OSU Physics Faq's : Computing (general) :
Wireless access in PRB
2005-Sep-07 1:04pm jdw@mps.ohio-state.edu
There are a lot of special cases that I will not cover here. Let's start with the most general case: Windows XP on a laptop using "Wireless Zero Configuration", (I guess they had to call it something).
I'll assume you know what things look like on the desktop when an XP laptop detects a wireless access point... You'll get a "bubble" pop-up off the system tray, and/or you can view available wireless networks by right-clicking the wireless icon in the system tray. We have a number of access points in the PRB, arranged so that we get coverage over all of the atrium, most of the office side, and about a third of the lab side of the building. The access points have the naming convention "prb-ap-physics-rm#". When you view available wireless networks, you'll probably see more than one of the access points. Choose the one that has the strongest signal; (WZC doesn't order them by signal strength). Hit the Connect button, and you'll get a prompt for a netowrk key. the network key is:
0FE32D8EBB067AEFECB8599A62
I suggest you save the key above to a text file in notepad that you save to your desktop. Then you can cut-n-paste the key from the text file into the prompt window.
After you enter the key, hit the Connect button. You ought to get a connection. Unfortunately, you're not done. Now you need to open a browser, and go to wireless.physics.ohio-state.edu. Enter your physics email username and password. *Now* you have an authenticated connection, good until the next Sunday midnight.
On Linux (Fedora Core 3):
(If you are reading this while connected via the wired, network, I suggest cutting and pasting it onto your laptop so you don't have to type that long WEP key a couple lines down.)
Short version: type commands like these as root:
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid any key 0FE32D8EBB067AEFECB8599A62 /sbin/dhclient eth1You must have the package named wireless-tools installed to get iwconfig. If you do not, you can get it by running (as root):
yum -y install wireless-toolseth1 may not be the correct name for your wireless interface. You can see which one is wireless by typing:
iwconfigIf dhclient complains that it is already running, you can easily kill the running instance by typing:
killall dhclientNote that by setting the ESSID to 'any' in the iwconfig command, you should be able to roam from one of our access points (APs) to another without having to re-run the iwconfig command.
Once you have associated with the AP, you must (and may only) connect
with a web browser to
http://wireless.physics.ohio-state.edu...where you will login using the username and password which you use for departmental email. Note well that there is no "www" in that hostname.
There are other tools available for various versions of Linux which may be used to manage wireless networking. My experience with FC3 was that the above command-line commands are the most reliable.
An email message said I should change something on my computer and forward the warning to everyone I know. What should I do?