USB wifi adapter works but no browsing

[Len666]

HPG62-144DX notebook, Windows 7 and considering Ubuntu. I installed 10.10 and tried to get my wifi running but that wouldn't work. I had a connection only sometimes and it broke up after 5 minutes. Once I got a webpage but annoyingly slooow. Got the advice to update drivers and stuff. But the wifi connection is the only one I have...

Went back to 10.4 32-bit. Booted from CD and will keep it that way until this is sorted out. Now I see my wifi hotspots directly and I have no problem to establish a connection. The icon shows 3 bars quality. Network Tools says: Wlan1 = Realtek, Transmitted bytes xxx Received bytes yyy, no errors, link speed = 1Mbps, State = active. Looks good!

The only minor thing here is that enabling/disabling my internal Atheros antanna also enables/disables my Alfa USB Wifi adapter (based on Realtek 8187) but who cares.

A bigger problem is: when I start Firefox it doesn't come up with a webpage. It just keeps on saying: "loading". At the bottom of the screen it keeps saying "Looking up ..." for ages. Nothing further.

Any thoughts? I am willing to offer lot's of popcorn for some guidance here...

Cheers!
Len.

[Calimo]

Hello,
To me it looks like a possible DNS issue.
Can you connect to Google with an IP address rather than by name, such as: http://74.125.232.116/ ?
If yes, what is the content of your "/etc/resolv.conf" file?

[Len666]

Hello,
To me it looks like a possible DNS issue.
Can you connect to Google with an IP address rather than by name, such as: http://74.125.232.116/ ?
If yes, what is the content of your "/etc/resolv.conf" file?

Thanks for responding!

I booted from cd, I chose the wifi hotspot that normally works fine under Windows 7.
I waited 2p seconds and the connection was established. Icon was showing 3 bars of quality.

I started Firefox that wanted to connect to the homepage, didn't work, kept saying "connecting", no time out, just nothing.

Then I typed the url you gave me. On the bottom it didn't say "Looking for" but "Connecting to:". After say one minute I got the "connection-problem-page" saying Time Out, the webpage is taking too long.

So, did this bring any light in the darkness?

Hpoe to hear from you.

Regards, Len.

[Calimo]

Then I typed the url you gave me. On the bottom it didn't say "Looking for" but "Connecting to:". After say one minute I got the "connection-problem-page" saying Time Out, the webpage is taking too long.

Firefox says "looking for" when it is trying to resolve the host name (such as www.myhomepage.com) into a server address (216.239.213.2). This is done with DNS queries.
It says "connecting to" when it tries to connect to the remote server (in this case 216.239.213.2).

So it's not a DNS issue if you can't connect to the IP address directly. I'm sorry I won't be able to help here. But I think if you open a console and type in

ifconfig

valid with "enter" and then report the results here, other readers may help

[Len666]

(...) So it's not a DNS issue if you can't connect to the IP address directly. I'm sorry I won't be able to help here. But I think if you open a console and type in

ifconfig

valid with "enter" and then report the results here, other readers may help

Thanks Calimo.
I'll do that and post the result here.

Len.

[Len666]

So it's not a DNS issue if you can't connect to the IP address directly. I'm sorry I won't be able to help here. But I think if you open a console and type in

ifconfig

valid with "enter" and then report the results here, other readers may help

This is the output of ifconfig. I copied it in Windows 7 so the lines lost their word wrap.
Sorry bout that. Anyone who can locate the problem in this output? And better still, know of a solution?

Hoping,
Len.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ifconfig
eth0
Link encap:Ethernet
HWaddr c8:0a:a9:02:ba:bc
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST
MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:31 Base address:0x6000
lo
Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:119 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:119 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:9602 (9.6 KB)
TX bytes:9602 (9.6 KB)
wlan0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr c4:17:fe:ae:4a:f8
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
wlan1
Link encap:Ethernet
HWaddr 00:c0:ca:1a:1b:d1
inet addr:192.168.99.108
Bcast:192.168.99.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:caff:fe1a:1bd1/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:48 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:11687 (11.6 KB)
TX bytes:9355 (9.3 KB)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[TBABill]

Disable IPV6 in Firefox?

[Len666]

Disable IPV6 in Firefox?

I started from cd, got a connection.
Opened firefox and looked for the preferences regarding the network connection.
I can't find a way to disble IPV6 in Firefox.

I looked at the configuration details of my adapter, if that is what you mean.
when I look at these details and look under IPV6 I see "Ignore" so I guess it can't be that.

When I was "online but unable to browse with firefox" I tried the Ubuntu software centre in the upper left options. It started to download something (no clue what) or wanted to cause it suddenly said "in progress" but after 2 hours of looking at that turning cycle (quite symbolic) I decided I had waited long enough.

So, what have I got? Every now and then I have some kind of very short and terribly slow connection cause I actually see the Google.com homepage.

I don't think it's Firefox. The Ubuntu Software centre uses the internet without Firefox, right? So it's something else. Maybe the driver. The icon says I'm online and gives me 3 bars of signal quality but I can't communicate with the hotspot.

Is there anybody in this forum who has an idea? Can I email a developer or specialist?
I'm very greatful for the time of other helpful and friendly users but I guess this problem is in another league. When I look at the amount of messages around this subject I feel an ugly sense of confirmation.

Otherwise I'll just have to put up with Windows for another year or so....
Would be a pity.

Thanks anyway for your time and for reading my rant.

Len.

[TBABill]

To change IPV6 in Firefox, try

Make sure your connection settings are correct (e.g., Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network / Connection -> Settings). Additionally, disable ipv6 on Firefox Preferences, by setting the network.dns.disableIPv6 preference to true.
Type about:config in the address bar, press Enter.
Find network.dns.disableIPv6 in the list.
Right-click -> Toggle.
Restart Firefox and try again.

[Len666]

To change IPV6 in Firefox, try

Thanks Bill,

I clicked on {Tools} in Firefox but there is no {Options}.
I see {Websearch},{Downloads}, Add-Ons}, {Error Console}, {Page Info}, {Start Private Browsing}, Clear Recent History} and {Manage Content Plug-in}.
So I guess I have another Version. I an using Ubuntu 10.4.

The about:config trick worked well.
I changed the value of network.dns.disableIPv6 preference in TRUE
Restarted, no difference. I had a very short contact with the start ubuntu website. I saw the page and below it said "Transferring data" but then it already had stopped.
Al the time the icon upper right is indicating I have a connection.

For what it's worth I threw in a few commands I read in other threads.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementff

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Blue_wlan"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:03:52:E31:50
Bit Rate=18 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementff
Link Quality=41/70 Signal level=-69 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 064e:f203 Suyin Corp.
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0951:1603 Kingston Technology DataTraveler 1GB/2GB Pen Drive
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:0158 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Mass Storage Device
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8187 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Can you give me another hint what to try next?

Thanks a lot for your time.
Len.