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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "/usr/share/xml/docbook/xml-dtd-4.5/docbookx.dtd">

<chapter>
<title>Wireless Networking</title>

<section>
<title><application>iwconfig</application></title>

<para>
Wireless networking is somewhat more complicated than traditional wired
networking, and requires additional tools for setup. Slackware includes
a diverse collection of wireless networking tools to allow you to
configure your wireless network interface card (WNIC) at the most basic
level. We won't cover everything here, but should give you a solid
foundation to get up and running quickly.  The first tool we are going
to look at is <application>iwconfig</application>(8). When run without
any argument, <application>iwconfig</application> displays the current
wireless information on any and all NICs on your computer.
</para>


<screen><prompt>darkstar:~# </prompt><userinput>iwconfig</userinput>
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"nest"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.432 GHz  Access Point:
00:13:10:EA:4E:BD   
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=17 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level:-42 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

tun0      no wireless extensions.
</screen>

<para>
Unlike wired networks, wireless networks are "fuzzy". Their borders are
hard to define, and multiple networks may overlap one another. In order
to avoid confusion, each wireless network has (hopefully) unique
identifiers. The two most basic identifiers are the Extended Service
Set Identifier (ESSID) and the channel or frequency for radio
transmission. The ESSID is simply a name that identifies the wireless
network in question; you may have heard it referred to as the network
name or something similar. Typical wireless networks operate on 11
different frequencies. In order to connect to even the most basic
wireless network, you will have to setup these two pieces of
information, and possibly others, before setting up things like the
WNIC's IP address. Here you can see that my ESSID is set to "nest" and
my laptop is transmitting at 2.432 GHz. This is all that is required to
connect to an unencrypted wireless LAN. (For any of you out there
expecting to come to my house and use my unencrypted wireless, you
should know that you'll have to break a 2048-bit SSL key before the
access point will let you communicate with my LAN.)
</para>

</section>

<section>
<title>Wired Equivilant Protection (or Lack Thereof)</title>

<para>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad
minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip
ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
</para>

</section>

<section>
<title>WPA</title>

<para>
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eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad
minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip
ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
</para>

</section>

<section>
<title>rc.inet1.conf revisited</title>

</section>

</chapter>