I think you're very wise. I only use madwifi if it is absolutely vital. (I last used it with a no-name PCMCIA WiFi card I bought at Lidl.)
Incidentally, I googled quickly for your device, and it was clear that many people have had problems with it under Linux. In fact I didn't see anyone who had solved the problem.
I doubt if changing the distro would make much difference - they all use the same kernel, and we are talking about a kernel module.
So long as you don't expect to write to it too often.
MBQ
It would also be *hideously* slow.
Indeed it is. Would it be better to use a real usb external HD, or is it the usb2 that is the bottleneck?
OK - downloaded Knoppix 6.2 Good news - it's a lot slicker, and understands my video card / monitor, and can see my hard drive and other usb-connected drives. Sound works.
Bad news ? - still no internet connection - although it does seem to recognise 'Auto Eth0' which it thinks is active. Sadly - not active enough to actually transmit any data through....! and can't see any other machines on the local network (but I don;t know if you'd expect that as they are all windows boxes)
Had a look at the firewall settings - tried 'on' and 'off' - neither allowed the browser to see the web.
Not sure where to go from here ?
Adrian
How do you connect to the internet ? Do you have an ADSL router, or modem ? If the latter, then it could be that your PC is expected to supply logon credentials.
One of the things which blew me away, when my brother demoed a LiveCD (Ubuntu 7.10 IIRC) was that it was able to access the internet immediately - but that was because we're cabled here, and the cable modem goes through a router which acts as a DHCP server.
I guess that might be the case....
It's via a lan, which then connects to the ADSL router which then goes down the phone line...
I'm not aware of having had to do any particular setup on the Windows install - pretty much plug it in to the lan & off you go....
As a final test, I'm downloading Ubuntu - which I'll try on the pendrive....
Thanks Adrian
Can you ping the router ? What does "ifconfig" show you ?
Hi Yes - it seems I can ping the router on 192.168.1.254 and log into its admin page via the web browser.
I can also ping www addresses via a command prompt.
What I can't do is actually browse www's from the browser..... I feel like there's some litte bit of the jigsaw missing...
I did an ifconfig, copied/pasted the output into Open Office, saved it to the pendrive (or so I thought) but WinXP won;t let me see the file on the pendrive.
I can do it the old-fashioned way (print the output of ifconfig, scan it under windows and put it up on the web as a jpg) if yuo think that's likely to reveal something....
Thanks for your help Adrian
Doesn't this point to not seeing DNS lookup?
Do you have a firewall where you have to allow http ? Or is Firefox or whatever set to Work Offline (in the File menu)? If you can ping addresses by their names, eg "ping
nameserver 208.67.222.222 nameserver 208.67.220.220
OK - had another go. The bundled browser is something called Iceweasel (!) - and it has an online/offline switch - neither position works.
From a command line I can ping '
I did find /etc/resolv.conf - edited the nameservers in - but then it wouldn't let me save the modified file....
I've go to be out to see a client today - so I've left Ubuntu downloading in the background and I'll try that on the pendrive when I get back in.
Thanks for your assistance Adrian
It's firefox by another name, mozilla are precious about distros fixing bugs and shipping it under the same name.
Odd, wonder if something's trying to be clever and use IPv6?
after you've pinged e.g.
Dunno - if something is trying to be clever then it's not me!
Browser can't see the site. Adrian
Another possibility. In Edit=>Preferences=>Advanced=>Settings is Configure Proxies to Access the Internet set to No Proxy ?
(I'm assuming your browser is like Firefox. The path may be slightly different in your case.)
Hi Timothy
yes - set to no proxy....
Thanks Adrian
Are you saying you can ping the site and it responds, but cant get a web connection?
Yes - absolutely!
FWIW, I just tried Ubuntu - which didn't want to run from the pendrive but did install more or less successfully onto a 'real' usb drive.
It was also able to browse the internet.... so that would seem to be a result.
Adrian
It is really about time that someone asked the all to obvious a question which is why are you bothering. OK, it's a challenge, but could you explain what is the point as you've been at this for 3 days now obviously using a Windows based machine - so why not stick to that?
Rob
I don't agree. If the OP can ping a site but can't access it on his browser then he is 98% there, and might as well persist.
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