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Wireless card not compatible, any suggestions?

Forum Linux/Free BSD : Linux/Free BSD General Discussion - Wireless card not compatible, any suggestions?

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Hello,

I just downoaded Ubuntu onto my desktop computer. The OS works as far as i can tell, but i cant access my wireless router's network. I have tried many things on the ubuntu forums and none of those help. My wireless card is a WUSB54G Lynksis USB network adapter with speedbooster. Any help is greatly appreciated as without internet access it will be hard to boot into ubuntu and continue to grow in the world of Operating systems that are better than windows.

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Avoid wireless if you can, it is insecure.

Some USB wireless adapters lack Linux drivers. The same is true for some internal wireless adapters.

For best results try an internal wireless card from this list http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility.

You might be able to get it to work with ndiswrapper.

google ndiswrapper howto

Be prepared for some adventures in ndiswrapper land. For best results use a linux friendly wired adapter or mad-wifi supported internal wireless adapter.

GL

Message edited by linux_0 on 07-30-2008 at 09:20:16 PM

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Reply to linux_0

As far as I remember, there isn't very good support for USB wireless adapters on Linux, but I have had excellent experiences with PCI wireless cards on desktops and PCMCIA wireless cards on laptops. Also, if you are on ubuntu and you have access to an ethernet cable you could plug in temporarily and check whether or not there is a restricted driver available for installation via the "restricted drivers manager".

If you are unable to get wireless working because of no support for your adapter and must purchase a different one, Intel wireless chipsets are supposed to have really good support (provided they make discrete wireless adapters as well). If you can't go intel, Atheros also has good support. Broadcom wireless chipsets are able to be made to work but you may have to jump through some hoops first.

Good luck.

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

Thanks for the advice....
i was hoping i wouldnt have to purchase anything new, im a college student and dont have a lot of money as it is

Reply to master_andalf

Yeah I can certainly sympathise since I am also a college student. I really don't know much about the situation with your adapter so it may not even come to that at all. However, I think your cheapest and most secure option (if it comes to buying new equipment) would probably be to get a long ethernet cable and use a wired system. This, of course, assumes that you won't be moving your desktop that much (which negates the need for wireless), and that your motherboard has some integrated LAN card (highly probable).

Reply to Zorak

Wired is much faster, more reliable and much more secure. You should be able to buy, borrow or trade something for a suitable CAT5 cable.

You don't need CAT6 ( don't buy the hype ), regular old CAT5 or CAT5e will work just fine.

If you can't find one locally you should be able to order one online for 5-10 bucks maybe a lot less if you get lucky on ebay or wherever and you find a merchant with very reasonable shipping.

If you're in the US, newegg has a ton of cables for $1.50 unfortunately shipping is like 7 bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] rchInDesc=

You could also look for a friendly local geek with a CAT5 crimper tool and have one made in like 5 minutes ( most geeks will do it for free in exchange for dating advice :lol: ).

GL

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Reply to linux_0

Cat 5 would work wonderfully at home, but at school its all wireless, no way to connect via cat5, yes my motherboard has integrated support...Thanks again guys

Reply to master_andalf

What the ******************* were they thinking?

Maybe it's time to tell your school "you're fired" Donald Trump style.

I would question the quality of any educational institution that you would go entirely wireless.

They probably connected their mission critical internal financial and grading systems to the wireless network as well.

Are they even using encryption at all?

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Reply to linux_0

The cheapest PCI card on newegg that is supported by madwifi is the TEW-443PI

$30 before a $10 rebate ( $20 plus shipping after $10 rebate ).

http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] =TEW-443PI

http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility/Trendnet

Avoid the TEW-423PI! Most of the reviewers are saying it is a terrible card.

The rosewill cards available on newegg probably won't work.

GL

Message edited by linux_0 on 08-01-2008 at 12:05:46 PM

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Reply to linux_0

well in the actual classroom buildings there is ethernet connections, but the dorm buildings were built before cat5 internet connection...and to rewire them all would take massive amounts of money....each floor does have 1 or 2 rooms that have cat5 connection, but i would need like a 300 ft connection from where my room is ... and that length of cord ... well... a cord that long would be hard to come by...and i dont know how much the administration would like having that long of a cord run down the hall...ill have to look into PCI cards if i can find a job

Reply to master_andalf

Hey buddy I went to the the wireless support page for ubuntu on their site and I found this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/H [...] rdsLinksys

Please hit ctrl + f and search for the term "WUSB54G". There will be two entries. One says it works out of the box, and the other doesn't work out of the box. More likely yours is the 2nd type ( the one that says "WUSB54G v4 " ) . They have some instructions there that could be useful to you.

I really hope this works for you because I'd hate to just leave you with the solution of "buy a pci wireless card".

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

Thanks, sorry for not responding in so long but I forgot to check the thread.

Reply to master_andalf

No problem I hope everything works out!

-Zorak

Reply to Zorak

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