Monday, November 10, 2008

Configuring wireless USB with Ubuntu - Trendnet TEW 424UB

I recently built a new Ubuntu box and would like to use my wireless USB network card... it was "fun" trying to get it to work... below is what I did in order to get it to work "finally". I have Trendnet TEW-424UB H/W 3.1R

Install Linux USB Driver
  1. Option 1:
    • Download driver from http://ndiswrapper.sf.net/
    • Unzip the downloaded file to $NDIS (i.e $HOME/ndiswrapper/)
    • Go to unzip loaction $NDIS(i.e cd $HOME/ndiswrapper/)
    • Run "make ninstall"
  2. Option 2:
    • Run "sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common" command

Download Trendnet driver
  • Go to http://downloads.trendnet.com/ and look correct driver http://downloads.trendnet.com/TEW-424UB_v3_1R/Utility_Driver_TEW-424UB(v3).zip
  • Unzip the downloaded file to $TN_TEW (i.e $HOME/tn-tew)
  • Copy files from $TN_TEW/Driver/Win2KXP to $NDIS/utils
  • Go to $NDIS/utils location and type "ndiswrapper -i net8187b.inf"
  • Type "modprobe ndiswrapper" command
  • Run "sudo iwconfig" command and look for wlan0 related info

From the menu
  • Select System | Preferences | Network Configuration
  • Select Wireless tab
  • Enter SSID


To get system information
  • Run "sudo lsusb" command and look for wireless network card info
  • Run "sudo iwconfig" command and look for wlan0 related info

Notes:
  • /sbin/iw* command
  • /usr/bin/lsusb
  • /usr/sbin/lsusb

References
Here are some of the sites I've read in order to get my USB network card working with the instructions above
  • http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/ndis-yum-livna
  • http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-109799.html
  • http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=155416
  • http://answers.yahoo.com.au/question/index?qid=20080626221516AAjHqRn