[wifi] Intel Link 5100 + connection to hotspot?

[littlebigman]

Hello

(I actually wanted to post in the "Networking" section, but for some reason, the "New Topic" button isn't displayed over there.)

I just successfully installed Linux Mint 10 on an Acer laptop with an "Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN, REV=0x54" which seems OK.

The problem is that after successfully connecting to a nearby hotspot that I know works (no problem under Vista), I never get to its webpage where the user is expected to input their login+password: Chromium just spins... and gives up with the familiar "This webpage is not available."

Does someone know if something else must be done after connecting to a wifi hotspot?

Thank you for any help.

[DrHu]

Does someone know if something else must be done after connecting to a wifi hotspot?

Nothing in particular, providing the Linux network connection is in general working correctly
--for notebooks, there is sometimes a hardware switch that turns of the network card, you might check that possibility..
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ux-678588/
--possibly a different driver may help..

First question for any users you notice connecting, if they are different than a windows OS user, for example Apple OSX
--do they have problems connecting

Second question for provider of hotspot (open wireless), are they providing windows and Apple support for their connections, do they require a specific OS installed, eg some windows OS, or are other OSs' being supported, eg Apple Macs (OSX)\

If the hotspot doesn't only support windows OS users, then you may be able to do some troubleshooting to determine why the network connection for Linux doesn't work

Also the hotspot owners' browser application, do they specify the usual ones,: IE and Firefox or do they include newer browsers such as Google's chromium or chrome ?

The browser you have may not have javascript running, this is quite often required for login web pages, in order to start delivering those web ads (whereby the user gets some revenue stream from providing access)

[littlebigman]

Thanks for your help. This is the first time I'm trying to use wifi with Linux, and am no expert with Mint either.

Here's the output of standard commands:

http://www.pastebin.com/F88kpWTz

The Intel seems to be connected to the "FreeWifi" remote, user-accessible hotspot, which is actually run by my ISP (my ADSL modem is old and doesn't have wifi, so I experiment by connecting to another subscriber's), but when I launch my browser, I'm redirected to the logon page... but Chromium says "This webpage is not available."

Can you tell if the wifi is OK? Could the problem be higher up?

BTW, I'm running 2.6.35-22 and the Intel drivers are supposed to have been included in Linux since 2.6.24.

Thank you.

[littlebigman]

FWIW, I successfully logged on by booting with a Fedora 14 USB keydrive.

So it's definitely a Mint problem. As I have the same issue with Chromium and Firefox, it looks like a network and/or browser issue.