How to get a eeebuntu Asus to connect to XP Ad-Hoc network?
 

My wife's Asus 1000H is having massive HDD failure. I have loaded eeebuntu 3.0.1 onto a 4Gb USB flash drive and gotten it to work in booting the device. In looking for tools to run on the machine I ran into an issue with connecting to the internet. I have spent 12 hours searching numerous sites and forums and only found issues with wifi connectivity or wireless network connections, not specific ad-hoc to WinXP setup where the connection does work but Linux can connect but can't ping or connect beyond saying its connected to the network and passing and receiving packets (form itself I suspose)

Network is run through a Lenovo XP box, work PC, with internet connection sharing enabled. I have 1 other Toshiba XP laptop that connects fine to the internet. The Asus did connect fine, with Win XP. The Ad-Hoc is wireless and all is set manually.

I have 192.168.0.1 as the wireless IP on the Lenovo, its the DNS box. Subnet is 255.255.255.0. SSID is SingApt. Security is WEP with an 11 hex key. The two XP boxes can ping and "see" each other and both connect to the internet fine.

The Asus using the eeebuntu off the USB drive can see and even connect to the network, but can't ping, or be pinged, and can't access the internet. I have tried to ping it from both XP boxes and looking at the ifconfig found its broadcast is .225, can't ping that either.

When connecting eeebutu is asking for the key and defaults to WEP 40/128 which won't take the key, only the WEP 128bit will. In my manual setup it is set as follows:
Wireless: SSID - SingApt, Mode: Ad-hoc, all blank until MTU set to automatic.
Security: Always changes to WEP40/128 so I have to go in and change to WEP 128 and add in my key.
IP V4 settings: Mode set to manual, address is: 192.168.0.3 | 255.255.255.0 | 192.168.0.1 in the address, subnet, gateway fields. Gateway will blank out to all 0 for some reason at times. DNS is set to 192.168.0.1 and allow for all users is checked.

The Asus connects without any problem, just can't do anything after it connects. The gateway settings are suspect to me but not sure how to hard code that. I am looking to get it connected so I can find a good diag tool to see if the HDD is visible to the system or not (can't find it from eeebuntu but my only Linux experience are with Suse from 5 years ago and it could find all the systems and drives in my home lab. Any help would be great as I am on 2 weeks working vacation and hope to have my wife's netbook fixed or at least get a new HDD so I can restore it when I get home in April. Thanks.

a question: are you trying to see if the hard drive on the asus box works or are you trying to fix the network problem? when you say you can't see the hard drive, what do you mean? did you open file manager? something else?

if you are working on the network problem, first suggestion: simplify the situation. turn off encryption for the network and see if the asus box connects.

Thanks for the quick reply rignor. Actually I am trying to do both but am fairly convinced the HDD is toast, it makes a low beeping noise in a serires of 6 beeps and I get ATA1 SRST errors which would indicate the drive is inaccessible. I have been trying to get the box onto the internet so I could download a HDD tool to confirm my suspessions. I can't find the drive on file manager or when trying to mount it.

On the wireless front, I have disabled my Ad-hoc security and now the ASUS can't even connect. Before it would connect or state it was connected to the network but could not be pinged or ping out but was sending and receiving a lot of data. Now, with an unsecure network the ASUS can't even connect, just times out. Same setting but have disabled security. My WinXP boxes both can ping each other, both can access the internet, the host of course because it is wired, and the cliet over wireless has no issues with the connection. I am still seeing the gateway configuration blanks itself out on the IP4 manual configuration but as the PC can't join the network at all now its mostly useless.

The wired option, as a failed computer just trying to determine the extend of the damage, isn't that great as the room we are staying in charges $8 a day or $30 a month per computer for access, hense the Ad-hoc network to share the 1 connection and avoid the fees for the 4 computers we have and use (2 work computers and 2 personal computers). My wife has pretty much given up and we are flying home on Friday. I would still like to find an open source HDD tool like WD or Seagate have to confirm the drive is gone. Only other option I can think of is to serach and download onto one of the WinXP boxes and install it onto the USB flash. Was hoping there was a quick fix or setting I had overlooked unique to Linux or eeebuntu as my research has found netbook distrubutions aren't universal and wireless can be a pain to get working.

Back at home now, so I have deleted the Ad-Hoc from my work PC and it's registry as well as getting rid of the profile on my media laptop. Will try to see how the Asus fares now that I am at home and have some tools and stable network to work with, including wired network and dedicated router.

The wireless questions is now moot, but the HDD issue is still there. Looking at some boards I see the ATA1 SRST Failed messages don't necessarly mean a fried drive, but I still suspect it, and all its data is gone...

Issue Closed, no solutuion found
 

I have replaced the HDD in the Asus and as being at home there is no need to use Ad-hoc network anymore