I am completely new to Linux and just made a live CD of Linux mint and put it on a dell box. I also just got a linksys wmp54g v4.1 wireless pci adapter and plugged it in. I have verizon fios and the wireless router is an actiontec m1424wr It worked fine on xp before I switched over. I downloaded the windows driver and ran it through ndiswrapper. That worked and it realizes that the hardware is present. What do I do now?

Thanks for your help.

What exactly is the problem in trying to connect? Please post the output of these commands:

ndiswrapper -l
/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up

Have you utilized one of the many linux wireless configuration utilities to set your wireless network SSID and WEP/WPA key properly? Please reply so we can help you with your problem!

casey@casey-computer:~$ ndiswrapper -l
rt61 : driver installed
device (1814:0301) present (alternate driver: rt61pci)

casey@casey-computer:~$ /sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Permission denied
casey@casey-computer:~$ sudo /sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
[sudo] password for casey:
casey@casey-computer:~$ sudo /sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
casey@casey-computer:~$

and no I don't think I have downloaded anything, I just followed a tutorial and it gave me a list of things to pick from the package manager. So I'm not really sure what I got. Here is the website. http://www.howtoforge.com/desktop-in...int-4.0-daryna

Thanks again for your help

Okay great! Your hardware is working properly. Now in order to get to your internet wirelessly you need to configure your network manager. What window manager/desktop environment are you in (i.e. KDE, GNOME)?

If KDE, find KWiFiManager in your K menu (start menu) and use it to configure the network using your router's SSID (the name of the network) and the encryption key. Make sure that you use the proper encryption mode (if your router is spouting out things in WPA, you want to use WPA to decrypt them) and that you set everything exactly the same on both sides.

If in GNOME, there should be a utility called NetworkManager that does the same thing I believe. I'm no expert on GNOME so take a look around. Once you find the utility that is handling your network interfaces, then configure the network and you should be off to the races! Please let us know how it goes

ok well I tried what you said and it didn't work. I had read about wifi-radar so I downloaded that and it worked, picked up my network, and I got onto it. But I still can't get onto the internet, do you have any ideas of what I can do now?

So you're onto the local network of your home and connected to your router? If you still can't get to the internet then the problem lies with your router. The best way to remedy this situation is to go to your router's web configuration utility (if you're on the network then just type your router's internal IP into a web browser, its usually something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254) and make sure that your router is properly configured to route your network to the internet. Do you have some sort of modem that connects between the fios line and the router? There could be some issues in hardware conflicts if this is the case.

So, please post: Your modem (if any) and what the current internet routing settings are for your router. These should be along the lines of IP mode (DHCP or whatnot) and if it is set to be a gateway or just a router, etc.

I can't use the web configuration tool because I don't get internet. And there aren't any issues with the hardware because on xp I had no problem getting onto the internet. And no I don't have any modem.

I'm sorry, I must have misled you on the web configuration part. The router's web configuration is only availabe on your local network, i.e. you being connected to the router itself via an ethernet cable or wirelessly if you can get it that way. The best way to do it is to connect your comp with a cable to the router. If you do that and get an IP address, use your web browser to get to the config. Having internet access is inconsequential since the router's web config is stored on the hardware, not on some server way out in internet-land.