Hi, please help Linux newbie who wants it to work! I've loaded Xubuntu 10.04 onto Dell Dimension LR800. All works, except Belkin USB wireless (which does work with XP). The Belkin is probably F5D7050v.4000.

In many ways it seems to work, but I can't actually get connection to web. I can see wireless networks, and it does spot my router (though for some reason only by checking hidden networks). I get message to say it's connected. But Firefox says it can't connect, and neither will updater.

I've been checking all sorts to make it work. In firefox I went into about:config and toggled IPv6. I checked the drivers and the firmware appears to be in place. Not sure if these are clues but on running thru the ubuntu wireless troubleshoot it some of the terminal resulted in wireless USB state is "disconnected", & "access point: not-associated"

Any solutions gratefully received but in English please!

i use zdyas wireless usb, it's cheap and work out of the box on most distros including xubuntu.

Thanks yooy, looked on Amazon but it wasn't clear which one would work. One claimed to but linux user siad it didn't in review. Anyone got ideas to get the Belkin working? It seems 95% there...

What kind of wireless network - managed or ad-hoc (i'm guessing managed as you say you can see your router).

Can you ping the router ip?

If so, then it maybe a routing issue where the packets don't know where to go, or a DNS issue.

Also what kind of encrpytion are you using? Are you using WPA and if so how is it handled, is it via wpa_supplicant or something else

I'm not familuar enough with ubuntu to advise on what it might be using, but this is generic advice.

What does ifconfig <device> and iwconfig <device> show?

Thanks djsmiley2k, I'll try to answer your questions but new to all this so may take me bit of time. I think the router is WPA (I've checked on another computer - Acer netbook running on Linpus lite) but as to how it's handled - ? Afraid I don't know how to ping the router - new to this! I'll run the ifconfig <device> and iwconfig <device> and let you know outcome...

senick - being new is no problem, if you dont understand something then just ask

for pinging your router you want to do:

Thanks again - appreciate the help! OK here's results from these tests:

ifconfig wlan1
wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:df:dd:96:db
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

iwconfig wlan1
wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementff

not sure I'm getting ping router correct. should I enter ip addreess, hardware adress etc? always get "unknown host router"

Right, from you ifconfig and iwconfig we can see the card appears to be working, just isn't connected to any hosts.

can you try:

and then see what iwconfig shows you

Also if your using WPA you'll need to look into setting up WPA_supplicant for handling the wpa keys for you (I'm not sure how to do this on ubuntu).

To ping the router, you'd use the IP

Infact, It might be easier if you get one of the tools for handling connecting to wireless networks such as network-manager or even the wpa_supplicant_gui

right,, i did iwconfig wlan1 essid thomson...(reference of the router) but got "SET failed on device wlan1 ; Operation not permitted"

and sorry to be dense - to ping the router, I'd use the IP number?

just closked your comment on network manager - think I've got this, tried nm-tool and got "state: disconnected" followed by details of all my neighbours' wifi...

maybe you need to edit the /etc/resolv.conf file and add this .

Thanks for advice but sorry - new to Linux. What are the exact steps? I don't know how to edit the file....

open up applications/accessories/terminal and enter the following
Sudo allows you to open the file /etc/resolv.conf with root privalages using the editor program gedit.

Good and linux friendly adapter:

http://pliki.interprojekt.pl/wiki/at...SB-HP-5DBI.jpg
works out of box on ubuntu&xubuntu&puppy
debian:no

from lsusb:Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0ace:1215 ZyDAS WLA-54L 802.11bg