HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

[Ole Juul]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

Is it about the way I'm connecting to the network?
If so, could someone explain to me what DHCP, DNS and all that other stuff is?
I really have no clue. I live in Australia, and I hear that our IP addresses change every x hours.
Is this true?
It keeps asking me for the passphrase, even though I definitely have the right one.
On the OS I used before this I just put in the passphrase and it would connect, there wasn't all this other stuff.

Just a couple of short answers.

DHCP is a program that automatically gets the needed connection information from the server. This is different from "static" where you put in the information by hand. Normally you would use DHCP for the connection to an ISP. Their server gives your IP (computer) a lease. That is just a given amount of time before it needs to be renewed. Times are typically from one to several days. However it doesn't matter to the user what it is because it should be automatically renewed. Whether the lease time is different on some ISP in Australia is then not important.

DNS means "domain name server". It is just a server which has a list of IP numbers and names matched up. IOW, when I type google.com it translates it to 74.125.127.99. The internet works on numbers, not names. If you type 74.125.127.99 as an address, then the domanin name server is not needed. A domain name server can be on you own machine or one of the millions out there. It is generally best to use the one (or several) from your ISP, but as long as you have one then things will work. By "having one" I mean you have put a valid number in your setup.

It keeps asking me for the passphrase, even though I definitely have the right one.

Perhaps I missed it in the previous posts, but exactly what "it" is would be the thing to know.

[harry617]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

Thanks!
By "it" I meant the network manager thingo that you enter all the network information and settings into. It keeps popping up and annoying me.

[Ole Juul]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

. . . By "it" I meant the network manager thingo that you enter all the network information and settings into. It keeps popping up and annoying me.

Gotcha. I've not had the experience of running either network manager nor wicd. I would guess that wicd should not pop up by itself once you have configured it. Perhaps it is broken or confused (or just lonely - lol). Have you set it to DHCP? If so, I think all it needs is encryption type and passphrase. DHCP looks after the rest. Perhaps you have given it conflicting information.

[arochester]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

This Bug report is interesting: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/215802

Yes, I know it is for a different card, but the description of the problem is almost identical.

If no-one else can come up with a technical solution I would still advise a dongle.

[Ole Juul]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

I agree with arochester, a dongle is worth trying. They're under 20 bucks and good to have around anyway. Perhaps borrow one from a friend just for diagnostic purposes.

[harry617]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

Ok, so I've just stole a dongle from my brother, and the internet is working fine.
Yeah, that bug report does sound identical.
What exactly is Bssids?
On my previous OS you had to enter it into a field in the network manager for access to whatever network you were connecting to.
I don't see any fields for it in wicd.

[Ole Juul]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

I'm glad you got it working.

. . . What exactly is Bssids?
On my previous OS you had to enter it into a field in the network manager for access to whatever network you were connecting to. I don't see any fields for it in wicd.

Wikipedia has a relevant article which says:

In an infrastructure BSS, the BSSID is the MAC address of the wireless access point (WAP)

I've never used it either.

PS: I guess I should also explain "MAC address". Every network interface such as your lan card or wireless dongle, has an unique number called the MAC address. This is handy for lots of things. On a wireless network router it can be used to only allow connections with certain machines. This small security is not absolute however, because MAC addresses are easy to spoof, and for quite legitimate reasons, often are.

[harry617]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

Thanks
There must be some way to fix the issue with the wireless card.
In the mean time I think I might get another dongle, so I don't have to steal my brother's.

[arochester]

Re: HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Touchpad, wireless and other stuff not working!

Just a small tip about dongles...

...if you plug them straight into the laptop they are rigid. Drop the laptop and you risk breaking the laptop and/or the dongle. I have always used a small hub with a wire into the computer. Less chance of breaking.