# The &kwlan; Handbook

Thomas Michel

    tom.michel@arcor.de

1999
2007
Thomas Michel
&FDLNotice;
2007-02-24
0.6.1

&kwlan; is a network manager for KDE. It allows you to configure wireless networks as well as wired networks and dialup networks.

KDE
Kwlan
network
dialup
wpa
wireless

## Introduction

&kwlan; is a simple gui to connect to various networks. It uses profiles to define multiple networks per interface.

Profiles allow you to preconfigure dhcp, encryption and other settings. You can configure profiles for your home network, your network at work and so on.

## Using &kwlan;

### &kwlan; systray icons

KWlan consist of a main window and several systray icons. The systray icon represent your networking devices, you can configure which interfaces show up in the tray win. If no interface icon is to be shown, the &kwlan; main window's icon appears. The following screenshots show the icons for a wired interface, a wireless interface and a dialup interface.

The &kwlan; systray icons The &kwlan; systray icons

### The &kwlan; main window

If you did not configure &kwlan; to start minimized (discussed later in the File Menu section), you will see the following window appear upon startup:

The &kwlan; main window
The &kwlan; main window

The window contains to tabs: The Local networks tab and the Dialup networks tab

In the Local networks tab you can define different profilesfor your network interface. Each network interface has it's own profiles, you see them when you select the interface in the interface drop down box.

The Dialup networks tab allows you to configure dialup networks such as modem, isdn or dsl connections.

## Working with profiles

### About profiles

Profiles are used to configure your network interface for different locations or networks. Profiles contain:

- Ip address

- DNS settings

- Scripts to start at connect / disconnect

- Encryption settings

You can, for example, configure a profile for your wireless network at home, for a wireless hotspot or for the wireless network at work.

### Configuring profiles

To configure a profile, select either right-click the interface icon you want to configure the profile for and select

Profiles Edit profiles

  Opens the profile editor.

or open &kwlan;'s main window, select the profiles tab and select the interface you want to configure. Now you can choose to add, edit or delete a profile.

The profile configuration dialog
The profile configuration dialog

On the security tab, you can define the security settings for your network if wpa_supplicant is started for your interface. Otherwise, you can only configure unencrypted networks.

Profile name / ssid: On wireless networks, the profile name is equal to the ssid. This cannot be changed later, so make sure you type in the correct ssid here.

The profile configuration dialog - IP settings
The profile configuration dialog - IP settings

On the IP settings tab, you can configure the ip address and default gateway for your interface or decide to use dhcp.

If you use a static ip address and select "Do not override existing default gatway", an existing default gateway is not overwritten when &kwlan; configures the interface. This is usefull if you want this interface only to connect to a local network while another interface connects you to the outside world.

The profile configuration dialog - dns settings
The profile configuration dialog - dns settings

Here you can configure your dns settings. If you use dhcp, you usually don't need to type in anything here. You can, however override the dhcp-given dns settings or add a custom searchlist. If you do a lookup for a host, all dns suffixes in the order of the list are appended to find the correct host. For example, if your searchlist contains foo.bar.com and bar.com and you look for somehost, it will be resolved to somehost.foo.bar.com or to somehost.bar.com. This is usefull if you are using multiple domains in your environment.

The profile configuration dialog - script settings
The profile configuration dialog - script settings

If you need a script to be started after successfull connection or before disconnection, this is the right place to define it. You could, for example, connect to a vpn network as soon as you have a connection established.

If you select to use root rights, you will be prompted for the root password (or your password, if you use sudo) to start the script.

## Working with dialup networks

### About dialup networks

Dialup networks allow you to connect to remote networks like the Internet or the network at your working place.

They can make use of different mediums like analogue lines, isdn lines or broadband (dsl) connections - or even wireless connections like UMTS.

To configure dialup networks open the &kwlan; main window and select the dialup network tab.

### Configuring Dialup networks

From the &kwlan; main window select the dialup network tab and choose to edit or add a dialup network.

The dialup network settings dialog - connection settings
The dialup network settings dialog - connection settings

Here you can configure all neccessary settings to connect to a dialup network.

In the modem init string, you can type in special commands to configure your modem. If you need to use special characters like ", you need to escape them, i.e. \42 for ". Depending on the connection type you choose, not all fields may be available.

Be aware that the password is stored in plain text in the configuration file if you choose to remember it!

The dialup network configuration dialog - script settings
The dialup network configuration dialog - script settings

If you need a script to be started after successfull connection or before disconnection, this is the right place to define it. You could, for example, connect to a vpn network as soon as you have a connection established.

If you select to use root rights, you will be prompted for the root password (or your password, if you use sudo) to start the script.

## Command Reference

### The &kwlan; main window

Here's a screenshot of &kwlan; main window
KWlan main window

#### The File Menu

File Settings

  Opens the settings dialog

  The settings window

  - Start Minimized:

    When selected, Kwlan will start minimized, showing only systray icons.

  - Enable New Interface found wizzard:

    When selected, a wizzard is started to configure a newly discovered interface.

  - Enable WPA not started warning:

    When selected, a warning is displayed when configuring a network profile telling you you cannot configure encrypted networks.

  - Enable No dialup user warning:

    When selected, a warning is displayed if the logged-on user is not a member of the dialup group and therefore cannot use dialup networking.

  - Show only available profiles in profile selection:

    When selected, only those profiles are shown that are currently available. If hidden SSIDs are used, they may not show up if this checkbox is checked. In this case, disable this setting.

File Quit

  Quits &kwlan;

#### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

### The main window icon's context menu

&kwlan; main window systray context menu

#### Monitor interfaces

Here you can select which interfaces should be monitored. This affects only the display of the icons in the systray. You can still change profiles for an unmonitored interface from &kwlan;'s main window.

#### Configure interfaces

Here you can select which interfaces should be configured by &kwlan;. This does not affect the display of the icons in the systray. You can still monitor the interface statistic and configuration. However, &kwlan; will not try to configure the interface. All configuration menus and buttons for this interface will be disabled.

#### Settings

Displays &kwlan;'s settings window.

#### Quit

Quits &kwlan;.

### The interface icon's context menu

#### The Profiles Menu

Profiles Edit profiles

  Opens the profile editor.

Profiles Scan

  Scans for available wireless networks (only available for wireless interfaces).

#### The WPA Menu

WPA Start WPA supplicant

  Opens the start WPA supplicant dialog.

  Start wpa_supplicant dialog
  Start wpa_supplicant dialog

  Select the appropriate driver for your interface and click on Start.

WPA Stop WPA supplicant

  Stops the wpa supplicant for this interface.

WPA Log Viewer

  Shows the log messages wpa supplicant produces for this interface.

WPA Settings

  Shows the wpa supplicant settings for this interface.

  Wpa supplicant settings dialog
  Wpa supplicant settings dialog

  If you select "Start wpa supplicant at startup", &kwlan; will start the wpa supplicant for this interface if it is not already started; if you select "No confirmation dialog", Kwlan will use the driver that has been used the last time wpa supplicant was started by &kwlan;.

  If you select to use a custum wpa supplicant configuration file, you can select it using the browse ("...") button. Usually, &kwlan; uses it's own configuration files for wpa supplicant for each interface. If you want to specify another file (usually /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf), you can do so here.

  You can configure the value wpa_supplicant uses for access point scanning. Depending on your wireless interface, this may improve handling hidden SSIDs. The default value is one, you may change it to two if you have problems connecting to hidden SSIDs.

## Questions and Answers

&reporting.bugs; &updating.documentation;

I don't want so many systray icons. Can I disable the interface icons?

Right-click any of Kwlan's systray icons and select Monitor interfaces.

Why are all buttons on the dialup tab greyed out?

You are not in the dialup group and therefore not allowed to start dialup connecitons. Ask your administrator to assign you the appropriate permissions.

What programs does a user need to able to run using sudo?

You need to be able to run networking relevant commands like dhclient, ifconfig, iwconfig, route and wpa_supplicant.

I can't see all my configured profiles in the Profile Activation menu, but in the main window they are listed?

In the main settings there is an option to show only available networks in profile activation. If you disable this setting, all profiles are shown.

## Credits and License

&kwlan;

Program copyright 2007 Thomas Michel tom.michel@arcor.de

Documentation copyright 2006 Thomas Michel tom.michel@arcor.de

&underFDL;

&underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kwlan;

&kwlan; can be found on The &kwlan; home page.

### Requirements

In order to successfully use &kwlan;, you need &kde; a kernel that supports the /sys/class filesystem. wpa_supplican is required in order to connect to encrypted networks.

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;