[LBo] Internet connection

[Jason Armstrong]

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007, Troy wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I installed Ubuntu 6.10 on my parents computer, and I'm having some
> issues with the internet connection.  The computer is an older Dell
> Dimension, and only has a pci wifi card for network connection.  
> 
> After installing Ubuntu 6.10, I was able to successfully download all
> the updates.  However, when trying to browse the web, sometimes the web
> pages load, other times they time out.  I've eliminated the web site
> itself as the issue by trying a number of different sites and receiving
> the same results.  
> 
> Prior to installing Ubuntu 6.10, this computer was running XP and was
> able to connect to the internet without any problems.  Therefore,
> because I was able to successfully download the updates, and browsing
> was fine under XP, I think I can safely eliminate the signal strength as
> the problem.  As a side note, I used the wireless connection on my lap
> top in the same room, and had an excellent signal strength.
> 
> Please share any ideas or suggestions you have.

some things to try to source where the problem originates from: 

When the problem is occurring, try: 

 - checking the link lights on your wireless NIC and router to see if the 
   layer 2 connection is dropping

 - Checking the output of iwconfig and ifconfig to see if there are any issues
   with the bit rate, link quality, signal level, noise level, invalid or 
   retried packets, or any errors, overruns or collisions.

 - pinging your local gateway (the IP of the wireless router, probably 
   something like 192.168.1.1)

 - pinging the IP address assigned to your cable or DSL modem (if you're not 
   sure what it is, do "lynx -dump whatismyip.org")

 - pinging an external site like Google by IP address: 72.14.253.99

 - pinging an external site like google by hostname

 - what wifi NIC and router combo are you using, and what software do
   you have installed? (if you're not sure you can check by doing: 
   "dpkg -l | grep wireless"

Cheers,

Jason