Laptop won't recognize home router with Xubuntu
 

Okay, I thought I had resolved this one but apparently not. Something is screwy with my home router connection. I know the router is working fine because my desktop works with it, my cell phone, and my wife and daughter's laptops work too. It's just my Xubuntu laptop that has trouble getting online. It was working fine but just a few days ago, the router refused to recognize the encryption code. Even on my laptop I can see that it recognizes my router (as well as all of our neighbors'), but it just won't connect. I am connected now, but I've no idea what I did to make the magic work. Each time I shut down my laptop, it has trouble reconnecting. It has no problem connecting with a hotspot connection elsewhere. It's just at home that I have this problem. The solution is probably simple but I just don't know what it is.

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has on this. I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 and I have a Netgear router. Thank you!

Maybe flashing the router or resetting it would help-

Just a few ideas.

To reset mine I have to unbend a paperclip and depress the reset button.

Check in on your network/interfaces file-

In the past my wireless router wouldn't work no matter what I tried.
Come to find out the "Wired" connection was uncommented- As soon as I commented out the "Wired" argument with the (#) sign, my wireless worked!

http://www.ehow.com/how_5741338_flas...ss-router.html
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/setting...terfaces-file/
http://ubuntu.5.x6.nabble.com/defaul...td1732847.html

Hi, Not a cut and dry solution, but it may have something to do with dhcp(d).

Sometimes it happens here with different equipment.

I usually issue these commands ...

# if your net device is called eth0
# using a simpler "restart" service may not discover anything new, just retry with the old config.

The next thing I would suggest is giving addresses to all wired equipment (tv's, pc's, etc)

and leave the wireless devices to use dhcp to get an address.

Do you use the routers homepage as a dns and gateway address? (i.e. 10.0.0.138 or 192.168.0.100)

I appreciate these helpful replies but they are a bit technical for me.
Don't know what "flashing" the router means.
What does it mean to comment on the "wired" connection? All I'm dealing with is wireless.
My desktop is the only device in the house that uses a wired connection. Phones and laptops
(and tabs) are all wireless. What is "dhcp"
This has happened before (rarely) but it's never clear what needs to be done to resolve
the problem. Is this a bug in Xubuntu?

Flashing is a fancy word that basically means you will be erasing the contents of the firmware that has been loaded into a chip on your router ...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...7135433AARyef2

This is just an example the network/interfaces file has theses arguments:
#Wired connection dsl or ethernet
Wireless connection WiFi or hotspot

See the pound sign in front of the word 'Wired'--
If you open and edit that file and remove the pound sign than 'Wired' would work.
Bash ignors any comment or argument with a (#)sign in front of it.
If you have "Wireless" make sure it's not commented out-

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...erfaces.5.html

There is a chance, I was reading; that flashing it (router) could make it useless so you may want try what GlennsPref suggests first with the dhcp.
I am not good with dhcp sorry.

If it is a bug in Xubuntu you might find that confirmation in the Xubuntu forum or the launchpad.net website.
http://xubuntu.org/help/

So as far as practical actions to be taken, what is the best thing to try? I'm really at a loss here. I'm wondering if there is a way to do a clean boot with the router...we had electrical storms in our area last week and they may have caused the router to get fouled up. If I can start over somehow and reinstall the pass code, etc., that may solve the problem. It may be something altogether different, but for me it's easiest to start with something simple and then take it from there. I appreciate all this good input!

I would try resetting the router.

When I reset my router, I use the end of a paperclip to depress the reset button.

What router (make & Model)do you have?

If you could: tagwhsfg46541:kindly translate:-
I do not know Vietnamese otherwise I would help you: Sorry-

English is the prferred language spoken and written in this Linux Forum.

I've been out of town for a few days...My router is an at&t Netgear model 7550. I've had it just over a year. I don't see a place on it to insert a paperclip. I know what you're talking about, however, because my mp3 player has a reset button like that. It's very handy. What's weird is that every other device in the house works fine with the router. I hesitate calling the helpline at att&t because they go bonkers when you tell them you're using Linux! They want to make it sound like Linux is the problem ("We don't support Linux!") and I know Linux has nothing to do with this problem. The router is what's causing this.

Well, maybe not the router since it works with other devices in the house. Something is going on with my laptop that is not allowing it to "talk" with my router at home. As I said, if I take the laptop to any other wifi hotspot it works fine. So if there is a way I can reconfigure the laptop setting to work with my home router--as if I were setting it up for the first time--maybe that would do it. How would I do that? Thanks!

which version of xubuntu are you using?

That's odd: there should be a tiny button on the bottom or the back of your router.
But, I believe you. Try unplugging it and wait 30 seconds: proceed to set back up all over again- (providing unplugging it does the trick)
At&T IMO gets their feathers fluffed up over the littlest things. I know I had a long negotiation on the phone with them over the summer--

I'll look up the spec's on your Thinkpad and visit the Xubuntu Forum and see if anything is mentioned about Xubuntu having issues with netgear.
I'll try to find your router as well. I'll be back but it might take a while-;)

When you have time; Yuhan please answer dolphin_oracle on this:-

There are four different versions.

Saucy Salamander 13.10, until July 2014 ?
Raring Ringtail 13.04, until January 2014 ?
Quantal Quetzal 12.10, until April 2014 ?
Precise Pangolin 12.04 LTS, until April 2015 ?

Is this your router? It's wired:right?
http://www.att.com/equipment/accesso...urer=&q_model=

You may be able to Ad/Hock-
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...cturerModel%29

This might be the case I'm not sure-
I discovered that this modem/router was actually made by Westell..Just branded Netgear.
http://forums.att.com/t5/DSL-Routers...5#.UsYvlfiYPuQ

It may not be possible to flash that router because it was provided by a ISP and it might have something proprietary on it-
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...ear-7550.html#.

You mentioned that it works on all other devices in your house.
Are they Linux based or Windows?

One the specifications page for your Lenovo Thinkpad T400 I noticed that more than one NIC is mentioned and it's only "on select models"
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/deta...cID=MIGR-72190

The only way to know for sure is to run this cmd and see what wireless card you actually have--(if the kernel already recognized your card the driver would be listed in the output of the command lsmod

Okay, I did get the problem corrected...and by calling att! I just played dumb and described my problem as a laptop that was not detecting wireless connection. All that was required was to go into the router settings (through my desktop which is not wirelessly connected) and re-establish the router "name" and also the password setting for the router. For some unknown reason, this fundamental setting became corrupted and it was necessary to go in and set it up, as if for the first time. I've no idea how this happened. All I can figure...and this is total conjecture on my part...is that we occasionally get electrical storms and I'm wondering if this could have corrupted the router's wireless settings?

It turned out it wasn't just my laptop because my daughter got a new wireless phone for Christmas and she was having trouble getting it to sync with our home router. Once I established a new name and password, she and I both were able to log on with ease. I appreciate everyone's very considerable help with this but as it turned out my ISP service (miraculously!) got something right! Again, thank you all for your support and attention. A Happy New Year to everyone!