Experimenting but not connecting

I have a spare laptop so thought I would get round to experimenting with Linux. Installed Linux Ubunto on it okay but cannot get a net connection. I have it linked to my existing Broadband Network covering two pc's and a laptop all with Windows7. I keep getting a box up saying "Server not found". It also says it "can't find the server at start.ubuntu.com." The icon up on the top right for Broadband changes to the monitor icon and I am told I am connected?? Might try it with a Broadband dongle out of curiosity. Must have done something wrong in this experiment?!

What sort of connection - presumably wifi? What sort of encryption does the router use? Also, what sort of wifi hardware does the laptop have?

When you try to set up a connection, it should list the options of wifi or ethernet - most laptops also support ethernet - and when you select wifi it should search for available connections and ask you which to use. If the router uses encryption - which it should unless you want the neighbors using it to connect - then it should ask you for the access code, etc. Done all this already or not?

Hi,

Yes my broadband is encrypted sgunhouse. I have the start up screen of course but when I try to log into the net icon it as I said, changes and shows I am "connected" but when I type in my password it won't take it. My broadband is wired to my main computer and in turn the other pc and laptop are wireless through a personal network.

It's only the network to the laptop I am interested in there, what happens between the ISP and your first computer is meaningless to this discussion. So you don't have an actual router, you are using one of the computers as a router? Perhaps it is only set up to recognize WIndows 7 computers and therefore wouldn't work to a (non-Windows) phone, computer, or game console?

Maybe will help. It seems to come down to making sure you've selected the right encryption type. If in doubt of which one to use, you can phone the router manufacturer or your ISP. If they give you "We don't support Linux" rubbish, just tell them all you need to know is the encryption type the router uses and aren't looking for support on the OS.

Of course, you've made sure the caps lock isn't on and all that?

You might want to go ahead and sign up for the Ubuntu forums. You usually get a quicker response for technical questions than you will here.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Perhaps it is only set up to recognize WIndows 7 computers and therefore wouldn't work to a (non-Windows) phone, computer, or game console?

Not impossible, but it seems highly unlikely.

Only the first pc is connected by wire to the router I have and as said the other one and laptop share a Network with it. Maybe that they are all Windows inclined might be something I need to look at. Might do as you say and contact my telephone company which supplies my phone as well as broadband service and the router. I have been told by a friend that the dongles supplied by mobile phone companies will work with Linux as well? In the past have used that with the laptop when away somewhere. Have been thinking on Linux for a while due to curiosity and bought a Linux instruction booklet complete with Ubuntu disk so I could dabble further. Appreciate the information and advice.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

I have been told by a friend that the dongles supplied by mobile phone companies will work with Linux as well?

Here's where it gets a little complicated. You'll probably have to check the chipset in the adapter by looking up the exact model model number on the manufacturer's website and cross reference it the list of supported chipsets. Or get an account on the Ubuntu forums; a British user can probably tell you which mobile phone companies adapters work, assuming in English, Scottish, N. Irish and Welsh branches are really the same company. (For example, we have Virgin Mobile in the US, but it's not really the same company per say in Britain but subsidiary that uses different technology) If you go that route, you might want to check the bandwidth caps as well. American mobile providers tend to have to have low bandwidth caps, which you're liable to use up very quickly.

Yes getting a wee bit complicated but will persevere! Must enlarge my curiosity! Thanks.

I dug out the broadband dongle and tried that on the spare laptop with Linux. That works okay. Still finding my way around a different environment. There is an icon indicating to update Ubuntu but says there is a problem when try to use it and a list of figures and letters of course. However I noticed in a drop-down there is a desktop called Gnome that can be downloade? Curious about that one so any advice to give? It is looks neat. Using the dongle isn't a problem as it was a spare laptop not used for a while. I was going to give it to the daughter of a friend of mine although she will be more used to Windows at school. She's in her teens so shouldn't find it a problem? Glad I'm getting access to Linux and is not as daunting as I thought.

The picture in the magazine style booklet I have shows icons down the left side almost like a bar? There is a bar at the top and that is easy to use.

Gnome was the standard desktop on previous versions of Ubuntu, they only recently went to this Unity environment. The desktop won't have any effect on your network, but may make things somewhat more familiar-looking.

I have a (wi-fi) dongle of my own which I bought at Wal-mart, Linux doesn't really recognize it. Broadband dongles (as in, cellular dongles) I can't say as I'm too familiar with, except that my friend Todd had one which didn't work under Mandriva (a year ago now) ... things may have changed on either the hardware or software (driver) side since then, though.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

Gnome was the standard desktop on previous versions of Ubuntu, they only recently went to this Unity environment. The desktop won't have any effect on your network, but may make things somewhat more familiar-looking.

Not so in Ubuntu 11.10, for it comes with Gnome 3. I suppose going into "Gnome Classic" would still have this effect of a somewhat higher familiarity, but I find it much less usable than Gnome 2.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Not so in Ubuntu 11.10, for it comes with Gnome 3

I think he means the Gnome Shell, as opposed to the wretched Unity interface. (neither are good ) I'm sure sgunhouse knows, but I wonder how many users really don't know this from reading posts and reviews.

Originally posted by sgunhouse:

I have a (wi-fi) dongle of my own which I bought at Wal-mart, Linux doesn't really recognize it.

What I did was check the model number of mine against a list provided by Debian. It was easy enough to google up, but I'm not arsed to do that right now

Maybe I should then just stick to this Ubuntu I have got then? I checked the disk and it says "Latest version 11.04 Natty Narwhat". It was handy having a spare laptop to have a try at Linux as it has been at the back of my mind to investigate it further. I want to try one of my train simulators on it again out of curiosity but as that is for Windows I think I need a programme called "Wine". So is there some versionor what I should know about for that one? It's not desperate that I have it on the Linux laptop but interested to see how it performs with the prog.

Installing it was so easy. The A4 size book that I bought with the disk has over 132 glossy pages with pictures and not a bad buy for £7.99! I must admit that so far I have found it okay although I am still wandering about like - well I am a novice on this OS. It has a clean feel and different about it and I am glad I have taken the plunge. The second laptop had gone awry whatever I did so scrubbed everything on it and started with just Linux. I do hope that more people will be like me and try it.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

I want to try one of my train simulators on it again out of curiosity but as that is for Windows I think I need a programme called "Wine".

Wine isn't a program, per say, but a Windows compatibility layer that allows Linux to run many but not all Windows programs. For example, I was easily able to get Microsoft Office and some games to work. To get it, once you're able to connect to internet, you just need to download it from the Software Center (or maybe with the British spelling)

I wouldn't be able to tell you to you if the train simulator would work or not, so all I can tell you try it and see.

A quick word on Ubuntu version numbers. 11.04 means doesn't mean the 11th version. It means that it came out in 2011, on the 4th month. The very latest version is actually 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot." I think sometimes CD versions lag a bit. Once you're all connected up, it will probably prompt you to update, which is an easy process.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

I want to try one of my train simulators on it again out of curiosity but as that is for Windows I think I need a programme called "Wine". So is there some versionor what I should know about for that one? It's not desperate that I have it on the Linux laptop but interested to see how it performs with the prog.

See above, but you might also be able to find it in the AppDB. http://appdb.winehq.org/ If you're lucky it'll tell you that it works and perhaps even what you need to do to make it work if it doesn't work quite right by default.

If it doesn't work quite right I'd also advise you to try a more recent version of Wine. It might just fix some bug that's essential for your software http://www.winehq.org/download/ubuntu

True, I just didn't want him to think that just because it's not on the list, it doesn't run. For example, I don't see World of Warcraft, but I often get a better framerate under Linux than Windows.

Huh? I see a gold rating.

Ok, I see what I did. I just looked at the first page. Sorry, last night was not at good one and I was out of it.

And for the record, that was Natty Narwhal for 11.04 ... they always use animal names with some alliterative adjective. As opposed to Debian using characters from the movie Toy Story, or whatever other scheme you prefer.

Interestingly, enough I'm having a similar issue as Howie. I can connect to network, using the regular ISP. But I uncovered a Clearwire dongle that I can't get Ubuntu to recognize, although my issue would be finding drivers (if they they exist for Linux)

I have a USB WiFi thingy (I'm thinking a dongle has to be small, no? ) that's recognized by Linux, but is only supported to the extent of no encryption (or possibly WEP). Not that it matters.

There is a tool that can sometimes allow you to use Windows drivers under Linux. It is called ndiswrapper, I'm sure with a search you can find out as much as I know about it. When Mageia is trying to deal with unrecognized hardware, it offers that as an option.

That's true. Even with the driver, it might not work because of authentication. Clearwire is a 4G (Wimax) wireless ISP that authenticates via a what amounts to a cell tower. To do this, in Windows it must use its own software. It might be possible to get that working in Wine, though. While I was checking this out, I found numerous cases where Linux machines had the exact problem Howie describes, even though the user had a modem, as possible to dongle. It doesn't entirely make sense, though, because I would think the modem should be able to take care of the authentication and the user's OS should be completely irrelevant.

You're presuming it's a fully functional modem on its own, as opposed to something comparable to the winmodems which were so common for dialup connections.