Wireless not working
 

Hi!

I am new to LQ and to Ubuntu 9.04 (well, I think that's the version I have, a coworker installed it just yesterday). My hard drive is partitioned between Ubuntu and Windows 7. So I'm here on the Windows side trying to figure out how to get the internet to work on the Ubuntu side. In the top right of my screen, I only have the bars showing that I have no network connection. When I try to open Firefox, it says it's offline. I just did a search on how to find NetworkManager, so I'm going to go and give it another try, but I wanted to post for some help first.

I hope I haven't messed anything up: I tried to configure VPN or something, because I clicked on those network bars since I couldn't find NetworkManager. I have all of my addresses (subnet, IPv4, DNS, WEP, etc), but I'm not sure I know where to put them.

I don't even know if my drivers are installed or if they need to be or what that even means. I was told to install the drivers by

System -> Administration -> Hardware drivers -> Network

???

Any help would be totally appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Monique

It would probably help if you knew what type of computer I had, right?

I have an Asus laptop. It has

Built-in wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)

Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps fast Ethernet LAN
With RJ-45 connector for quick and easy wired Web connection.

Hope this helps.

It would probably also hlep to know what you are trying to connet to !

Don't know Ubuntu specifically but most Linux distros will at least be configured by default to allow an ethernet cable connection to an ethernet port on a home router or broadband "modem" (on the assumption that either of those will be set up with dhcp server).

Wirelss connection can be a bit more tricky.

Essentially you need for your computer to be configured to match whatever network you're trying to connect to.

Trying to configure a VPN shouldn't have messed anything up, but without any network connectivity to start with, is not likely to be very successful. And is probably not what you want anyway.

So a little more info would help.

IG

Ah, ok so the thread title says "wireless not working" - really must learn to read !

Still, comments above apply. But you also need to make sure the wlan card has correct driver (maybe firmware) installed (assuming it's even avilable as a native Linux driver). Then to configure the card to use your wireless access point.

I'm guessing Ubuntu (is that Gnome WM?) offers some graphical config tool which should allow you to see if the wlan card is even configured? If not a terminal command of ifconfig will show a summary of your network card configuration - if it is set up probably expect an eth0 for your RJ45 adapter and maybe eth1 or wlan1 for your wlan adapter.

Recent versions of Network manager have been a bit flaky which doesn't help you much either.

Unless someone who knows the easy way around Ubuntu to check these things you might have to use a few terminal commands to dig out the info & set things up...

IG

Thanks, Soleil! That is all like foreign language to me, but if it takes me all night, I'm determined to figure it out!!! LOL I'm not sure I have the grasp of terminal commands, but that's the only way I'm going to figure out what's going on. I'm looking the ubuntuforums, too. I should have it figured out by morning. I hope? lol

Wish me luck!

Sorry about it sounding like a foreign language !

Problem is most of the different Linux distributions have developed their own graphical "front-ends" for handling configuration and I don't know Ubuntu to walk you through it...or even how well it really works.

But behind all the fancy graphics they are all pretty much the same.

What I was trying to explain was that you really need to step through the basics, i.e. to ensure the correct device driver is installed for the wireless card, then to configure that card to behave as you want it. You would have needed to have set up wireless networking on Windows too so that end of it should be familiar?

If you have a network cable and you have the possibility to connect to the Internet that way using Ubuntu, it might be easier for you to then follow any Ubuntu-specific process for setting up wirelessly while you actually have your Ubuntu environment in front of you.

IG