Please help. I have been reading threads and troubleshooting for hours with no progress. Downloaded Ubuntu 12.04. this is the only OS on the laptop. when I select Firefox I receive error message "firefox cant find server at start.ubuntu.com." I can access any page with its IP address but not by using its web address (for example www.google.com would not work, but the IP address would bring me to google).I can get into the terminal, but so far have been unsuccessful.

It sounds like name resolution is not working. /etc/resolv.conf is the file which specifies the IP addresses for the servers which are going to provide name resolution for you. How this file gets populated with addresses that will work properly for you is system and "application" dependent, and you haven't given enough details in your post for me to know where to begin to troubleshoot this. For me, dhcp (or dhclient, or some app like that) is what sets this up, in the process of obtaining an ip address from my router. This is the avenue you should start looking at. I tend to use more manual methods, so if you're using networkmanager, or something like that, i don't know the specifics.

Are you using DHCP or static IP?

Are you using wireless or a wired connection?

Bring up aterminal and type And what did you get?

sorry. I wasn't sure what info to post. I am using DHCP.
when i go to terminal and type ping yahoo.com i get a ping response: ping:unknown host yahoo.com

check your dns settings

/etc/resolv.conf

I tyoed /etc/resolv.conf and I got a message that permission denied

Do you have any idea why my permission is denied? I am the only person on this computer and I used my password to open the computer without any problem.

type

Use sudo to get access. Also, have a look in this page. You'll find helpful resources, and you can change your DNs to Google OpenDNS if you want: http://j.mp/VcSKQr

Below are the necessary parts from the link above for convenience.

I entered cat /etc/resolv.conf and it says
#Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
#DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 127.0.0.1
search Belkin

ok. guess everyone got busy. plan B. Can anyone tell me how to uninstall Ubuntu? I give up with this OS.

did you have the internet connected this computer when you installed the OS?

Was it a wired connection?

Sorry, you are stuck with it forever. (No, not really.)

Try editing that /etc/resolv.conf file and add a line that reads
nameserver 8.8.8.8
and see what happens.

For some reason your DHCP client is not serving up that information properly. You can address that on your router or firewall that acts as your DHCP server, or force a value on yoru client. My line above is just temperary to verify that somethign like this would fix the problem. Give it a try and let us know how it works.

When you type the name of a file like that, the shell tries to execute it like a program. That file is not a program though, it doesn't have execute permissions, which is why it said "permission denied". You need to either dump the contents of the file to the terminal with "cat", or open the file with a text editor.

---------- Post added 10-02-12 at 05:16 PM ----------

The computer doesn't have a DNS server listed, likely because the router didn't tell it one. As wpeckham said, add a line to that file that says "nameserver 8.8.8.8" and it should fix the problem.

Sorry for not being there, couldn't catch up. Did the OP resolve the issue?