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unable to get Ubuntu to see my home network

  Date: Dec 04    Category: Unix / Linux / Ubuntu    Views: 469
  

I am unable to get Ubuntu to see
my home network, so I am not able to access the internet. I am running my
network through a Linksys router. I have Windows 7 on all 3 of my PC's. I loaded
Ubuntu on my laptop. After reading the help files, I find nothing that tells me
what info I need and where to enter it, in order for me to access the internet.
It seems to say that it should all work automaticly.

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5 Answers Found

 
Answer #1    Answered On: Dec 04    

Do you know your wifi card????????????????????

 
Answer #2    Answered On: Dec 04    

First, congratulations on making the step to learning Linux. Ubuntu is a
great starting point because it has the most help. It is NOT the most newbie
friendly. Red Hat is for servers and Ubuntu is for desktops, although there
is a server version. I am assuming that you are using the desktop version
and that you are using the latest stable version 9.10. If this is wrong
please correct it.

Linux in general takes a different approach to security than Windows. A
frequent complaint about Linux is that everything just works in Windows.
People forget that they needed to supply device drivers by inserting a disk
or having Windows search for them. My netbook in Ubuntu connects to my
wireless without my doing anything. All I needed to do was set it up first.
It is in two parts. You need a driver and to set up the connection.

In Linux most drivers come from the kernel and they often do not require you
to search or install them separately. However, there are many wireless cards
and all having varying degrees of support for Linux. Broadcom is the worst,
but some are quite good. You do not say how you connect to the internet. I
am assuming that it is wireless.

Do you know the make of your wireless card or dongle? If not, open a
terminal in Ubuntu (in the menu go to Accessories, Terminal or press alt+F2
and type terminal in the box and press enter). In the terminal window, type:
lshw

It will caution you to use sudo, but ignore that. Scroll back with the
scroll bar and look for the section headed *-network. You can copy that by
highlighting with your mouse and clicking on Edit, Copy in the menu. You can
then paste it in your messages to us. Please don't copy the whole thing.

This section will tell you the vendor. If you see the words UNCLAIMED it
means that your card was detected, but there is no driver installed. You can
try to find a driver using System, Administration, Hardware Drivers in the
menu. If it does not say this and hardware drivers says that a driver is
Activated with a green button, then you have a driver.

Next you have to set up your wireless connection supplying your network
information including security keys (WPA, WEP, etc.). You would have had to
have done this at some point in Windows, but probably have forgotten. Unless
you aren't using any security in which case you have a bigger problem. You
can do this by right clicking on the networking icon in the system tray (top
right). I am in KDE and Ubuntu uses GNOME so it is different wording. Mine
says Manage connections (I am wired). It could say manage Wireless
connections. There will also be a check box that should be checked to
enable wireless. If anything is greyed out it is an indication that you need
a driver.

If for some reason there is no Linux driver for your card, then you can use
a Windows driver, but you will have to install two applications in synaptic
first. I won't go there yet as we don't know this is the case at this point.

For future reference, whenever asking for help it is good to provide as much
info as you can. In this case we needed to know whether it is a wired or
wireless connection. The make of the wireless card is more important than
the make of the router. Routers don't care what the OS is. The problem is in
the computer with the connection. You can get this info in Windows by going
to Hardware, Device Drivers or in Linux using lshw (list hardware) in a
terminal.

I hope that this helps. Others can feel free to chip in. I have an easy
wireless card to set up and have never had a problem. That is not the case
for many, especially those with Broadcom cards. Please be patient. If it
comes to it, you can usually connect with a wired connection to download
anything that you might need in the way of drivers or applications.

Many users swear by wicd (pronounced Wicked) over Ubuntu's own network
manager. I have used it, but network manager works well enough for me. It
can be installed with Synaptic, but you need to make sure your driver works
before doing this.

 
Answer #3    Answered On: Dec 04    

I have a Dell Wireless 1490 dual band WLAN Mini-Card and a Marvell Yukon 88E8040
PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller. I am a bit lost with what you wrote. Can you
start again..lol. Do I need to find linux drivers for the above cards?

 
Answer #4    Answered On: Dec 04    

The ethernet connection should work out of the box. I have installed
hundreds of distros and never had to install an ethernet driver in Linux. I
have had to do this in Windows though.

The instructions I gave were for wireless because you did not say how you
connected and the fact that you could not connect suggested a wireless
problem. If it was ethernet it would have connected in my experience.

The internet network manager is in the system tray. Hover over the icons to
find it. If you right-click on it it will give a different menu than if you
left click on it. This is where you initially set up your connection by
either Editing or managing connections (not sure of the exact wording as it
changes and I am in Lucid KDE and not Karmic GNOME). Setting up a connection
won't help you if you don't have a driver yet.

In Windows you would feed the computer a disk supplied by your manufacturer.
In Linux it is either supplied by the kernel or the repositories. This is
why you need to find out if the driver is installed. If the kernel has the
driver then you just have to go ahead with the second part and set up your
connection. Skip down.

If need to use the Windows driver or you need a driver from Hardware drivers
then you need an internet connection to get the driver or application that
allows you to use your Windows driver. You will have to use your ethernet
cable to hook up temporarily to get what you need. Once connected then you
open go to Hardware Drivers. If one is available then it will proceed to
download it. However, if there isn't one then you may have to try Synaptic
to install the application to use your Windows driver. You should install
two packages in Synaptic ndiswrapper-common and ndisgtk. The second package
is a GUI that makes installing the Windows driver a breeze. If you do not
have an internet connection ndiswrapper is on the installation Live CD. You
can get it from there instead of the repos.

Afterwards you will need your Windows driver disk. Run ndisgtk from the menu
or press Alt-F2 and type ndisgtk and press enter. Follow the instructions.
You will likely need to re-boot to use it since it loads earlier in the boot
process before you get to the GUI. I am not sure on this as I have only used
it once and that was awhile ago.

A third option is to go to Dell and see if they offer a driver for Ubuntu.
They sell select models of Ubuntu computers.

Once you have a driver installed then you need to set up your connection.
You do this in Windows too. You go to the network manager in the system
tray. Edit or manage the connection. Make sure wireless box is checked to
connect first. Set up a new wireless connection in the wireless tab. You
will need the info that you had to set up wireless on your router. You will
only need to know the SSID which is the name that you gave to your wireless
network (it shows up when you scan for it), your security type (Whether it
is WPA Personal, WEP etc) and the security key. The rest of the time accept
the defaults. If you have any unusual connection info then you may have to
adjust this, such as if you use static IP. Also there is a check box that
automatically connects you wirelessly when you boot up. Make sure it is
checked or you will have to connect manually each time you boot up.

Perhaps a Dell user or networking guru (I am not. I connect by ethernet most
of the time) can provide more info. Anyone takers?

 
Answer #5    Answered On: Dec 04    

According to this
(en.community.dell.com/.../linux-driver-\
available-for-dell-wireless-cards.aspx) the drivers should be included in the
current version of Ubuntu.

The first thing to note: your wireless card is actually a Broadcom, perhaps the
4311. Dell doesn't actually make wireless cards. When you are running Ubuntu,
you can open Accessories/Terminal and enter the command lspci to display the pci
devices, and one line will look something like this:
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 UART (rev 01)

This will work if you run the Ubuntu LiveCD, you don't have to install Ubuntu to
do it. You might even be able to connect to your network. In the top-right of
your screen, there might be a network manager icon, near the volume control. If
you right-click it and select "edit connections," then click on the wireless tab
and "add" you can set up your network. You need to know your router's SSID,
encryption type and password.

 
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