Trying to connect Ubuntu laptop to wireless at work

[Delfuego]

Most times, wireless is better on Linux now than on windows.

Wireless is a protocol not and experience...

Have you rebooted?

Ha! That's Windows talk...

[Hoosier]

I think my Chromebook is the first lenux box I've had on a wireless network.

From the command line (terminal window) try:

ifconfig -a

this will give you a nice list of gobblygook, a paragraph for each network interface on the computer. The name of the interface will be on the left, and then a large block of information about it. What you're looking for is something like this:

inet addr:10.244.145.100 Bcast:10.244.145.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

the "inet addr" is your IP address, is it set for a device other than "lo0"? If not, then you know the problem is that your machine is failing to establish a 802.11 connection to the router. If there is an IP address there, then the link is up but you just can't talk to the internet. In that case, try "ping 8.8.8.8" and see if it gets back to you -- then you'll know your problem is related to name resolution (turning co-ar15.com into it's ipaddress)

If you ever get any error messages, copy/paste them into Google, almost always gets me an answer. Really half of being skilled with computers anymore is knowing how to search for the answers to all the questions.

This really is a correct synopsis of the steps to solve any computer problem (given enough time, natch)



H.

[CrufflerSteve]

I have a Ubuntu Dell Mini 9. Does your laptop show a working wifi? Some wifi drivers are proprietary and not part of the Ubuntu distro. This is fun with mine since it has a Broadcom driver. I use a direct ethernet connection for a major upgrade and go to the hardware driver section to download & activate the Broadxcom driver and then wifi works. PITA.

There was a bug in some Ubuntu drivers awhile ago where it couldn't handle the basic WEP but did most everything else. I don't know if that still active.

Steve

[Lex_Luthor]

Ok I did ifconfig -a and here's what I got.

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:a9:48:c3:00
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)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:20 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1272 (1.2 KB) TX bytes:1272 (1.2 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:de:62:86:9d
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)

I tried ping 8.8.8.8 and it said "network is unreachable"

The wifi works. I've connected to other wifi networks before. My fiance and I usually piggy back off the school across the street.

[Byte Stryke]

not connected for whatever reason:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:de:62:86:9d
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)


have you tried to "Connect to wireless network"?
no ip... no packets TX/RX... even an attempted connection would generate some traffic

[Zundfolge]

Are you letting it automatically detect the network and connect or are you going down to the little tray icon and manually selecting the network?

Is the network hidden? There's an option to "connect to hidden network" where you'll have to manually type the name of the hidden network.

Is anyone else in the office connected to the network with their laptop (win or mac)? If so what network do their computers say they're connected to.

Chances are there are several wireless networks within range unless you're way out in the country. Maybe its picking the wrong one.

[nynco]

Wireless is a protocol not and experience...


Ha! That's Windows talk...

when I said that wireless was now better on linux, that is because the newest generation of Kernals has almost all the correct drivers for all the different wifi cards out there. Windows 7 is doing better at that now. But still not as good. Heck I can packet inject with the stock Kernals of Linux now.

[nynco]

Are you letting it automatically detect the network and connect or are you going down to the little tray icon and manually selecting the network?

Is the network hidden? There's an option to "connect to hidden network" where you'll have to manually type the name of the hidden network.

Is anyone else in the office connected to the network with their laptop (win or mac)? If so what network do their computers say they're connected to.

Chances are there are several wireless networks within range unless you're way out in the country. Maybe its picking the wrong one.

What he said. Also, linux has a way of picking up all types of networks. Even ones that are not for wifi. Like a printer network. Do you know if this network is WEP, WPA, WPA2 or open?

[nynco]

On your network that says guest does it connect at all? Do you see the bars on the top Left that says it is connected? Or does it not get a lock at all? Sometimes some networks have a "Guest" protocol but those are still not connected to the net itself.

[Delfuego]

Packet Injection? See, I knew you all was faggots! Ain't nobody gonna Packet Injection me!