I have a wireless network and when I turn on my XP laptop it automatically connects to my network with no problem. When I boot up my Linspire laptop no connection unless I unplug my DSL modem and plug it back in and then with in a few seconds I am on the internet. Anyone have any thoughts on why this might be?

Could you provide a bit more detail on how your laptop is connected to your DSL modem? Based on what you've written here I'm not sure we could take a decent guess.

I have a dsl modem and router with a wireless access point. I have two laptops setup with wireless cards. One is an XP and one is Linspire 4.5. The XP connects to the wireless network with no problem. The Linspire will only connect to the internet if you unplug and plug back in the dsl modem. No matter what you do the Linspire laptop shows perfect network signal strength, recognizes my network, but will not connect to the internet unless you unplug and replug in the DSL Modem.

That is seriously strange, and I suspect that messing with the DSL modem is causing something on the router/AP to reset and THAT is what is allowing you to connect. OK, here is a test to try. Fire up the Linspire box but DON'T reset the DSL modem. Open up a console and have a look at the outputs of ifconfig, iwconfig, route -n and the contents of your /etc/resolv.conf file. Now do the unplug/replug with the DSL modem and then do the same with the console commands. With any luck we should be able to spot what is changing on your Linspire box and find a more elegant solution than rebooting your DSL modem.

By the way, if you don't know about redirection, now is the time to learn. It is easy to save the outputs of the console commands by using >. So the command

ifconfig > ifconfig.txt

Will save the output of the ifconfig command in the file ifconfig.txt.

I am not sure I totally understand your instructions. I am new to the lInux console. I will see what I can do.

If you run into trouble, post back and I'll try to give you more exact instructions.

I am sorry, but I would really like some more detail if its not too much trouble.
Thank You,
Stewill

OK, boot up your computer but don't mess with the DSL modem just yet. Then open up a console and become root by using su - (don't forget the -). Once you're root, run the following commands:

ifconfig >ifconfig1.txt
iwconfig >iwconfig1.txt
route -n > route1.txt
cp /etc/resolv.conf resolv1.conf

That will create text files with the outputs of those commands and will tell us the state of your wireless conncetion when it doesn't work.

Now go ahead and reboot your DSL modem and get the wireless card to work. Then (again as root) use the same commands as above, only save the output to different files. That will give us the state of your card and network after it works. If you compare the before and after files, hopefully something will jump out. If you need another set of eyes, post the outputs here and we'll take a look.

Ok Thank you very much, I will try to give it a shot tonight. Again Thank you for your help.

tewill:~# ifconfig >ifconfig1.txt
Stewill:~# iwconfig >iwconfig1.txt
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

Stewill:~# route -n > route1.txt
Stewill:~# cp /etc/resolv.conf resolv1.conf
Stewill:~#
ewill:~# ifconfig >ifconfig1.txt
Stewill:~# iwconfig >iwconfig1.txt
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

Stewill:~# route -n > route1.txt
Stewill:~# cp /etc/resolv.conf resolv1.conf
Stewill:~#
As you can see they are both the same. Where do I go from here?

You and I are definitely not on the same wavelength here. What I'm trying to get to happen here is for you to be able to show the state of your computer when the wireless card is not working, and then to show it again when the card is working. The reason I suggested using the redirection (the >) is that it would allow you to save the output of console commands into a file. However, by running exactly the same command twice, you overwrite the old information.

So the first time you run iwconfig > iwconfig1.txt, the stuff that is normally displayed on the screen is instead saved in the text file called iwconfig1.txt. If you open that file in a text editor, you'll see the contents. Now what you've said is that when you reboot your DSL modem, your wireless card will then work. If you then run iwconfig >iwconfig2.txt, you can compare the output when the card is not working to when the card is working.

The reason I'm suggesting you do this is that there are quite a number of things that could be going wrong here, and I need some clues to point you in a direction.

OK, I think I see what you mean. I will try again tonight. Thanks for the patience.
stewill

I did what you suggested and both times it comes back no wireless interface found.

Now I'm really confused. When you reboot your DSL router, do you get a wireless connection or not? I was assuming that this always worked.

Yes, I was on the internet after I reset the modem and when i typed in the commands you gave me whether i was on the internet or not, it still came back no wireless found. I thought that was kind of weird.