Second NIC (wireless) for Internet

[OldManRiver]

All,

I have the standard wired LAN NIC and a wireless NIC installed.

What my problem is, the wireless NIC will not take any internet traffic. The LAN connection gets it's internet from my LAPTOP with a Clear 4G module. I have a very strong wireless connection, but when I remove the LAPTOP from the network, I get nothing on my Ubuntu computer here, even though I have a solid connection.

What is needed in the config to let the wireless run in the "back up" internet connection mode?

All help appreciated!

Thanks!

OMR

[OldManRiver]

Can I get some help here?

[P4man]

I dont understand the question
Your laptop has a 4G connection that you share through an ethernet cable with your desktop? And what is the wifi (?) card of the desktop supposed to connect to?

[OldManRiver]

I dont understand the question
Your laptop has a 4G connection that you share through an ethernet cable with your desktop? And what is the wifi (?) card of the desktop supposed to connect to?

The DT connect via regular LinkSys wifi card, and connection is good but it is like DNS is disabled.

Since the primary internet is on "Auto eth0" when the laptop is removed the "Auto wifi" even though connected with solid connection, does not ping or see any internet traffic.

[P4man]

I still dont understand. Can you just explain the setup? What machine is connected to what through what means?

[grahammechanical]

Am I correct in thinking that the

Clear 4G module

is a wireless adapter that acts like a mobile telephone to connect to the Internet? If I am correct then you will need a second Clear 4G module to plug into your desktop computer so it can access your mobile service provider. The standard wireless adapter does not work on mobile phone frequencies.

If you have a modem/router that plugs into the telephone line and you have a subscription to an Internet Service Provider and the modem has wireless then you will need to left click the network manager icon and select your wireless network from those available and authenticate the connection. If this connection is set to connect automatically, then when you unplug the laptop from the ethernet cable the wireless device in the computer will carry the connection to the Internet.

I am connected by ethernet cable to my modem. I am also connected to by wireless. If I unplug the cable I will still have a connection through wireless.

If none of this is relevant, then I am like p4man - I do not understand.

Regards.

[OldManRiver]

Am I correct in thinking that the is a wireless adapter that acts like a mobile telephone to connect to the Internet? If I am correct then you will need a second Clear 4G module to plug into your desktop computer so it can access your mobile service provider. The standard wireless adapter does not work on mobile phone frequencies.

Yeah I realize that most of the World does not know what "Clear" is. Clear is a service from "Clearwire Holdings" the company that Craig McCaw (Mr Cell phone that built and sold the 4 celluar networks to 1. AT&T, 2. Verizon, 3. Sprint, 4. T-Mobile) built with Bill Gates. After Gates left MS 15 years ago (still has board position only), he and Craig bought NexTel, out of bankruptcy, made it profitable, added "Turn-by-turn" GPS, using Teldesic (another McCaw acquisition, that investors labeled his "Edsel"), then sold NexTel to Sprint. McCaw sold off Teldesic seperately after gaining all the contracts for Garmin and other GPS direction services that you now enjoy.

They next bought Clearwire (then an Arlington, TX company) moved it to Redmond, WA developed the 4G data only technology and now have implemented it in some of the select larger cities.

You can read about Clear at:

http://www.clear.com/

Anyway since is totally mobile, as I have the USB adapter seen at:

http://www.clear.com/support/download/device/usb-modem

which lets me use the laptop anywhere there is coverage (see their coverage map).

What I found is that I can use the Ubuntu box, as I am now, with eth0 disconnected, over the wireless just fine, but can not connect any to the shared resources, that are on the LAN, since eth0 is down.

When I enable eth0 then I must have the Clear USB dongle inserted as the DNS from the wireless is somehow de-activated by the use of or the presense of the eth0 connection.

I do not want the DNS from the wireless to be overwritten by the eth0, but want both DNS setting to be searched, like in "least cost routing", so that if the eth0, does not have either the laptop attached, or laptop attached with the "Clear" dongle removed, that I will still have an internet connection via DNS from the wireless, as that is always there.

Oh for those that are curious the wireless is a D-Link wireless card running the Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter driver/software which is working fine.

Hope this explains all this better.

Sorry about the history lesson. Been and insider for 35 years.

Thanks!

OMR

[P4man]

Ah, that explains a bit. So you have a wireless connection for the internet, and a wired one to connect the LAN. Have you configured any static routes? Im not specialist, but you will need one for the LAN. Something like

route add -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev eth0

Obviously replace the IP range with the one of your LAN and eth0 with the adapter you use to connect to it. Then make sure the default route is to the internet, using the appropriate NIC. You can check the routing table with

route

You can also modify (and read for a lot of info)

/etc/network/interfaces

[OldManRiver]

All,

I read the interfaces file which has:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

If possible I still want Auto DNS, not static, for the IPs to the two NICs, but since I do not see the wireless in the file, think that is where the problem originates.

I added "auto eth0" to the file, but not sure what to call the wireless. Will run "lshw" to try for a clue.

Input please!

Thanks!

OMR

[OldManRiver]

Ok,

Running lshw found the name for the wireless was wlan0, so added "auto wlan0" to the file.

Now restarting networking to see if it works.

I tried using the "route add" syntax, but they error, and on restart with the new text in the intefaces file, I also get errors.

Code is now:

auto eth0
auto wlan0
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

and error on restart are:

Ignoring unknown interface eth0=eth0.
Ignoring unknown interface wlan0=wlan0.

What next?

OMR