Member Avatar for pittpaguy87

Hi,

I have a Compaq and a gateway computer. I also have 2 network cards.
In both computers, I have tried the following distros of linux:
Ubuntu 10.4
Xubuntu 10.4
Ubuntu Server 10.4
Puppy Linux 5
Damn Small Linux

In all combinations of computers, os, and network card, I have not been able to connect to the internet. Can someone give me some advice on where I should start and what I could try to connect. I have been stumbling around the forums with no luck to my problem. I can give you any output you would like.

Thanks in advance.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by pittpaguy87

Dani AI

Generated

This thread points at three common failure classes — local driver/firmware, system/DHCP configuration, and upstream modem/ISP behavior. The short, distro‑agnostic triage below complements the replies from , and by giving concrete checks and commands that were not shown earlier.

Quick isolation

  • Verify the physical path first: cable, link LEDs on NIC and modem/router, and try a known‑good device on the same cable/modem port to see whether the problem is upstream or on the PC.
  • If the upstream device fails as well, suspect the modem/ISP (stale DHCP lease or MAC binding). If only the Linux box fails, suspect driver/firmware or local config.

Useful diagnostics (run as root or with sudo)

ip link show
ip addr show
lspci -nnk | grep -A2 -i net
lsusb
dmesg | egrep -i 'firmware|eth|wlan|usb'
sudo dhclient -v <interface>
tail -n 200 /var/log/syslog

These reveal link state, assigned addresses, chipset and kernel driver in use, firmware errors, DHCP activity, and recent system log messages.

Practical next steps

  • If DHCP fails repeatedly, try a temporary static IP in the modem/router subnet and a public DNS to test L3 reachability (ping an IP such as 1.1.1.1).
  • For USB mobile‑broadband dongles (as raised by ), ensure usb_modeswitch (or the distro equivalent) and the correct APN/pppd settings are present; NetworkManager’s mobile‑broadband wizard can automate this on modern distros.
  • Prefer vendor kernel modules or packaged firmware first; use ndiswrapper only as a last resort for Windows‑only drivers. If the modem is suspected (MAC lock or stale lease), a power cycle or ISP contact may be required rather than repeated OS tinkering.

Log lines to collect when investigating further: the lspci -nnk output for the network device and the dmesg/syslog lines that mention the device or firmware. These are the most useful clues to determine whether the issue is driver, kernel/firmware, or upstream equipment.

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for Abdullahakeem

If that is the operating system that you are trying to use when you want to connect to the internet via wireless card then you will have to add the windows driver for the card so linux will know what to do with that card. ( right know it thinks it's taking space lol)
one suggestion is to plug the computer into a router or hub and connect to the internet via RJ-45. then download the updates and search for one called " add windows Wireless drivers" ( dont quote me on that- pretty sure that's what it's called)

If that doesn't help
I will be glad to see what the problem is.

Hi,

I have a Compaq and a gateway computer. I also have 2 network cards.
In both computers, I have tried the following distros of linux:
Ubuntu 10.4
Xubuntu 10.4
Ubuntu Server 10.4
Puppy Linux 5
Damn Small Linux

In all combinations of computers, os, and network card, I have not been able to connect to the internet. Can someone give me some advice on where I should start and what I could try to connect. I have been stumbling around the forums with no luck to my problem. I can give you any output you would like.

Thanks in advance.

Member Avatar for khakilang

I use an Aztech USB wifi adapter and do a clean install with Ubuntu 10.04. It recognize it straight away and able to surf the internet. Maybe you can check the computer CMOS BIOS to see if there is anything that is disable. So far that is the only thing I can think off. Visit the and check it out.

Member Avatar for Abdullahakeem

Does the adapter disable after you login and it recognizes the adapter?
If so then do you use ANY type of anti-virus ETC. ?

Member Avatar for pittpaguy87

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. The confusing part of my issue was ifconfig would recognize each of the cards and would even recognize the drivers that they needed to connect. I could also see that there was a live network to connect too, but i could not get auto dhcp to get me an ip address. Since this was issue was across multiple distros of linux and network cards this lead to think maybe it was the actual cable modem. The solution was to simply to do a hard reset on the cable modem. I suppose if it is the first time you are using a new network card to connect, this is necessary. After I did that, each distro would recognize the card.

Member Avatar for krishna-kunwar

hi...
i can not conect internet using plug to surf of tata docomo.i am using fedora live cd 13.please help me....
krishna pratap kunwar.
kolkata.

Member Avatar for pittpaguy87

I solved my issue by simply resetting my modem. That did something, and I was able to connect. The last RPM distro I used was Red Hat v5 from like two years ago. Im not going to be able to give you to much help with Fedora.

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