My words on free/open source software

Friday, January 19, 2007

Configuration of Ad-hoc Wireless Network with Linux boxes

I've connected two Linux boxes (laptops) with wireless network without an AP. This is called "Ad-hoc Mode". It's as simple as connecting a wired network with a switch or hub. For a full explanation, please read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_ad-hoc_network

Set up your wirelss NIC first. This varies upon different machine models. Usually a web search would solve your problem. For my scenario (Intel IPW2200 card on Fedora with rpm.livna.org), a "yum install ipw2200-firmware" is enough.

Then the only thing you need to config is your NIC's config file, usually named "ifcfg-eth?". For Fedora it's in "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/". Here's mine:

# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=no
BOOTPROTO=none
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=192.168.0.2
DOMAIN=
HWADDR=
CHANNEL=1
MODE=Ad-Hoc
RATE=Auto
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
NETWORK=192.168.0.0
ESSID=


To bring it up, use "ifup eth?".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i got this
RTNETLINK answers: No such file or directory

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