Newbie questions on Linux wifi

I've got a Thinkpad X61s loaded with Debian sidux and am able to connect
to my wireless router AP. So my questions are, in effect, where do I go
from here?

a) I've got AT&T wireless service, and am told that when I happen to be
within a hotspot location, I should be able to scan for APs and identify
the AT&T netork as "attwifi". Is the procedure to head out to a hot
spot, scan for this attwifi AP, and then set up a profile for that
network? That is, I'd like to be able to connect with wifi from console
or terminal.

b) Will that one profile serve for all AT&T hotspots across the country?
Is there anyway to find out the location of hotspots without actually
being there? If I plan to travel to Podunk Hollow, for example, can I
know in advance there's a hotspot in Joe's Barber Shop?

c) I scanned for hotspots using a gui utility named "wifi-radar". Can I
do the same thing from command line? That is, what commands would be
used to 1) scan for hotspots, 2) define their profiles, c) connect to
one?

d) When I boot with a CAT5 cable connected to my router, I find that
eth0 is UP and obtains an IP address from it, while the wlan0 interface
is DOWN. To connect by wifi, I have to issue the commands # ifconfig
eth0 down and # ifconfig wlan0 up. This works, and I prefer a command
line, but not sure if this is the proper way to do it.

e) How would I reverse priority so that when I boot wlan0 starts in an
UP condition, and eth0 is down. Do I simply reverse the order of the
stanzas in /etc/network/interfaces ?

--

Haines Brown, KB1GRM

Following up on myself, After a couple days spent doing it, I've managed
to answer most of my questions, although my answers remain tentative and
were picked up by accident as I stubmled about in the dark. Life would
have been easier had I known of a handy source for the definitions of
key terms and concepts and had found a simple overview.

My only remaining question:

> Is there anyway to find out the location of hotspots without actually
> being there? If I plan to travel to Podunk Hollow, for example, can I
> know in advance there's a hotspot in Joe's Barber Shop?

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Haines Brown, KB1GRM

Haines Brown wrote:
>> Is there anyway to find out the location of hotspots without actually
>> being there? If I plan to travel to Podunk Hollow, for example, can I
>> know in advance there's a hotspot in Joe's Barber Shop?

Not really. Any centralized list would require the hotspot provider to
put themselves on the list. And there could be many non-related lists.

Now commercial hotspots likes McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. can be found
on their respective home pages.

DTC <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

> Now commercial hotspots likes McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. can be found
> on their respective home pages.

That's actually a helpful reply, for I never suspected such. Thanks.

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Haines Brown, KB1GRM

Haines Brown <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > Is there anyway to find out the location of hotspots without actually
> > being there? If I plan to travel to Podunk Hollow, for example, can I
> > know in advance there's a hotspot in Joe's Barber Shop?

You might try a google search for
hotspot "Podunk Hollow"
Quite effective. A more structured approach might include
http://jiwire.com which has a lot of spots, and any spot can list
themselves there.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

Clarence, thanks for the information. I spent some time yesterday just
stumbling about on line, and slowly a picture is beginning to
emerge. There's no system for finding free hotspots, but with
persistence it seems one can identify most of them at a remote place.

In experimenting with a search for "Podunk hotspot" (no hits for
"'Podunk Hollow' hotspot" ;-), came to realize there are "hotspot
directory" list such as http://safari.oreilly.com/0789733277/app02. A
search for "hotspot directory" on google brings up quite a few
directories of hotspot listings.

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Haines Brown, KB1GRM