Red Hat 8 Wireless On Acer T-Mate 2423

[Studio bl]

Ok, I'm a Linux newbie...a gui solution would be great.

I'm having trouble setting up my wireless connection.

I have the Red Hat 8 version from the Osborne "Complete Reference" book installed on my new Acer Travelmate 2423WXCi. My wireless router is a Netgear.

I've tried using System Tools/Internet Configuration Wizard. I select "Wireless Connection" and click "Forward". The next screen is "Select Wireless Device". The only thing listed is "Other Wireless Card", so I click "Forward".

This gives me a screen titled "Select Ethernet Adaptor" There's a pulldown menu with "3Com 3c501" already selected. I assume this is for selecting my laptop's wireless card. According to the documentation provided with my laptop, the wireless hardware is "integrated Acer inviLink 802.11b/g Wi-Fi"

What I THINK I'm supposed to do is find this on the pulldown menu. It's not on there, so I try using the default of "3Com 3c501".

I don't know what anything else on this screen means, so I leave both the defaults: "Device: eth0" and "IRQ: Unknown"

Forward!

I leave the next screen "Configure Wireless Connection" at its defaults, also. They're both "auto", which sounds pretty "go to coffee shop, turn on, start surfing" to me.

and...Forward

"Configure Network Settings" is left default also, and for the same reason:

"automatically optain IP address setting with dhcp"

Forward sends me to a kind of confirmation page titled "Create Wireless Device"

It reads:

"You have selected the following information:

Device: eth0 (3Com 3c501)
Automatically obtain IP address settings with: DHCP
Mode: Auto
ESSID (Network ID): Automatic
Channel: 1
Transmit Rate: Auto
Key: encryption disabled"

Hey, what the heck? "Apply"

This gives me a panel with tabs for "Devices", "Hardware", "Hosts", and "DNS". There are so many tabs and whatnot that I'm not sure what to do. There is a button labeled "Activate", which sounds promising. (This is under the "Devices" tab with the "eth0" device I just set up highlighted.)

The system asks me if I want to save the changes I made, and I click yes.

Bummer! I just get an alert box "Cannot activate network device eth0"

Any suggestions?

*

[ccrvic]

Originally Posted by Studio bl

Any suggestions?

Yes.

You're running RH8 - Throw It Away.

RH8 went through end-of-life at the end of 2003. Fedoralegacy did pick it up, but their support didn't last long.

Go get yourself a copy of FC4 or FC5 and install that. You'll find life much easier, and hardware support much better.

Vic.