You can jump right in and start poking around with network-admin, but its best to run iwconfig from a terminal first. (System)->(Administration)->(Networking). It can be run from a terminal but it is also readily available under the system menu. (optional, but not a bad idea) Ubuntu ships with a fantastic GUI network tool called network-admin. Often it is "default", "linksys" "netgear" or some other generic name. Most wireless routers have one set by default. You'll also need to give your network an ESSID. You'll be able to turn these back on later, we just want to make sure that they aren't causing any problems in the beginning.
This means you'll need to turn off all security such as WAP, WEP and Mac Address restrictions.
To begin with you'll need to set your Wireless Router up as an 'open' network.
The following message on the mailing list is relevant: One user reported having to remove the module and re-insert the driver once or twice before it can associate with the access point (on kernel linux-image-2.6.10-5-686).įor cards that do not work out of the box you can try WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper.
Some users have experienced problems with their wireless connections after upgrading to Hoary from Warty with the Intel ipw2200 (prior to upgrade in Warty everything worked fine). See Luca_Linux's post for a really good guide on getting the ipw2200 card setup (you may want to stop before he takes you into the WPA portion of the setup). It works out of the box but uses an ancient driver. If you have a Centrino based laptop, it likely has an Intel ipw2200 based card. Some Wi-Fi Cards work out of the box, specifically the ones with the Orinoko, Prism2 or Atheros chipsets (some Prism cards may not work out of the box).įor cards based on Ralink's RT2500 chipset, see WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT2500.įor cards based on Rakink's RT61 chipset see, these show up as 'Network controller: Ralink Unknown device 0301' if you do lspci. If it says something like unknown device, then Google for it. It will be listed as a Network Controller. One of the lines will tell you what chipset you have. To do this in a shell type: lspci | grep Network You will then have to find what chipset your card is (this is the chips the manufacturer uses, the make/model is of limited use as some manufactures use the same chipset and they also change the chipset without changing the model number).
Since this document is about how to get (wireless) networking working, we need an explaination here on how to install packages without a network connection! sudo apt-get install wireless-tools When you have got everything working you may want to have a look at NetworkManager and/or WirelessAssistant if you are planning on taking a laptop out and about and making ad hoc connections to wireless access points.įirst thing you'll need to do is get the wireless-tools package (see SynapticHowto). You may want to have a look at the Wi-Fi entry on Wikipedia or the technology overview of the Linux Wlan HOWTO however these are both a bit technical, it would be good if someone could find a simple newbie document and add it here. You will also probably have to look at the documentation to set up the Router. A good place to start is with the router documentation which often has a introduction to Wi-Fi. Obviously before you set up the wireless card on your computer you will need to become familiar with the basics of wireless and set up your wireless Router/Access Point. Other places to find information here areĪlso check this additional list of Wi Fi cards that are supported. At end it refers to several related topics, such as roaming, trouble shooting and/or antennas/drivers. It also presents a WLAN picker script ( wlan-scan.sh) to automatically switch the wireless configuration, when accessing different WLAN networks. Then it draws the way of setting up a WLAN card by starting at a unsecure configuration and continues to a WEP secured connection. lspci, ip, iwconfig) and what GUI tools are available (i.e. It states what command line tools are required (i.e.
The arcticle explains the very first steps to get a WLAN card running. Using network-admin, the GUI Network Tool.Wi-Fi WLAN wireless home networking information.