Netopia and Eircom Broadband under Linux (Mandriva)

hamster

Hi,

This probably suits the linux forum just as well but here it goes:

Did anyone have any luck in setting up their Eircom broadband connection under Linux? I have a copy of Mandriva 2006 Ed and will give it a go tomorrow. I have a netopia wireless router and my own usb wireless key (which has linux drivers).

Just got broadband there and whew what a difference it makes to Godforsaken phone line. I dread ever having to go back using it!

tomk

The actual broadband connection is handled by the router, so all you have to do under Linux is set up the wireless network connection between PC and router. I don't use Mandriva, but from what I've read, I wouldn't be surprised if it autodetects and configs the whole thing for you. Even if it doesn't, it shouldn't take too much work if your dongle is supported, as you say.

As a matter of interest, which driver is it?

Inge Binge

You might need NDISWRAPPER to bring your wifi to work. NDISWRAPPER can install the WIN XP driver for use in LINUX.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/

A cabled connection to the router definately works. Have done it before at a friends machine.

IB

hamster

Thanks for the feedback here.

The wireless usb key I have is:
CNet Wireless-G USB Dongle 54 Mbps 802.11g, WPA/AES/WPA2

I got it from Komplett for €29.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=305053

There on that page someone made a reference to linux drivers that I could use:
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

It's looks promising.

You are right about Mandriva 2006 being very friendly. It accepted the latest .run Nvidia install and a 1 line change in /etc/X11/X86Config let me get 3D acceleration.

Hopefully it will detect the key. After all it did auto mount my window partitions and gave me read-only NTFS (I remember in RedHat 8/9 - it took a few steps). It found my usb player flash key no bother.

Btw, I did a speedtest and got 1.6 - 1.8 Mbps for my 2Mb connection. Hope that sounds about right for Wireless usb 1.1. I'm not 100% sure at where usb1.1 top out for wireless.

tomk

The rt2x00 drivers are still fairly new - as you can see from serialmonkey, they're still beta. Plug it in and see what happens, but I'd say it's likely you'll have to do some work to get it going. Google for Mandriva rt2x00, or find a Mandriva forum and search it.

Hold on - there's a couple of Mandrake HowTos on serialmonkey, might be enough to get you going.

hamster

tomk wrote:

The rt2x00 drivers are still fairly new - as you can see from serialmonkey, they're still beta. Plug it in and see what happens, but I'd say it's likely you'll have to do some work to get it going. Google for Mandriva rt2x00, or find a Mandriva forum and search it.

Hold on - there's a couple of Mandrake HowTos on serialmonkey, might be enough to get you going.

Great, I'll get the HowTos and see how I can get on. Thanks Tom!

hamster

Yeah, had a look. My wireless key is based on the RT73 chipset and looking at linuxquestions - my best bet is to go via ndiswrapper.

Some interesting related stuff:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=415094

hamster

Wahey! Never say never! Ralink themselves put the rt73 driver on their website:

http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm ... dated the 16th of February!