Puppy Network Wizard won't get me online using wireless

[rerooter@rambler.ru]

Hello everyone! This is gonna be a long post since I'm new to Puppy, or in fact any Linux, and I want to put as much info in to make sure someone helps me find a mistake in what I do. Sorry about that and thanks for the patience for those who'll read it!

I have a really old piece of computer history - partly functioning Compaq Armada E500, which I hope to revive with Puppy, and was successful so far.

The only real problem that's left is connecting grandpa to the internet - I've tried for weeks to do it in my spare time and still got one step short of making it fully functional. I have a Zyxel p-600 series wireless router in my living room which is used just fine by 2 windows-based laptops in the house, so I'm trying to get my Puppy to use it as well.

So I bought a usb wireless dongle - D-Link DWA-131, which I managed to install with ndsiwrapper and much vooodoo dancing to the only usb port on the laptop. I click "connect" on my desktop and get transferred to Puppy Network Wizard. It shows me 2 interfaces:


eth0 Ethernet e100 pci:bla-bla-bla
wlan0 Wireless r871x_usb_drb usb:bla-bla-bla

Naturally, wlan is the one I'm trying to set up, so I click it, then go on to Configure wireless network -> press "Wireless" button, I load the previously configured profile ZyXEL-0216, with profile name ZyXEL-0216, ESSID ZyXEL-0216, Mode: Managed, Security: Open, AP Scan: Broadcast SSID, and shared key as it is on my router.

I click on "use this profile", and puppy seems to connect to it - REPORT ON TEST OF wlan0 CONNECTION: "Puppy was able to find a live network". Same message if I then click Test wlan0. Next, configure interface I use Auto DHCP, since, to my shame, I have no idea how to configure manually whatever that is. I get a message that "NETWORK CONFIGURATION OF wlan0 SUCCESSFUL", and it offers me to keep configuration for next boot, which I naturally agree to.

I then click "Done" back in Network Wizard and open the browser... To find myself staring at "Couldn't resolve host". Any other browser also won't show anything - clearly I'm not connected. Thats as far as I got - I don't know what I'm doing wrong and clearly the dongle itself works and connects, but I still can't browse the web.

The dongle does light up when configuring network and test-connecting. I'm using a "full" (not frugal) install of Puppy on the laptop due to pretty outdated hardware (133 MHz and 16 Mb Ram, I think). I thought the problem might be in the eth0 interface, so today I took an ethernet cable, plugged the laptop to the router directly and configured both eth0 and wlan0, both successfully, but still, no internet. When I used the cable, a new icon did show at the bottom - 2 computers, but only one of them lit up from time to time, it seems to be a one-way communication issue.

So, I've browsed the internet, read the manual, read the forums, and this is pretty much it - I can't understand what's missing and I can't understand what's wrong, so I'm asking anyone for any advice. I get the feeling I might be wrong in using "Auto DHCP", and should configure Static IP, but I have no idea how to do it if that's the case, I've never tuned these settings on any other machine I ever connected to the router.

I'll appreciate all help on the issue and hope someone here has some advice!

[Béèm]

pretty outdated hardware (133 MHz and 16 Mb Ram

Which puppy did you install on this HW?
Is the connection WEP or WPA?
Issue in a console/terminal ifconfig and post the output here.

[sfeeley]

welcome to puppy. I'm sorry you're having trouble with wireless. I'm a bit of a noob, but I'll give a few suggestions.

- when you're in the network wizard (several pages in) there is a "scan" button. When you click that does it show your network? I suspect that the answer is yes, and that's what you mean when you say that you load the previously configured profile, but I just wanted to be sure.

-also, in puppy 5.2 (and close relatives) there are several different interfaces that can get you to the internet. Barry's simple network tool and the slightly more robust one that it sounds like you were using. For some reason, sometimes I will have more luck on one than the other, so you might try switching back and forth. Every couple of months, my web stops working and I have to switch back and forth. Neither will seem to work, and then one "sticks." The expert readers out there are probably doing a face-palm right now, but its my equivalent of your vodoo dance. And while I'm doing this, I encounter the same issue that you face, of a reported "success," but no real ability to get an actual connection.

-if you can get a puppy driver to work on your wireless dongle, that would be better than ndiswrapper.

-if you're lucky, the user Tempestuous might weigh in--he's really on top of wireless drivers and the like. Perhaps if no other responses help out, you can PM him.

-what puppy are you using? It might be that Wary (a version aimed specifically at older hardware and older drivers) might give you better luck. You might look up and see if you actually have 16mb ram. If so that's real low. A few hobbyists have gotten such computers to work as test projects, but I don't think it would do well for even light browsing.

goodluck

[rerooter@rambler.ru]

>Béèm

The connection is WPA. I'm not sure which puppy I installed, but it seems like just the normal version from the website - it was about a year ago when I installed it. ifconfig gave me this:


Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0

UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1

RX packets: 0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets: 0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:1

collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


Hope it makes sense to you

>sfeeley

Yes, the scan button works - it found my router, which is how I configured it.

I did try a few interfaces - Network Wizard actually worked best, or so it seemed to me.

>if you can get a puppy driver to work on your wireless dongle, that would be better than ndiswrapper.

I'm not sure if there is a linux driver for that dongle - the CD came with windows drivers only. From some forum I read that the "true" driver for my dongle is "Realtek-based wifi device; 8712u", which I got from link, it came as a pet package, and after I installed it, the ndsiwrapper actually recognised my dongle driver - before it just said "driver is invalid". Not sure that's how I was supposed to do it, but that's how it works now...

I might be downplaying my specs, if you can tell me the way to look them up in Puppy, I can post them.

[Béèm]

I don't see your wlan0 entry.
Where is it?

[rerooter@rambler.ru]

I'm not sure where it is. It does show in Network Wizard and even connects. Could it be because it's an external usb dongle, and not a built-in wi-fi? What can I do?

[Béèm]

It is hardly to be believed that you have a running puppy in 16MB of ram. This is way below the required minimum. Hence the question to know which puppy you are running.

ifconfig lists all you network devices.
There is only one listed.
Maybe you didn't copy/paste all of them correctly.

[rerooter@rambler.ru]

Yes, seems I have indeed underestimated the machine - System Information shows 547 MHz and about 60 Mb "Total memory", which I assume is RAM. It originally came with Windows 2000, but I remember how slow it was and first tried Ubuntu, but that didn't even boot up from CD, so I went on to search for Linux distros tailored for old machines before running into puppy, which works really well on it.

Back to the topic in hand - I ran ifconfig just after reboot, and it returned the same values to me as before, except for RX bytes and TX bytes, which were 300 this time. I then launched the Network Wizard again and THEN ran ifconfig - the results are different, first one, lo, is the same, but there is an extra entry:

wlan0

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr F0:7D:68:AC:6B:6D

inet addr: 192.168.1.35 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:17 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:1 overruns:0 carrier:0

coliisions:0 txquelen:1000

RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


I'll repeat that this appeared after I configured wlan0 in exactly same way as in my original post. I have a bad feeling about that Ethernet HWaddr, guess thats why there is no change after I confiigure it? Also, I thought it'll save configurations on reboot, why doesn't it do that?

[trapster]

Make sure your /etc/resolv.conf looks something like this:

Code: Select all

# Generated by dhcpcd from wlan0
# Generated by dhcpcd from wlan0
# /etc/resolv.conf.head can replace this line
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 63.226.12.96 
nameserver 72.3.208.251
nameserver 192.168.1.1

[rerooter@rambler.ru]

>Make sure your /etc/resolv.conf looks something like this:

Erm... Well, it says when I click it "File doesn't exist or I can't access it". I take it that's bad, right?

Still stuck unable to figure out what's wrong, will take any help.

[cthisbear]

Use my second and third links as a guide.
Also read the post as posted by madchad .

" **CORRECTION UPDATE**
I just got Seamonkey working.
Had to do the old test/auto DHCP/test/auto DHCP.
I don't know how that makes the difference but it does. "

""""""""

So from here >> split name ............. 15 keys

WPA2-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 with Pre-Shared Key)

and

My old wireless setup post.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70958

//////////

CatDude's great help as suggested bybigpup .

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=65346

Chris.