Comments on: Wireless Networking in (Ed)Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" ~Emerson Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:49:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Ian http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-51258 Ian Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:40:52 +0000 http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-51258 Hi Cori, Thanks for the reply. As its Easter and I'm not at school for two weeks I'll do some further investigations and see if things become a little clearer to me. Hi Cori,
Thanks for the reply. As its Easter and I’m not at school for two weeks I’ll do some further investigations and see if things become a little clearer to me. ]]> By: cori http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-48954 cori Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:42:15 +0000 http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-48954 Hi Ian; I don't know for certain why Linux distros don't include better support for a wider variety of wireless applications, as I'm not a developer for any distros, but I can surmise that it might partly be in the interests of combatting bloat and I also suspect that it's partly due to the lack of support for Linux specific drivers for many wireless cards. As far as the first is concerned, I don't expect that's likely to change, although perhaps some intepid soul will bundle better support as an easier-to-install package, and as far as the second is concerned we may have to wait for the manufacturers to catch up. If your security needs are less stringent than mine (I wanted to use WPA2 for security) and you're satisfied with WEP for security, many wireless cards are already supported, so you might have better luck on that front. I'd also say that once you figure out what it is you need to do for the specific card you're using, the process itself isn't terribly onerous. So if you're setting up a network with homogeneous machines it may well be worth your while. Hi Ian;

I don’t know for certain why Linux distros don’t include better support for a wider variety of wireless applications, as I’m not a developer for any distros, but I can surmise that it might partly be in the interests of combatting bloat and I also suspect that it’s partly due to the lack of support for Linux specific drivers for many wireless cards. As far as the first is concerned, I don’t expect that’s likely to change, although perhaps some intepid soul will bundle better support as an easier-to-install package, and as far as the second is concerned we may have to wait for the manufacturers to catch up.

If your security needs are less stringent than mine (I wanted to use WPA2 for security) and you’re satisfied with WEP for security, many wireless cards are already supported, so you might have better luck on that front. I’d also say that once you figure out what it is you need to do for the specific card you’re using, the process itself isn’t terribly onerous. So if you’re setting up a network with homogeneous machines it may well be worth your while.

]]> By: Ian http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-48548 Ian Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:27:39 +0000 http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-48548 I am a primary school teacher who is (supposedly) responsible for the delivery of ICt at our small school. I am not in any way an "expert". I was looking into changing our laptops over from a windows platform to use edubuntu. However, they have to be able to connect to the web and to a printer wirelessly and having read the above and other postings about getting ubuntu to pick up a network make me shy away from even trying. Is it likely that a more "intuitive/automatic" method for locating and joining networks will be put into ubuntu? I am a primary school teacher who is (supposedly) responsible for the delivery of ICt at our small school. I am not in any way an “expert”. I was looking into changing our laptops over from a windows platform to use edubuntu. However, they have to be able to connect to the web and to a printer wirelessly and having read the above and other postings about getting ubuntu to pick up a network make me shy away from even trying. Is it likely that a more “intuitive/automatic” method for locating and joining networks will be put into ubuntu? ]]> By: Jonathan http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-41775 Jonathan Mon, 05 Mar 2007 17:25:15 +0000 http://kinrowan.net/blog/wp/archives/2007/02/08/wireless-networking-in-edubuntu-610-edgy-eft#comment-41775 I fall solidly on the side of "This must work in Ubuntu" without me jumping through hoops. It's absolutely ridiculous that something fault tolerant enough can't be built to a) recognize the hardware and b) note when something isn't working because you've changed hardware and then c) re-set the configuration to support the new hardware. To say that someone has to know what they're doing to have the honor of using wireless is stupid and elitist to say the least and it goes directly against everything that Ubuntu stands for. I fall solidly on the side of “This must work in Ubuntu” without me jumping through hoops. It’s absolutely ridiculous that something fault tolerant enough can’t be built to a) recognize the hardware and b) note when something isn’t working because you’ve changed hardware and then c) re-set the configuration to support the new hardware.

To say that someone has to know what they’re doing to have the honor of using wireless is stupid and elitist to say the least and it goes directly against everything that Ubuntu stands for.

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