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List:       linux-laptop
Subject:    [linux-laptop] A questions about Aironet 340/350 cards in Linux
From:       Edward Hua <eyh5 () ece ! cornell ! edu>
Date:       2002-08-22 17:45:05
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Hi,

      I have two Gateway Solo 1400 laptops, and have recently purchased 
two Aironet 350 wireless PC cards that are inserted in the PCM-CIA slots 
of the laptops. I plan to use the two to set up an ad-hoc network that 
allows them to communicate directly with each other without an access 
point. 

On one of the laptops (node01), I installed Linux 
RedHat7.2, and on the second laptop (node02), I installed RedHat7.3 . 
Since both 7.2 and 7.3 have their own Linux drivers and utilities that 
support Aironet 340/350 cards, they were automatically installed during 
the Linux OS  installation process. Therefore, I did not install them 
using the method in Cisco's website 

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/102/wlan/linux.html

      I then turned on the laptops, and sure enough, during the boot
sequence, I heard the two beeps coming from the card, indicating the card
has been recognized and configured properly. The cards use the eth1
interface because my laptops also have eth0 interface that's used by the
wired LAN connections at my school. Once in the Linux window, I used the
ifconfig and iwconfig commands to configure the necessary parameters at
the command prompt (I used "iwconfig eth1 mode Ad-hoc" for Ad-hoc
connectivity). Then I initiated a "ping" command from node01 to node02, 
and vice versa. From the output messages, it seemed that indeed the 
ad-hoc mode worked, as both laptops were able to spit out a readout of the 
round-trip delay time after a ping packet was sent.

      What bugs me is that the output messages that report the 
continuation of pinging always pause after one 
minute or so, if the keyboard is untouched during that time. It is almost 
as if the ad-hoc connectivity went to "sleep" after 60 seconds. Then the 
screen just hangs there until I hit some key (e.g., the left-arrow key) to 
"re-activate" it. Only then does the output message move on. However, it 
can be seen that during those seconds or  minutes of inactivity, some ping 
packets are lost. 

      I'm wondering if you can help me explain this phenomenon, and if you 
can suggest a solution, a modification of some system files perhaps, that 
I can implement to keep the "ping" going uninterrupted for more than 60 
seconds.

      Thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

-Ed



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