Wireless network conectivity

maybe

  sudo apt-get install iw

http://wiki.debian.org/rt2800usb

This looks hopeful (but it is for the Wheezy Debian not Squeeze, does that matter?)

Roger Wolff wrote:

 

maybe

  sudo apt-get install iw

Seems to have worked.  I will try the other commands and see if that has fixed other problems.

Also ( as a side question):

How do you create a shortcut to a folder in linux to a networked share drive?

I know how to connect to it by typing

smb: <location>

But how do you create a shortcut?

Progress made:  The Wlan adapter has power (which it didn't before) but the RPi is playing up, The RPi does not like the iwconfig command.  Any thoughts?

I got this error:

wpasupplicant deamon failed to start

Which means I have an error in the:

/etc/wpa.conf

...file. 

But I don't know where they are.  I can tell you that I have a WPA+WPA2 sercurity setting active on the router but I don't know how that information translates into the /etc/wpa.conf file.

This is what I curently have: (minus the ssid and password - security purposes )

network={

ssid="network2.4"

proto=RSN

key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

pairwise=CCMP TKIP

group=CCMP TKIP

psk="passwordisfake"

}

Can anyone help me get the correct information into that file???

EDIT: Just found an error but that has not fixed the problem.

I am reading this article: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/WPA_supplicant

Do I need to do anything relating to WPA_supplicant  or not?

This looks like it could work and if it does then the wiki should add this.  I will play around with this tomorrow.

Hmmmm. It seems I missed one of your posts....

WPA supplicant does something relating to WPA. So if your wifi is WPA protected, your 'pi will have to do something with WPA_SUPPLICANT. Whether or not this is hidden "behind  the scenes" I don't know.

On my Ubuntu Laptop, I have this fancy network-icon in the toolbar. It shows the wifi networks, and when I select an encrypted one, it asks me for the password. From then on it connects automatically....

That applet is called "nm-applet".

I'm usually a commandline guy, but with wifi, I kind of like the fact that I haven't had to delve into it to have it work.

Hmm. come to think of it, I have my home-pi on my (encrypted) home network. I just have

auto wlan0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

wpa-conf /etc/wpa.conf

in /etc/network/interfaces and then

network={

ssid="XXXXXX"

proto=RSN

key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

pairwise=CCMP TKIP

group=CCMP TKIP

psk="XXXXXXX"

}

in /etc/wpa.conf .

Then a restart of the network should work. Again I'm lazy figuring out how to do that, so I either unplug/replug the wifi dongle, or I just reboot the whole thing. (I'm sure it can be done, but not doing it is faster).

I will look into WPA supplicant.  For my RPi and network.  The link above seemed to look good and easy to do.,

Have not had time to look into WPA supplicant stuff.  but now that I know the model of the wireless adapter (RT2870) I can put the supplied drivers up here.  I hope that someone can tell me what to do with what was given to me and whether or not I need to install/add anything to the Raspberry Pi for wireless adapter to work.