[YLUG] Interesting Networking Problem

[paul-listmonkey at pacem.plus.com]

On Tuesday 09 May 2006 01:18, Phillip Michael Jordan wrote:
> Paul Gibbs wrote:
> > On Monday 08 May 2006 22:06, Phillip Michael Jordan wrote:
> >> As others have pointed out, I think you shouldn't send the interfaces
> >> down before bridging. I think this messes with the wireless extensions
> >> in a way that dissociates you from the access point. brctl is unlikely
> >> to know about wireless cards, and even less about which SSID and WEP/WPA
> >> key to use, so you'll need to ensure the wireless card is associated.
> >
> > I have a bridge set-up at work. (Can't check it 'cos I'm off on paternity
> > leave ATM). But, IIRC the interfaces are bridged *before* the network is
> > bought up, and when you bring the network up you do it with "ifup br0".
> > The rest of the operating system then sees br0 as its single network
> > interface even though underneath it is running several network cards. All
> > further networking needs to be configured to use br0.
>
> I realise this, but I doubt br0 will have wireless extensions? The way I
> have understood it is that wireless settings are lower-level than
> ethernet packets, and therefore lower-level than the bridge setup?
> Setting the ESSID of a wired LAN doesn't make any sense, and it probably
> doesn't for a bridge either.

Ah, I see what your saying. Bringing up br0 also starts eth0 and eth1 or 
whatever it is a bridge of. I assume all the necessary configuration for the 
wi-fi connection is in the eth0 config file; hadn't considered that any wi-fi 
specific connection data would need to be passed to the br0 controller, and I 
guess we'll never find out now :-(

Incidentally, part of my assumption of it just working is based on the fact 
that my set-up works even without routes or IP addresses for the bridging 
machine.

Paul.<><

>
> ~phil
>
> --
> This email has been verified as Virus free
> Virus Protection and more available at http://www.plus.net