Connecting to Web by WIFI

[Wadey]

Hi, this is my first post, and my first day with Linux.

As an experienced Windows user, I decided I'd had enough bad experiences, and decided to give Linux a go.

Everything seems to have installed OK, and to be honest, my first impressions are that I really like this OS.

I am having a problem though.

I am using a Zydas WIFI USB dongle (that works fine under Windows) and Linux appears to see the dongle fine, and it picks up my BT Voyager router no problem.
However, when I try to start a browser session, I can't get to any web pages.

I'm probably doing something stupid (or not doing something) but any advice would be much appreciated.

[kakariko81280]

we will need to know the exact error before we can help you properly. open a console window and run the following commands, then paste the output here (remembering to wipe parts of any public IP). You may need to be root to run these commands.

ping www.google.com
ifconfig
route -n
cat /etc/resolv.conf

Some more details like how your network is set up would be handy too (WEP, WPA, dhcp or static addresses, etc)

Let us know how you get on,

Chris...

[Wadey]

we will need to know the exact error before we can help you properly. open a console window and run the following commands, then paste the output here (remembering to wipe parts of any public IP). You may need to be root to run these commands.

ping www.google.com
ifconfig
route -n
cat /etc/resolv.conf

Some more details like how your network is set up would be handy too (WEP, WPA, dhcp or static addresses, etc)

Let us know how you get on,

Chris...

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply.

Here is the output from those commands.....



[root@localhost ~]# ping www.google.com
ping: unknown host www.google.com


[root@localhost ~]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:01:6C:33: DC:44
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)
Interrupt:225 Base address:0xc000

eth2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:8E:04:07:18
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:256 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:256 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:20208 (19.7 KiB) TX bytes:20208 (19.7 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.X.X.X Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:256 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:256 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:20208 (19.7 KiB) TX bytes:20208 (19.7 KiB)

[root@localhost ~]# route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
169.XXX.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
XXX.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo




[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# $Id: resolv.conf,v 1.1 2006/06/02 23:25:57 othauvin Exp $
# Basic resolv.conf

# search domain

# nameserver XXX.0.0.X
# nameserver XXX.0.0.X
# nameserver XXX.0.0.X
[root@localhost ~]#

The network is currently DHCP and using WEP encryption.

Cheers.

Wadey

[kakariko81280]

It looks like your dhcp is failing to pick up settings. I'm guessing it is because you have not set the WEP key.

iwconfig

Will show you all the wireless specific settings for your network cards. For the wired cards it will say "No wireless extensions"

iwconfig <wireless device name> key <your wep key>

Will set the WEP key. The key needs to be in hex to work properly. If you have used a password to generate a key then prefix it with "s:" to tell iwconfig that it is a password rather than a key.

service network restart

should restart all of your network interfaces, causing the wireless one to pick up fresh dhcp settings. (All these commands need to be run as root)

If that all works, we can tell you how to make those settings permanent later on.

BTW, everything in the 127.0.0.0/8 network is reserved for loopback, and everything in the 169.254.0.0/16 network is reserved for link-local addressing. Neither of these are useful to anyone not on your pc or on your network respectively, so you don't need to obscure them. See RFC 3330 for details on special use addresses.

Let us know how you get on,

Chris...

[Wadey]

Thanks very much Chris - really appreciate that.

I'll have a go today and let you know how it goes.

I wasn't sure which IP bits were potentially risky on a Linux system, so I wiped the lot (Mr. Paranoid ).

Cheers again.

Wadey.

[Wadey]

Hi Chris,

Well, I had a go, but still no joy.

I'm sure it's me being an idiot, but I still can't get the web browser to go anywhere.

I might try a hard-wired connection to see if that works, unless you have any other ideas....

Thanks.

Wadey