Table of Contents



KWireless Tools Pro

KWireless Tools Pro


About KWireless Tools Pro

KWireless Tools Pro is a frontend to the linux Wireless Tools utility.

The Wireless Tools utility for Debian is completely different to that for other linux based systems. Therefore, KDE Control Center cannot setup/modify your wireless connections. KWireless Tools Pro is intended to Debian based systems. (Some functions will not work on other systems.)


NOTE: The recent version of the software can handle more than one wireless interfaces. If you have problems, remove the kernel driver of the device not used.


Prerequisites for the use of KWireless Tools Pro

KWireless Tools Pro has the following dependencies:

* ifupdown

* python (>=2.3.5)

* python-qt3 (3.15)

* python-kde (>=3.11.3)

* python-qwt4

* libgtk2-perl

* wireless-tools

* dhcp-client or dhcp-client3

* resolvconf

* wpasupplicant (if WPA encryption is used)


These utilities are included in Debian stable (ETCH). You need not download and compile anything except the kernel driver for your card.


Starting KWireless Tools Pro

KWireless Tools Pro first time can be started from the KDE menu tree. A tray icon will appear.


System tray icon

Meaning



You have not any wireless interface, or the device driver has not been loaded.

Your wireless interface is down.

Your wireless interface is up.

The signal is very weak. Your connection is not stable.

Your wireless interface is up.

The signal is weak. Your connection is stable, but slow.

Your wireless interface is up.

The signal strenght is fair. Your connection is stable and fast.

Your wireless interface is up.

The signal strenght is good. Your connection is stable and fast.

Your wireless interface is up.

The signal strenght is excellent. Your connection is stable and fast.

Your wireless interface is up.

The signal strenght is maximal.


Just move the mouse cursor over the tray icon! The interface/AP information will appear.


Mouseover effect

Meaning





You have not any wireless interface, or the device driver has not been loaded.



You have a wireless interface [ath0].

Your wireless interface is down.

Your wireless interface [ath0] is up and you can see the connection details:

ESSID, Link Quality, S/N Ratio in dBm, Signal Leve in dBm,

Bitrate in Mb/s, Mode, Received and Transfered Kbytes.



(In this case, the connection is very weak.)


Right-clicking on the tray icon, a menu tree will appear. If you are a non-root user, a kdesu window may appear in order to claim the root password.



Manage Connections

If your network is down, click on the 'Up' button and then on the 'Scan', button. You can see the available acces points. You can connect to them by clicking on the 'Connect' or 'Start DHCP' button. If you are intend to use a static connection, do not forget to fill out the fields in the frame 'Setup'. Before closing the window, click on the 'Save AP info' button. The all of the AP information/settings are stored in a database, but only the available AP information/settings appear. This database is used by the applicaton for setting up the default connection (see 'Setup Default Connection' menu item).




Continuous Monitor

If you are connected to the Internet, you can monitor the signal strenght continuously. It is useful if you adjust your antenna, or you check the signal stability. The graph shows the S/N ratio and Link Quality vs. time lines. You can switch off both of them by clicking on the button right. Clicking on the 'Midscale' button, you can set the scale in order to see weak signal strenghts.




You can change from the current interface to another anytime.

NOTE: The S/N ratio is the same as Link Quality for some kernel drivers (e.g. Madwifi) but they are different for other drivers (e.g. Ndiswrapper) .



Setup Default Connection

You can choose from any of the saved AP settings saved in the section 'Manage Connections', independently of their availability. You can set additional paramaters for your default connection. If it is not necessery, you need not enter anything to the empty input fields. They are optional. You can define a MAC address different from your hardware MAC address, you can also enter 'pre-up' (run before bringing up the interface), 'up' (run after bringing up the interface), 'down' (run before stopping the interface) and post-down (run after stopping the interface) commands. the scale in order to see weak signal strenghts. Clicking on the button 'Save', the settings concerning to the choosed interface will be overwritten in the file /etc/network/interface.




The option 'Force this address as cell identity/bssid' is usefull if there are more than one AP with the same ESSID.

NOTE: The last additional paramaters are stored by KWireless Tools Pro, but only if you click on the save button, independently from your answer to the question concerning the system file overwrite.



Setting up WPA supplicant






From the 'Driver' combobox, you can select an appropriate driver for dour device.


Driver

Description

 
wext
 
Linux wireless extensions (generic)
hostap
 
Host AP driver (Intersil Prism2/2.5/3)
madwifi
 
MADWIFI 802.11 support (Atheros, etc.)
atmel
 
ATMEL AT76C5XXx (USB, PCMCIA)
ndiswrapper
 
Linux ndiswrapper
ipw
 
Intel ipw2100/2200 driver
wired
 
wired Ethernet driver
test
 
test driver



The Intel Pro Wireless adapters (ipw2100, ipw2200 and ipw3945) all use the 'wext' backend, unless your kernel is older than 2.6.14.


Madwifi supports both the 'wext' and 'madwifi' driver backends. 'wext' is preferred, however 'madwifi' may work better in some circumstances.


Ndiswrapper NO LONGER SUPPORTS the 'ndiswrapper' driver backend as of version 1.16. Therefore, 'wext' must be used unless you use an antiquated ndiswrapper release.



You have to specify at least a password. The other options may be not so important, but you can find some values in the pop up lists of the comboboxes.


Input field

Code

Values

Description

 
Protocol
 
wpa-proto
 
WPA, RSN 
(default: not specified)
 
List of accepted protocols
WPA key
 
wpa-psk
 
Your key
 
Your preshared wpa key. 
Use wpa_passphrase(8) 
to generate your psk
Identity (EAP)
 
wpa-identity
 
(Plaintextname)
 
Administrator provided 
username for EAP 
authentication
Password (EAP)
 
wpa-password
 
(Plaintextpassword)
 
Your password for 
EAP authentication
Key management 
protocol
 
wpa-key-mgmt
 
NONE, WPA-PSK, 
WPA-EAP, IEEE8021X
 (default: not specified)
 
List of accepted a
uthenticated key
Ciphers: group
 
wpa-group
 
CCMP, TKIP, WEP104,
WEP40 
 (default: not specified)
 
List of accepted group 
ciphers for WPA
Ciphers: pairwise
 
wpa-pairwise
 
CCMP, TKIP, NONE
 (default: not specified)
 
List of accepted pairwise 
ciphers for WPA
Authentication 
algorithm
 
wpa-auth-alg
 
OPEN, SHARED, LEAP
 (default: not specified)
 
List of allowed IEEE 802.11
authentication algorithms


NOTES:

The 'wpa-psk' value is only valid if:

1) It is a plaintext (ascii) string between 8 and 63 characters in

length

2) It is a hexadecimal string of 64 characters

The field content of 'ESSID' will be used as 'wpa-bssid' value, and the field content of 'MAC' will be used as 'wpa-bssid' value.if WPA supplicant is choosed. (See page 'Network')



Hardware settings



Hardware settings are depend on your network card. Please, do not use settings not supported by your hardware or by the kernel driver! Do not forget: you need not choose anything. The pop up lists of the comboboxes are only hints. For more information about hardware parameters, see the manpage of 'iwconfig'!



Start/Stop Default Connection

You can start ('ifup') and stop ('ifdown') the default connection from this window. Choose one from the available interfaces before!




----- KWireless Tools Pro is released under the license of GPL -----

GILDE project (Graphical Interfaces to Learn Debian Easily).


(C) Big-Cat Software Association, 2007.

This application uses codes from the following GPL licensed projects:

PyWireless by S.Çaglar Onur <caglar@uludag.org.tr> and

Guifi by Julian Coccia (http://julian.coccia.com)