Feodra 7 & Intel 3945 WIFI

This is how I got my DELL E1705 to connect to my 802.11G wifi router.

1. Run the following to generate the wpa_supplicant.conf
   

   wpa_passphrase luke >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf



2. Edit /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and ensure no dummy session like this exists
   

   network {
   ...
   ...
   }



3. Ensure "ONBOOT=yes " in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0


4. Edit /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant and make sure these are the values set in it
   

   INTERFACES="-iwlan0"
   Driver="-Dwext"



5. Go to /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/ and do the following
   

   mv S12wpa_supplicant S09wpa_supplicant



6. Go to /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/ and repeat the above step


7. As root run the following
   

   chkconfig wpa_supplicant on
   chkconfig NetworkManager off
   chkconfig NetworkManagerDispatcher off

To summarize - this is what we are doing

1. Ensure wpa_supplicant is configured properly - this is the heart of the connection


2. Ensure the interface is started on boot up - we wont have a network without it ;)


3. Ensure wpa_supplicant enables the correct interface and uses the right driver


4. There is no reason why the wpa_supplicant should wait for networking to startup. We have all the reason for it to be ready before we try to enable any wireless interface.


5. NetworkManager is an alternate solution if you dont want to tweak with wpa_supplicant. You would use it you don't like touching configuration files nor do you care for having wifi as the only network available on bootup. Remember NetworkManager kicks in only after you log into your account.