# Horribly confused; how do i get wireless working?



## curses (Nov 20, 2009)

I'm terribly sorry for asking what might seem like an obvious question, but I need to get my wireless internet connection as soon as possible. I'm running 7.2 release. I'm reading (or trying to read) a bunch of manuals and manpages and not understanding any of it. 
My computer definitely sees the wireless card. It tells me this with ifconfig:


```
ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 00:23:6c:7b:a2:06
        inet6 fe80::223:6cff:fe7b:a206%ath0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 192.168.0.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/1Mbps)
        status: no carrier
        ssid "" channel 1 (2412 Mhz 11g)
        authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 31.5 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60 bgscan
        bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11g 7 roam:rate11g 5
        protmode CTS burst
```

Do I have to recompile my kernel or load some special driver or module to make my connection work? I am so confused. If you won't answer, could you at least point me to something related in the handbook or on another website?


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## anomie (Nov 21, 2009)

Have a look through the entire 31.3 Wireless Networking section, and try to get things up and running. 

If you're still having issues, please describe exactly what you tried, and what happened.


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