I now have a mobile broadband connection~ I find the linux distros very challenging to connect to this internet connection ~ have tried with fedora, with Mx AntiX, Mageia~ with all of these distros unlike windows there doesn't appear to be a click pop-up box or similar to actually choose that connection by clicking it, or something similarly simple.

You should not multi-post. Have you read the forum rules?

The lat time I used Fedora was a couple of years ago, but WIFI was easy then. I use Debian, CentOS, Sparky, Mint, Puppy, and TinyCore these days, and WIFI is not well supported on some Puppy rolls or in TinyCore: the others all made it easy.

EXCEPT if your WIFI chipset is Broadcom, then you need to get the right package installed. The hardware people seem to purposefully make it difficult. Still, 12 minutes in google and 6 isntalling packages and I was up and running.

Posting in AntiX from a hospital bed using my Verizon Jetpack. Since the hospital has no wifi. My Iphone 5S could also be used as a personal hotspot. I am using the jetpack because battery life on it is better.

WICD was the connection manager I used in AntiX. I set my Iphone settings as a personal hotspot. I boot with phone on and set with those settings. I hit the refresh button in WICD. My phone shows. I type in wpa pass code. Walla. Connected. Easy peasy.

MX works the same way with WICD or Network-Manager.

I guess you are missing a step or so.

Good luck and Happy trailz, Rok

1 members found this post helpful.

Rok,

Good luck to you as well and I hope you get out soon.

What precisely do you mean by "mobile broadband connection." (I was recently on the road and had no problem connecting to my T-Mobile hotspot with Linux Mint 17 on a Zareason laptop. Heck, it was more stable than the hotel connections--that why I was using it.)

To build on what wpeckham, it would be useful to know what the wireless chipset in your computer is. Since no distro wanted to connect and the one thing they all had in common was the hardware, the problem is likely hardware-related.

Frankbell and Roky have some good points. I'm with Roky on the use of wicd. Though it seems to be getting a bit "old in the tooth" and it does not automatically configure every device - usually it doesn't preconfigure wlan0, for instance, once all Ethernet and Wifi devices are assigned, in my experience it works well. The tool could benefit from an update within the tool itself - something that could sniff and auto configure network hardware, but distribution vendors, or a few smart people, might be able to create something along those lines for the rest of us.

As far as determining what's "wrong" and diagnosing it, and also in obtaining suggestions and advice from others, as Frank says, providing as much information about the system you're using, the hardware you have, the diagnostic messages you receive, anything specific that would assist people willing to help would lead to a solution. For instance, is the network hardware a Broadcom or an Intel chipset - and if so, what model?

The more we know about the setup, the more likely it is that we can help out.