Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Extensions => TCE Q&A Forum => Topic started by: bigpcman on October 08, 2009, 11:45:01 AM

Title: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: bigpcman on October 08, 2009, 11:45:01 AM
Does anyone have any feedback on wifi radar? Does it serve as a good replacement for wicd? Now that wicd is no longer available perhaps the wiki should be updated. I would do it but I'm not sure what to say about wicd future prospects.
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: chexmix on October 08, 2009, 11:54:27 AM
I loaded wifi_radar onto my netbook (eeePC 1000HE) last night to bring in to work and try out this morning ... I haven't had a chance to play with it a lot but was able to log onto my work network as a "guest" & the connection stayed pretty solid. I'm fairly behind the 8 ball on wireless, so if I can get it to work it has to be pretty ... erm, friendly.

GB
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: roberts on October 08, 2009, 12:06:07 PM
If the goal is to connect to various wifi hot spots, I find using essid any works fine for me at the several places I frequent..
Example:
iwconfig wlan0 essid any
udhcpc -i wlan0


 
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: bmarkus on October 08, 2009, 12:33:03 PM
The main difference between Wifiradar and WICD is, that WICD fully hides wpasupplicant and configures it itself, while with Wifiradar you have to do it manually. With open or WEP networks Wifiradar works fine via its own GUI.

Wifiradar has also less dependencies and smaller.
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: alu on October 08, 2009, 01:50:58 PM
just curious: what is the benefit of wifiradar and wicd over iwlist?
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: tclfan on October 08, 2009, 02:10:13 PM
Quick question: If I understand correctly, support of WiFi provided is only for a few common hardware, such as Atheros? No support for other common hardware, such as Dell?
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: bigpcman on October 08, 2009, 03:14:41 PM
The main difference between Wifiradar and WICD is, that WICD fully hides wpasupplicant and configures it itself, while with Wifiradar you have to do it manually. With open or WEP networks Wifiradar works fine via its own GUI.

Wifiradar has also less dependencies and smaller.

All the private networks I connect to now have transitioned to wpa so it sounds like wicd would have been a good solution. Too bad it's broke.

Sounds like wifi radar or "essid any" are good for hotspots .
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: bmarkus on October 08, 2009, 09:57:18 PM

All the private networks I connect to now have transitioned to wpa so it sounds like wicd would have been a good solution. Too bad it's broke.

Sounds like wifi radar or "essid any" are good for hotspots .

WICD is a good LAN manager (it supports not only WIFI but wired). It is the most WINDOWS-like tool. On the other hand a monster in TC terms.

For hotspots you do not need any GUI tool, see Robert's comment above. Wifiradar is great for WPA networks also. Lite, do no depend on KDE/GNOME components, do not require DBUS, etc. The only thing you have to setup WPA encription type and key not in its own GUI but in the wpasupplicant config file with a text editor once only. For sure WPA networks you are connecting to are not many, so it is not a big price.

For more info read http://wifi-radar.berlios.de/v2.x/howto/wr-howto-wpa.html

Try!
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: Juanito on October 08, 2009, 10:03:03 PM
Quote
No support for other common hardware, such as Dell?

..depends what you mean by "dell" - my two dell laptops have both used broadcom wireless chips, but some also use intel, etc.

If you have a dell laptop with a broadcom chipset, the "wl" extension might work for you.
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: combo3 on October 09, 2009, 07:50:40 AM
Quote
No support for other common hardware, such as Dell?

..depends what you mean by "dell" - my two dell laptops have both used broadcom wireless chips, but some also use intel, etc.

If you have a dell laptop with a broadcom chipset, the "wl" extension might work for you.

And there's always ndiswrapper.   :)
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: tclfan on October 09, 2009, 10:37:55 AM
Quote
No support for other common hardware, such as Dell?
..depends what you mean by "dell" - my two dell laptops have both used broadcom wireless chips, but some also use intel, etc.
If you have a dell laptop with a broadcom chipset, the "wl" extension might work for you.

Yes, indeed. I will check this out. Thank you.
Title: Re: wifi radar experience - any feedback?
Post by: curaga on October 09, 2009, 11:39:53 AM
just curious: what is the benefit of wifiradar and wicd over iwlist?
Just GUIs, user friendliness. They also might save commonly used encryption keys and other details, depending on the app.