WLANMANAGER 0.6 README

INTRODUCTION

Wlanmanager was a scratch for a specific itch. I tried to find a program that
would allow me to connect to different wireless networks easily, without issuing
iwconfig commands manually. Although I could do it manually, I saw no point in
teaching my girlfriend to do the same. I tried several different utilities, but
for some reason none of the programs worked on my specific wlan adapter (SMC2635W with
a rt2400 chipset). In addition, none of the programs I managed to find were console
based, meaning that I would have to run X in order to connect to the Internet
via wlan. Although I usually do use X I don't like the idea that it is REQUIRED
to use X to be able to (easily) connect to wireless networks.

This version of wlanmanager DOES NOT support WPA. I'll fix this someday soon,
but as I use IPSec to secure my wlan traffic I'm just fine for now :).

TESTED CONFIGURATIONS

This version of wlanmanager is the first I release. It has proven to be very
reliable, and it has been tested on the following configurations:

Debian 4.0 Testing (etch), SMC2635W (cardbus, rt2400 chipset)
Debian 4.0 Testing (etch), TP-Link something (cardbus, Atheros chipset)
Ubuntu 6.06 (dapper drake), SMC2635W (cardbus, rt2400 chipset)

INSTALLATION

Unpack the .tar.bz2 archive somewhere. Change to that directory and issue "./wlan.sh"
and wlanmanager should install to $HOME/.wlanmanager and link the executable to
$HOME/bin. If the install fails, 99% of time the failure is caused by lack of permissions.

After wlanmanager is installed, edit the file "$HOME/.wlanmanager/environment.conf"
and change the INTERFACE variable to point to your wireless network interface. The
default (ath0) works if you have an Atheros-based card with Madwifi-drivers.

CREATING PROFILES

You can create profiles by copying the "Open_system"-profile, renaming it and editing 
it with a text editor. Just modify the parameters to suit your wireless environment. See
"man iwconfig" to see how the parameters should be formatted. Make sure that the new
profile file is executable; if not, issue a "chmod 700 your_profile_here". Make sure
that no-one else can read your profiles if they contain your encryption keys.

If you wish you can create s.c. extras-script that matches your new profile. This can
be useful in several cases. For example:

- if you want to disable your firewall when connected to your home wlan
- if you want to enable your firewall when connected to open wlan
- if you want to run "aptitude update" each time you connect to your home wlan

Just create a file into $HOME/.wlanmanager/extras that has the same name as your
profile. Add any commands you wish to that file and make sure that it's executable and
that's it.   

UNINSTALLING

If you mess up the $HOME/.wlanmanager directory or just want to get rid of wlanmanager,
issue "wlan.sh -u" or "wlan.sh --uninstall". If that does not work, then "cd $HOME/.wlanmanager"
and "./wlan.sh -u". You can of course remove that directory manually if you like
with "rm -rf $HOME/.wlanmanager".

After this you can probably try if it works for you. If you wish to modify
the program's preferences, edit environment.conf in wlanmanager directory. You
might also want to take a look at the wlan-0.6 script itself, even though I've
done my best to keep the program and it's preferences separate.

SELECTING LANGUAGE

There are two language files supplied: English and Finnish. The default is
English. If you wish to change the language to Finnish, edit the file
"$HOME/.wlanmanager/environment.conf" and replace the LANGUAGE="en" with
LANGUAGE="fi". The next time you start wlanmanager language will be Finnish.

CREATING NEW LANGUAGES

If you wish, you can create new languages easily. Just create a new file
that is based on an existing language file and save it to
$HOME/.wlanmanager/translations_XX.conf. "XX" can be anything, but you have
to use it as the value of LANGUAGE variable, which can be found from environment.conf.
Translating itself should be easy and takes maybe 5 minutes.