can I use wireless & wired cards together?

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:12:17 -0700
> From: Brooks Davis <brooks at one-eyed-alien.net>
> 
> On Thu, Jun 16, 2005 at 12:21:29PM -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 16, 2005 at 10:49:28AM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > > Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:37:21 -0700
> > > > From: Gary Kline <kline at tao.thought.org>
> > > > Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> > > > 
> > > > 	My orig ^Subject line prob'ly should have read: 
> > > > 	"Can I just plug in a wifi card (and pull out my wired)?"
> > > > 
> > > > 	I'm assuming that my Intel 10-100 card is unplugged and 
> > > > 	that I have a wifi (say, AR5211) inserted; will I be able
> > > > 	to use my 600E at the library or Starbucks (or other 
> > > > 	hotspots)?  In other words, will a wireless DHCP 
> > > > 	configuration *work*?  If so, then it makes sense to
> > > > 	take my ThinkPad along when I go out.  
> > > > 
> > > > 	gary
> > > 
> > > 
> > > A much simpler question. The answer is "yes" with some caveats.
> > > 
> > > It assumes that the AP is transmitting a beacon (which a public system
> > > will) and no WEP. If this is the case, it should "just work".
> > > 
> > > You can probably just (as root) issue 'dhclient wi0' and it should do
> > > the trick. You probably want to be sure that your /etc/start_if.wi0 sets
> > > the ssid to "" and wepmode to "off".
> > 
> > 
> > 	Once I'm out <wherever> and reboot with the wifi card in 
> > 	place, where do I put the above lines?  Where is
> > 	/etc/start_if.wi0 called from?  
> 
> It's called from /etc/rc.d/netif and /etc/pccard_ether.  The suggested
> step should be unnecessicary (if it's necessicary it's a bug).

I don't THINK that it is called from /etc/rc.d/netif any more. I think
that is now all left to devd. I agree that the clearing of SSID and WEP
should be unneeded, but I need to do it since profile(8) can leave the
interface in a non-default configuration when the network starts. If you
don't use profile, I agree with Brooks, but it makes moving a laptop
around so much easier that I would never want to go back. I use static
addresses some places, DHCP in others, different encryption and SSIDs
are all simply dealt with with no intervention unless I connect
somewhere with unusual characteristics.

The simple answer for Gary is to make sure that rc.conf tells the system
to use DHCP (ifconfig_wi0="DHCP") and away you go.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634