Wireless Network on Mandriva 2007.1

[Mark2074]

Hi, It's the usual thing. I am new to Linux. I have a computer that was running Windows Vista 64-bit, but I was having so much problems with it recognizing some devices that I decided to try Linux. I have an AMD64 3400+ computer and I want to take advantage of the 64-bit environment.

I got everything working except the wireless network. I downloaded the latest updates, kennel 2.04.14 and Mandriva recognizes my 802.11g USB adapter. I right-click the network Icon on the taskbar and I go to wireless networks. I can see 2 networks. One, which is my Windows XP machine that is using DI-524 router. The other is someone on the street. It says that the network is a managed, open WEP network. I have a network security key assigned to my network. I click on it and it says it's connecting, but I am not sure if it is. It says it's requesting network connection DHCP protcol. I assume I am connected but I can't find anything that could browse the folders on XP computer. Have do I accomplish this? Plus, when I had XP on this machine before, I was able to browse the internet. Would Linux be able to browse the internet using this wireless network?

Sorry for the newbie questions, but from what I see Mandriva seems to be better that Vista. At least I don't have to buy new devices.

[Mark2074]

I wanted to follow up on my above post.

I right-click on to the network icon and I see my wired network with a check mark but I think I have to have the rausb0 wireless checked, but I can't get it to change. How do I change it?

[Mark2074]

Well, another update. Since there is a lack of support for newcomers and since I was at a loss on what to do, I decided to go back to my pervious operating system. I thought Linux would be easy to set up, but I can see that it is not for me. Just too time consuming. Until there is more support for newcomers, Linux will have a tough time being accepted.

[redbook]

I'm sorry to hear that you have been disappointed - wireless can be a bit of a nightmare on linux but persevere and you will get there. Take a bit of advice though and stick with 32 bit distro's there is not great gain from 64 bit and driver support is much more flakey. Try to let me know what probs you are experiencing with your usb stick and I will see if I can help. I had a cow with a simple bcm4306 but got there eventually.