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Connecting to the UT Wireless Public Network using Linux

I just got my wireless card to work with the UT public wireless system, and want to share my discoveries with you. Well, these are really Ravi's discoveries but I thought I would share them nevertheless.

In the file /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opt, on the section corresponding to your model, comment out the line with KEY. Make sure that the line with MODE reads "Managed", and change the ESSID to "Any". My wireless.opt now looks like this:

# Lucent Wavelan IEEE (+ Orinoco, RoamAbout and ELSA)
# Melco/Buffalo Networks WLI-PCM-L11
# Note : wvlan_cs driver only, and version 1.0.4+ for encryption support
*,*,*,00:60:1D:*|*,*,*,00:02:2D:*)
    INFO="Wavelan IEEE example (Lucent default settings)"
    ESSID="Any"
    MODE="Managed"
#    RATE="auto"
#    KEY="s:secu1"

The Linux tools should then do all the right things when you plug the card in.

Important tools to check any problems are ifconfig and iwconfig. If something goes wrong, check /var/log/messages for hints as to what is going on.

Once you're there, (re-)start your web browser and visit any page. You should be redirected to the UT direct web page and, after you log in, all the other pages should work.

UT's instructions for wireless access are helpful (they have coverage information for example), but last I checked they did not include any Linux-specific information.

If you're still stuck, you can try the Wireless HOWTO.

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