Setup Instructions for the University of Virginia's (UVA) Wireless Network

A reasonably intelligent person should be able to set up a functional 802.11b wireless network card to work with UVA's wireless system by doing two things. First get a UVA wireless account at https://www.web.virginia.edu/mgmt/wire/notcisco.asp, next configure your card with a ESSID of 'wahoo'.

If you require detailed instructions for more 'friendly' operating systems than linux, look at the these links.

Requirements:

A computer with an available PC-card slot ( I used a Toshiba Portege 3020CT)
An operating system (I used Linux/ Redhat 7.2)
A functioning Standard (wired) Ethernet connection, including an appropriate Ethernet card
A Wireless PCMCIA card (I used an Lucent/Agere/Orinoco Gold card)
A Wireless Account at UVa (https://www.web.virginia.edu/mgmt/wire/notcisco.asp)

Configuration

UVA has a Cisco 802.11b wireless network that operates in two modes:

Cisco's proprietary LEAP system that works with only Cisco's Cards.
Open authentication which should work with any Wi-Fi card

I used the second mode which is unsupported by UVA's ITC for non-cisco cards, and not recommend by UVA.

Linux Configuration Example

Given that you have PCMCIA and wireless tools, you need only perform the following commands as root:

iwconfig eth0 essid wahoo mode managed ; pump

The software

Linux Wireless tools

Downloading and installing the Linux wireless software.

Make sure that you have completed the wireless account creation and your computer is connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable.
The important general Linux setup information is in Wireless LAN resources for Linux with the drivers at The devices, the drivers.

Specifically, I used a Lucent/Orinoco/Agere Gold 802.11b card, followed their instructions, and the instructions for the Orinoco PCMCIA card with the following entry in /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts:

# This worked at UVA with an Orinoco Gold card in Olsson hall
# activate with a "cardctl scheme uva"
uva,*,*,00:60:1D:*|*,*,*,00:02:2D:*)
  INFO="UVA settings"
  MODE="Managed"
  ESSID="wahoo"
  DHCP="y"
  ;;

If you'd like to forgo the /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts setup, you can do it from the command line:

iwconfig eth0 essid wahoo mode managed ; pump

The important configuration information about UVA's network is:

The Extended Service Set IDentifier (ESSID) is 'wahoo'
That it is a MODE="Managed" network that can shift cells as you move from one to the next, as long as they cells are on the same wired-segment
That DHCP service will set up your IP address.
And that UVA's access points will not work with MAC addresses that have not been entered into their wireless accounts database.

Switching between Secure and Open networks.

Since-Cisco 352 wireless PC cards use a proprietary login security scheme called LEAP authentication, a non Cisco card will always be open. You should use secure protocols anyway-- check out ssh and scp for network services that do not pass your open text password and information over even the wired network. (Recommend PuTTY and pscp to your windows friends.

For additional help, you could try emailing me David Forrest or you could call the ITC Help Desk at 924-3731, who will likely unhelpfully refer you to their pages

Good Luck,
David Forrest