I am using the disk to try linux mint out. When it opened the window where I could type in the hidden ssid, it would not allow me to type any caps-or the caps came out lower case. My ssid has at least one capitalized letter.
I'm pretty sure I got the type of encryption correct.
Thus I could not connect to the secure network, and could not go online. So, I quit the disk.
any help would be appreciated, as I cannot use the o.s. until I can get on the network.
Jean

I'm pretty sure SSIDs are reduced to lower-case even if you use some upper-case characters when you type it in. It is always advised to try a visible SSID first, and when you get that working, then try hiding it. If you can't connect with the visible SSID, then you must make a fix. But first try typing in the SSID in lower-case, and see if it works.

What had popped up for me was the availability of a secure network (which was mine); I don't remember seeing that other networks were found from my neighborhood. Perhaps if I go to the network section I can try to find unsecure networks. Is there somewhere I should have also punched in that it is AES encryption? I did select WPA2 security.

are you sure that your wifi hardware is being recognized?
this is often a hurdle for linux beginners.
you should search their forums and i also remember they have a sort of wiki somewhere.

I think that the wireless network adapter must have been recognized by Mint, since it had a popup asking if I wanted to join the network, and it did try to connect; at this point, since supposedly it doesn't matter if it's upper or lower case, I am mystified as to what's wrong
Yes, I have a "beginner's guide", but it doesn't mention anything about the o.s. recognizing hardware or how to hop onto a network, etc.

If you are using the new version of Linux Mint 18, it does not come with the third party firmware you need for a wifi connection. I ran into the same problem myself. Since I don't have a wired ethernet connection, my only internet connection is wifi, I was unable to use Mint 18.

See my thread here.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...se-4175581941/

I like your username and welcome to the forum.

1 members found this post helpful.

well, I'm using mint 17.3; is that version okay with the hardware?

^ usually mint is very good with dealing with these restricted firmware and proprietary drivers.
if you're interested, inform yourself about it why a free & open source operating system cannot contain some software (drivers) for legal reasons.

that is not necessarily a wireless network, hence my asking if you are sure.

your defensive answers are not helping.

Yes 17.3 comes with everything you need. They only changed with the new Mint 18 "Sarah"
version.

thanks, offgridguy, including for your compliment.
ondoho, can you tell me how you found my answers to be defensive? I certainly did not feel defensive or any negative emotions.
One thing I can clarfy: I just realized that the network I need to hop onto is our local area network, set up wirelessly thru a wireless router. But I'm getting the impression that there is something technical I must do, in Mint, to get the o.s. to recognise the hardware. I tried finding it in the wikianswers, but it didn't include instructions for Mint, and I felt overwhelmed trying to understand what must be done.
But what confuses me more is that I have an older xp machine installed with Linux 15 on which I just installed an old wireless dongle, and was easily able to hop onto the network, and it now happily accesses the internet.
What gives?