Wireless connection problem

[d0ubty]

Hi all,

I recently switched to Linux, and FC11 is my first Linux distro. I was having some trouble loading web pages before--specifically, it was taking a relatively long time. So, of course, I went to find out why this might be, and how I might fix it.

Someone suggested editing the resolv and modprobe files. However, when I made the changes and restarted my computer, I had no connection to the internet, the NetworkManager icon was gone from the toolbar, I can't use "yum" because it can't find any mirrors, and I can't use any rpm commands either (presumably for the same reason). Basically, most likely due to my limited Linux knowledge, I can't install anything to fix the problem.

Am I up the creek, or is there a way to get my connection back/restore my old resolv.conf/modprobe.conf files? I would post outputs from "lspci" and such, but...well, you know.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by d0ubty

Am I up the creek, or is there a way to get my connection back/restore my old resolv.conf/modprobe.conf files?

Hello d0ubty,

I don't think you're "up the creek". I recommend simply undoing whatever you did to those files. Usually, direct changes to /etc/resolv.conf do not survive a reboot, but check it anyway. The file /etc/modprobe.conf is not created any more starting with Fedora 11, so whatever you did, undo it. If you created /etc/modprobe.conf, then delete it. Everything that used to be in /etc/modprobe.conf now exists in other files in /etc/modprobe.d.

Now, if you get back to the situation ante-tinkering, I think you should try something entirely different. If you're connecting at all and getting web pages albeit slowly, then I doubt that your problem is resolving domain names or loading kernel modules anyway. But another thing well-known to slow Firefox is IPv6. It's simple to toggle it to disabled, shouldn't make anything worse, and is easy to reverse...

1. Open Firefox and enter about:config in the URL navigation box
2. Agree to the cute warning.
3. Find this: network.dns.disableIPv6
4. Right-click it and toggle it to true.

[d0ubty]

Originally Posted by stoat

Hello d0ubty,

I don't think you're "up the creek". I recommend simply undoing whatever you did to those files. Usually, direct changes to /etc/resolv.conf do not survive a reboot, but check it anyway. The file /etc/modprobe.conf is not created any more starting with Fedora 11, so whatever you did, undo it. If you created /etc/modprobe.conf, then delete it. Everything that used to be in /etc/modprobe.conf now exists in other files in /etc/modprobe.d.

Now, if you get back to the situation ante-tinkering, I think you should try something entirely different. If you're connecting at all and getting web pages albeit slowly, then I doubt that your problem is resolving domain names or loading kernel modules anyway. But another thing well-known to slow Firefox is IPv6. It's simple to toggle it to disabled, shouldn't make anything worse, and is easy to reverse...

1. Open Firefox and enter about:config in the URL navigation box
2. Agree to the cute warning.
3. Find this: network.dns.disableIPv6
4. Right-click it and toggle it to true.

This is where it gets weird. My resolv.conf file didn't look ANYTHING like it did after I modified it. It was just a big commented block saying things about not being able to find a connection or something of the sort.

Anyway, I should probably have the name of the thread changed...the device is the Intel Pro/Wireless3945ABG .

[PhilC64]

One of the issues I found was that the resolv.conf file had my pc looking at my router as the primary nameserver. My resolv.conf loked like this

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 192.168.1.254
nameserver 192.168.1.1
nameserver 68.94.156.1
# NOTE: the libc resolver may not support more than 3 nameservers.
# The nameservers listed below may not be recognized.
nameserver 68.94.157.1

Knowing it would take forever just to get to my ISP's nameserver I modified the resolv.conf to look like this.
# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 68.94.156.1
nameserver 68.94.157.1
nameserver 68.94.156.1
# NOTE: the libc resolver may not support more than 3 nameservers.
# The nameservers listed below may not be recognized.
nameserver 68.94.157.1

Check yours out and see what's happening there.

[d0ubty]

Originally Posted by PhilC64

One of the issues I found was that the resolv.conf file had my pc looking at my router as the primary nameserver. My resolv.conf loked like this

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 192.168.1.254
nameserver 192.168.1.1
nameserver 68.94.156.1
# NOTE: the libc resolver may not support more than 3 nameservers.
# The nameservers listed below may not be recognized.
nameserver 68.94.157.1

Knowing it would take forever just to get to my ISP's nameserver I modified the resolv.conf to look like this.
# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 68.94.156.1
nameserver 68.94.157.1
nameserver 68.94.156.1
# NOTE: the libc resolver may not support more than 3 nameservers.
# The nameservers listed below may not be recognized.
nameserver 68.94.157.1

Check yours out and see what's happening there.

I changed the nameservers in the resolv.conf file to those...but I also remember there being something along these lines in there:

domain hsd1.ma.comcast.net.
search hsd1.ma.comcast.net


The wireless still is not working.

Also, I ran a command yesterday, and there was this in the output:

"Radio frequency kill switch is on. Kill switch must be turned off for wireless to work."

I checked the BIOS settings, and the wireless and bluetooth is enabled, and my Fn+F2 also does not seem to work. Any suggestions?

[d0ubty]

I decided to switch to wicd, and a wired connection works (with or without it), but under services it tells me that the device is dead. Also, SELinux interferes with the manager, which makes it impossible to obtain and IP address and wirelessly connect to the internet. What now?