[Tfug] Anybody try "wicd" as a replacement for Network Manager?

[Ryan Cresawn]

On Nov 8, 2007 10:09 PM, andy <andyjones at cox.net> wrote:
> I have the same Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 and now I'm having problems
> again with the wifi not connecting. It will connect via cable, but not
> with wifi.  It defaults to 'wext', and I noticed you used the supplicant
> 'ipw', I tried it and no difference.  What's the difference? Any other
> suggestions?  It was working fine until I shut it down and restarted.

So far my Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 has dropped my connection on a daily
or more than once a day basis when using Network Manager.  I switched
to Wicd and it did not drop the connection for a couple days so I
briefly thought things were fixed; however, last night my connection
was dropped with Wicd.

There are many drivers available for this Wi-Fi card.  I think these
are all of them:

ipw3945 - http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/
-----------------------------------------------------
This driver is open source except for the firmware which is uploaded
to the card when the driver is loaded.  I believe this has to do with
FCC compliance and the proper assignment of blame if someone is able
to program the card to work outside of the permitted frequency range.
I believe this is the driver included and used with Ubuntu 7.10 by
default.  I believe Wicd identifies this as "ipw" because there are
several drivers which begin with "ipw".

iwlwifi - http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/
--------------------------------------------------
This driver is open source and probably has the same closed firmware
issue as the above driver.  I believe this driver is an attempt by
Intel to use a code base suitable to both the 3945 and 4965 cards
rather than making a separate driver for the 4965.  This driver
appears to be newer than the ipw3945 driver.  I don't believe this
driver is included in Ubuntu 7.10, but it will probably replace
ipw3945 in future releases of Ubuntu.

ndiswrapper - http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2259
--------------------------------------------------
This is a wrapper program that permits the use of the Intel
PRO/Wireless 3945 driver for Windows.  I have not used this solution
but wonder if it might work better than their other solutions.  I bet
that Intel tests their Windows drivers more than those they write for
Linux.

I'm not sure where to go with this discussion.  One thing we could do
is submit a bug for Gutsy or start a wiki page for Gutsy to try to
consolidate all our observations and testing.

Finally, there's one other oddity worth mentioning.  A friend of mine
named Ben has this same card and he was having problems staying
connected to a fairly new Linksys router—one that supports N.  He
concluded that the router was the problem and replaced it with a
D-Link.  Since that time his connection has been completely stable.  I
have a Linksys WRT54G v2.  I use the Tomato firmware on my router.
What router and firmware do you use?  Also which channel do you use?
I use 11 because most everyone else in my neighborhood uses 6 and no
one but me uses 11.

Ryan