wireless capability who can see my network can use it to access the internet.

To me, it's basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea. But to some observers, it's both wrong and dangerous.

...

Security is always a trade-off. I know people who rarely lock their front door, who drive in the rain (and, while using a cellphone) and who talk to strangers. In my opinion, securing my wireless network isn't worth it. And I appreciate everyone else who keeps an open wireless network, including all the coffee shops, bars and libraries I have visited in the past, the Dayton International Airport where I started writing this and the Four Points Sheraton where I finished. You all make the world a better place.

What I'd like to know is what security precautions he is taking to protect his machines on the open network.

I'm far from an expert in this department, and the one guy I do trust in this realm -- George Ou -- thinks WPA encryption is the only way to go. Read some good articles by Mr. Ou:

How to protect your online privacy

A secure Wireless LAN hotspot for anonymous users

Why VPN can’t replace Wi-Fi security

Wireless LAN security myths that won’t die

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My gOS review prompted a thorough investigation of what, exactly, is faster than the billed-as-fast distro's Enlightenment window manager (so far just about everything), and that led me to explore Xfce-based Linux distributions in general, and on the $15 Laptop in particular.

The $15 Laptop is a Compaq Armada 7770dmt, circa 1999, with a Pentium II MMX processor at 233 MHz, 64 MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive and an Orinoco WaveLAN Silver PCMCIA wireless card as its only networking device.

Here's the scorecard (not all Xfce):

Puppy runs pretty well. I had one fixable glitch: Puppy doesn't configure the Orinoco wireless card if it's plugged in before booting. A quick Web search clued me in to this. The solution is to boot puppy, then plug in the Orinoco PCMCIA card and then configure it. Worked immediately. Also, the parameters generated by Puppy 2.13's Xorg configuration helped me get X properly configured in other distributions (Debian, Zenwalk). I had to use Xvesa in Puppy 3.00, but maybe using 2.13's xorg.conf will fix that problem (or I can just run Xvesa, which Damn Small Linux and Slackware do by default).

Puppy update: Making a pup_save file in 2.13 and upgrading to 3.00 resulted in a non-working X configuration. I couldn't even ctrl-alt-backspace out of it.

Damn Small Linux 4.0 runs great. It's probably the best choice for this particular system. And I can't say enough about how nice the new JWM-based DSL desktop is. I had a DSL 4.0 review in the early stages, but I inadvertently erased it in one of my many installs. ... One thing I recommend: keep Knoppix, DSL and Puppy live CDs around and try all of them on every PC you come across.

The Xfce install of Debian Etch (type tasks=xfce-desktop at the boot prompt of the netinstall disc) is very promising. Debian and Slackware, under Xfce, blew away everything in my lengthy speed test, and Debian is just so damn easy to use. But ... the Xfce install is VERY barebones. No Synaptic, no network manager, pretty much none of the things that Zenwalk or Xubuntu bring to Xfce. I really don't need all that stuff, and as I say, Debian with Xfce is damn fast. I'm very comfortable with apt, and with a wireless card, it's not like I have a lot of heavy network configuration work to do ... I might stick with it. And the X configuration was fine ... once I booted Puppy 2.13 and tweaked Debian's xorg.conf appropriately (hint: use one of Puppy's two drive-mounting tools to get at /etc/X11/xorg.conf on your Debian install).

Zenwalk, as mentioned above, makes Xfce easier to tweak. The ZenPanel, in my opinion, is the "killer app" among Xfce-based distros. That said, I couldn't seem to turn the frame-buffer feature off, and my console sessions were, shall we say, wavy. Once I got X working (again, with Puppy's help), the menus didn't seem as responsive as Debian's.

I tried Xubuntu. I had an alternate install disk for 6.10 lying around, and the install wouldn't complete. Yes, I checked the CD's integrity. It just didn't want to go all the way.

Slackware 12. I'm installing it now. I only have a 3 GB drive.-- otherwise I'd just do a full GNOME install of Debian and then add xfce-desktop after the fact -- and so in Slackware I opted not to install KDE. The install went pretty well. Without KDE checked off, I barely had any apps, although I did get Seamonkey and Thunderbird in addition to Firefox. Debian, in contrast, has Iceweasel (renamed but otherwise exactly the same as Firefox) but no mail client at all. Not that it would be a problem to add one to Debian. In this Slack install, there isn't any office software. I'd have to add Abiword and maybe OpenOffice ... except that I'm getting very close to running out of disk space. I could probably start removing packages and steal some space back, though. On my other Slackware 12 install, I used the Abiword package from Robby's Slackware Packages, with all dependencies also on Robby's site, and that worked great. He also has OpenOffice.

I was surprised at how great OO Writer worked in the Debian Xfce install. Remember, this is 64 MB of RAM and a 233 MHz CPU. I could probably get rid of the other OO apps that I never use (just about all the rest).

And as far as video configuration go, Slackware 12 was one of the few to correctly set the X parameters for the Compaq. I still had the wavy framebuffer console (gotta figure out how to turn that off), but X works fine.

And now that I figured out how to make Puppy's wireless work (the plug-the-card-in-after-booting trick), I have both of my favorite live CDs (Puppy and DSL) at my disposal for this laptop.

I get the funny feeling I'm going to end up with Debian. I like the idea of being able to keep the same setup for a long, long time, updating it easily with apt. Slackware would last longer, since support seems to go on and on. I could also go back to having a separate /home partition to make swapping out distros easier if and when I start to pile some files into this thing.

The better thing to do would be to bite the bullet and get a reasonably sized hard drive and dual- or triple-boot for awhile. And I've got to max out the memory. It might cost too much to get the 1 GB of PC-133 laptop memory for the $0 Laptop (old memory costs between double and triple what new memory costs ... so buy it NOW people), but the 128 MB of EDO laptop RAM for the $15 Laptop will only set me back a few bucks.

But I can see ending up with Etch on the hard drive, augmented by DSL and/or Puppy as live CDs.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of the articles I read about Wi-Fi security is of the "sky has already fallen and is crushing your privacy to death -- TO DEATH, I TELL YOU" variety, and besides that wades too far into technobabble to be of use to anybody who really needs to know how to use wireless Internet without getting their identity stolen and privacy compromised.

Leave it to David Pogue -- he of The New York Times, and the Missing Manual series (which is published on his own O'Reilly imprint) -- to clear things up in this not-recent but still-relevant column:

You can take steps to protect yourself:

* If you see the little padlock in the corner of your Web-browser window (or if the Web address begins with “https://” instead of “http://”), you’re connected to a secure Web site. Your transmissions are encrypted in both directions, so you have little to fear from casual packet sniffers. Banking and brokerage sites, for example, are protected in this way.

* You can sign up for encrypted e-mail services or programs, too, if avoiding e-mail eavesdropping is that important to you.

* You can connect to your company over a VPN (virtual private networking) connection, which encrypts *all* data to and from your laptop. This is something a network geek would have to set up for you.

* Otherwise, you can just conduct your online transactions with the awareness that a stranger could be “overhearing” them. Wait to visit Web sites, or to send e-mail messages, of a delicate nature until you’re on a wired connection or a private wireless one.

The many, many comments below the post are also worth scanning.

But basically the 411 is that if the Web site you're looking at establishes a secure connection (look for https:// -- mind the "s" -- or a lock in the proper place in your browser, the information you're sending or receiving is pretty much safe. But the actual URLs you are using will not be similarly encrypted.

As far as using e-mail, the piece says that using Web portals with secure connections is OK. Google allows you to keep your entire session secure by adding the "s" to https:// when accessing the site. And my broadband provider, DSL Extreme keeps the connection secure automatically. Others, like Yahoo! Mail, only keep the password transmission secure, with the e-mail session itself wide open. That's dangerous.

I didn't get a firm answer from the piece and the comments on e-mail clients. Obviously, POP and IMAP e-mail sessions without encryption can be sniffed out by anyone within Wi-Fi earshot, but I think -- and hope -- that communicating with mail servers using SSL encryption is just as safe as using encrypted Web sites.

And for those who are REALLY paranoid about e-mail security, there's always Hush Mail. It offers 2,048-bit encryption, which basically can't be broken. It's also kind of a pain in the ass ... and the company has already dropped a dime on some of its more unsavory users when the government came a-callin'.

Maybe there's a better way to fly under the e-mail radar ...

It would be better to have 128-bit WPA encryption on ALL Wi-Fi communications, and the truly paranoid should probably never use wireless, but for the rest of us, sticking to secure e-mail services and not blindly filling out online forms on unsecure sites, or saying too much over IM (unless it's Google's service, which is supposedly encrypted, the comments to Pogue's article say) should be enough to keep identity thieves from fleecing our respective asses.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)