Using the KWiFiManager suite
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Chapter 2. Using the KWiFiManager suite

The KWiFiManager application

Purpose of the main KWiFiManager application is to show the currently active network configuration and to display connection quality and access points.

The main application is launched by either typingkwifimanager at the command prompt of a console window or via the TDE Menu, where it is located by default in theApplications group. If KWiFiManager is already running but minimised to the system tray then it can be restored by clicking once on the system tray icon. If there is more than one wireless LAN card in your system, just open more than one instance of KWiFiManager: every instance will show information about a different card automatically. The GUI elements of the application are explained in the following subsections.

Main window

The KWiFiManager main window consists of five parts:

Signal quality display

Here you can see the quality and type of the active connection. The uppermost icon displays the general state of the wireless network via a set of pictograms:

  • a wireless LAN card with a question tag means that no card was detected or its state could not be determined

  • a single laptop means that a wireless LAN card is inserted and in Infrastructure mode, but there is no radio signal from access-points. The card is out of range and can not communicate to the infrastructure network.

  • a laptop that is connected to an access point means that a connection to an access point is established.

  • two laptops mean that your system is in Ad-Hoc mode without access points. It may or may not have established a Peer-to-Peer connection.

Below these pictograms is a small quality meter. It displays, in a cellular-like manner, the quality level of the current connection. This information is only available in Infrastructure mode. In Ad-Hoc mode, the level is always 0.

This graphical information is supplemented by an integer value below the icon. It shows the signal quality, and is computed in one of two ways:

  • a directly reported value from the card if the card supports “Quality” reporting

  • (signal strength in dBm) - (noise level in dBm) for cards that do not support that.

You can manually change the method used by turning File, Use alternate strength calculation on or off. Turning the option on means to use the second method. If your card is out of range, the value is 0; if no card is inserted or your card is in Ad-Hoc mode it will show N/A.

Connection speed

An indicator for the current connection speed is shown at the right-hand side of the main window above the configuration info. If the speed settings are set to AUTO, the value will change once in a while as the card adjusts the connection speed according to the signal quality. The scale of the bar graph will automatically adjust to up to 108 MBit/s when the current connection speed exceeds 11 MBit/s.

Current configuration

Here you can find information about your card configuration. It displays the following information:

  • the network with which the card is connected to / tries to connect to (Searching for network: or Connected to network:)

  • the MAC address of the access point to which the card is connected.

    If the card is in Infrastructure mode but out of range, an appropriate warning (- no access point -) is displayed to indicate that no connection is established.

    In Ad-Hoc mode, the field shows an address that is associated with one of the cards in the Ad-Hoc network. It displays a MAC address that has a non-global scope: its second bit is set to 1, which often results in a prefix of “02:” instead of “00:”. Many people think this is an error, but in fact it is done on purpose to show that the cell you are connected to is not an actual physical device, but rather an imaginary access point without a real physical address.

    Your card is the first card that enters Ad-Hoc mode with a given SSID. Then all other cards entering Ad-Hoc mode with the same SSID will see your MAC-address, slightly modified: instead of00:xx:yy:zz:aa:bb it will show02:xx:yy:zz:aa:bb. This behavior is intentional.

  • on most cards (those that have the capability to report it), the frequency on which the card is transmitting data and the corresponding channel number is displayed.

  • your local IP (version 4) address, if available. If no address could be retrieved from the networking subsystem, the word unavailable is displayed.

  • encryption status (only if you have started KWiFiManager asroot). The display will only show off or active, but never the real key. This is intentional in order to not reveal the WEP key to people passing by the users screen.

Access Point information (bottom area)

The last line of the main window shows information about your AccessPoint. This requires that your system administrator provided a list of MAC addresses with a corresponding information. An example for such a list can be found in$TDEDIR/share/apps/kwifimanager/locations/DE_BW_Karlsruhe_University.loc

If you want to set up a new list, simply create a file in the same format and copy it into the folder $TDEDIR/share/apps/kwifimanager/locations/

It will be automatically parsed at the next start of KWiFiManager. If you have a list and want to have it included in future releases of KWiFiManager, simply send it to the author or current maintainer.

Information about available networks

The lower-left area of the main window contains a button named Scan for networks.... If you click on this button, KWiFiManager will attempt to retrieve a list of all networks that are in range of your card. The outcome of this scan depends on two factors:

  • the overall ability of your card and driver to perform network scans

  • if you have root permissions or not

If your card or driver arent able to scan the network, your scanning results will always be empty. If you are not the root user, the list may be incomplete or outdated.

In order to receive a reliable, current list of access points you will need to start the scan with root privileges, for example by using the TDE su utility to start KWiFiManager

If at least one network was found, you are presented with a table showing details of the network. It has four columns that inform you about

  • the network name (or the string (hidden cell) if the name is not disclosed by the access point during the scan)

  • the type (whether is a Managed or an Ad-Hoc network)

  • the signal strength of the network

  • and whether or not WEP encryption is used

In case of an active WEP encryption, you can click on that column and enter the network key. KWiFiManager will automatically try to guess if the key is a hexadecimal number or a string.

If the network information for the highlighted network is complete (that is, all columns contain meaningful information), you can use the button Switch to network to enter the selected network. If KWiFiManager has no root privileges, you will be prompted with a password prompt to enter the root password in order to change the network.

Clicking on Close dismisses the network information screen without changes to the existing settings.

Statistics Viewer

Optionally, by selecting Connection statistics in the File menu, a separate window can be shown which displays the signal level and noise level graphs of the last 240 seconds. The signal level is displayed in blue and the noise level in red. The difference (SIGNAL minus NOISE) is the connection quality which is displayed in the main window.

Some cards do not report meaningful noise information. If this is the case for your card and you get annoyed by the irrelevant red line, you can disable showing the noise level in the statistics window by unselecting Config -> Show noise level in statistics in the KWiFiManager main window.

Configuration Editor

By selectingConfig->Configuration Editor you are taken to the control center module of KWiFiManager. In case you are not the root user, a window will pop up requesting the root password. This is because the configuration module allows you to change network connectivity und uses ifconfig to make changes, which requires root privileges.

Miscellaneous

There are some minor additional features worth of being mentioned.

Acoustic Scanning

First, there is a feature named Acoustic Scanning. If this option is enabled, the connection quality is converted into an acoustic signal. A higher signal quality leads to a higher frequency of the “beep” output and to a more rapid beeping. If you've ever seen the Star Trek(tm) series you will see some parallels to their “tricorders

Network logging

A second feature is network logging. It just means that KWiFiManager will log the name of the network you are connecting to every time your network changes. This option is most useful when searching for the special network name “any”. In this mode, the card will log into any network it finds. The logfile's position is $HOME/.trinity/share/apps/kwifimanager/wireless-log

Disabling the wireless network

You can completely disable the card by selecting the option File Disable radio. Using this option will turn off the cards transmitter which effectively turns it off and saves a little bit of energy. This will only work for your card if it accepts changes to its txpower property.

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