waterhead

This doesn't make sense. You ran the iwconfig command before, without any options. You shouldn't have to do this, but maybe adding the path to the command will help.

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smokeyone

No luck yet.......

xxxxxx:~$ sudo /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
[sudo] password for xxxxxx:
xxxxxx:~$
xxxxxx:~$ sudo /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
xxxxxx:~$ sudo /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
xxxxxx:~$

reed9

That's correct. You won't get anything returned after that, but it should have worked to set the rate.

The bigger problem is why it doesn't see any networks to begin with, though. Assuming everything with your wireless router is working fine.

I found a post that suggested disabling the bluetooth module might be necessary. Not sure what the connection between the two is, but it's worth a try.

You can disable it loading from System>Administrator> Services and restart.

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waterhead

Sometime the wireless and Bluetooth are combined into one. I just noticed it when looking at the HP Mini 311. They list four options:

Wireless-G Card
Wireless-N Card
Wireless-G Card with Bluetooth
Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth

I suppose that the Linux drivers can't handle both at the same time.

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smokeyone

Thank you both for the advice. Went to System>Administrator> Services - switched off and re-started - the wireless connected - is this a co-incidence...
Must find out more about the services list......

reed9

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Let's just hope it works consistently now.

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smokeyone

Actually it lost the connection a while ago but then later found it again - all since my last message. The signal strength never seems to go much above 50% even if I place the laptop next to the sender unit.....
Also, although not a problem - I need to tick the Netgear box to connect when the Netgear box shows in the top right hand corner of the screen - it does not seem to connect automatically but perhaps that's normal...

reed9

How's your connection speed? It's possible that the signal strength is reporting incorrectly. Although, with the dropped connections, it still seems like there a problem.

Couple of options...

First, you can try replacing networkmanager with Wicd. I use wicd, and a lot of people find it works better.

You can try using the madwifi drivers. If you want to try that we can talk you through it, mostly involves blacklisting the ath5k drivers, because the two will conflict.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 and see if the issue is fixed.

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smokeyone

Thanks for yet more help. Tried sudo apt-get install wicd ......before entering in terminal signal strength 37% ...afterwards wicd box in the middle of the screen says 34% but probably my imagination - I think firefox came online quicker -
did not seem to hang for so long before finding google etc...

Perhaps leave well alone for the time being and see how it goes.
9.10 upgrade might be an idea though if I do not have to start again and it leaves all settings untouched.

reed9

You can upgrade to Karmic from an existing install.
Upgrade Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Beta|Ubuntu Geek

This should work, but it's always a good idea to back everything up.

Or if you have a separate /home folder, you can do a clean install, but leave /home unformatted, so all your personal settings and info remain untouched. In this case, you would have to reinstall any software or apps you installed before, like ubuntu-restricted-extras.

This might be due to ipv6. In brief, ipv6=internet protocol version 6. The current standard is ipv4.

Basically what happens is, your computer asks for ipv6 addresses first. But most sites don't use ipv6 yet. The appropriate response is for your router to say, "What the hell are you talking about?" and move on to resolve an ipv4 address. But what happens in practice is that the router just ignores the request, and your computer sits idly by waiting for an answer until the request times out. Hence the delay.

You can disable ipv6 to prevent this. A lot of people don't like that solution, because it's not really the fault of ipv6, but how the router handles name resolution, but it works.
Interphero Miscellany Disable IPv6 in Ubuntu

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