Internet Connection keeps timing out and disconnecting

[melchizedek]

Evening all,

I've finally gotten around to installing Mint 5.0 on my laptop (Intel(R) 1.60GHz | 1 MB DDR2 553 RAM | 40GB SATA HD | Ralink 802.11 WLAN | 15.4 Widescreen TFT | Intel 943GM (Calistoga) ICH7-M | AC 97 Onboard Sound). Anyway, for some reason my wireless internet connection is awful. Firstly, it takes a few attempts to connect (using the roaming network icon thingy in the system tray)....then when it's finally connected, the traffic ceases altogether.....then maybe some stuff comes through again..and then stops (sort of three seconds of traffic, then two stuck, then two seconds coming through, then seven seconds stuck). Then it disconnects altogether. So I restart it manually...and the pattern repeats. Sometimes I can see the wireless connections available in my vicinity (usually three). Sometimes I can't see any at all. Sometimes it connects and traffic comes through. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I can't reconnect at all. In fact, it seem to be that, after an install, my ability to connect wirelessly to my modem just degrades. At first, usually I can connect. Then traffic starts to stick. Then eventually it starts to disconnect....but I can reconnect. Then eventually I can't connect at all. Which is where I am at the moment.

The problem isn't unique to network-manager either. I installed wicd too and exactly the same problem. And it's not localized to just Firefox 3, or a specific piece of software. Anything that accesses the internet seems to be affected by the problem. And it's not my computer. I reinstalled Mint 4.0 and Fedora 9 and both of those guys work just fine, wireless wise. It's just something in Mint 5.0 that's not working as it should.

Any suggestions?

[67GTA]

I had a similar problem yesterday. I rebooted my wireless router, and it was fine.

[melchizedek]

I had a similar problem yesterday. I rebooted my wireless router, and it was fine.

Rebooted my modem and still the same problem. It auto-connected on boot and ran fine for about two minutes. Then the traffic started jamming up for intervals of a few seconds. Then those seconds turned to minutes. Then it disconnects altogether and I manually reconnect. Same problem. It keeps jamming up. Eventually it disconnects again. And then I can't reconnect any more and after a while I can't even see any available wireless neworks to connect to.

[67GTA]

I just searched for Ralink 802.11 on the Ubuntu forums, and it took a while to finish searching all the Ralink help posts. Wireless is just crappy in Elyssa/Hardy because of the kernel. Have you tried ndiswrapper?

[melchizedek]

I just searched for Ralink 802.11 on the Ubuntu forums, and it took a while to finish searching all the Ralink help posts. Wireless is just crappy in Elyssa/Hardy because of the kernel. Have you tried ndiswrapper?

Lol....I've TRIED....but not had much success. I tried to follow the wiki but have ended up on my arse. Neither suggestion seems to tell me what my wireless card is. I actually know what my card is....it's a ralink....and I also know that ndiswrapper works just fine with the rt73.INF windows driver (as I used it for over a year in MEPIS on this machine).

Here is the info I get back....

me ~ $ sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
rt73 : driver installed
device (0DB0:6877) present (alternate driver: rt73usb)
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=-121 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
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:17 Base address:0x2000

eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
inet addr:169.254.6.10 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
Interrupt:17 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:212 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:212 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:10764 (10.5 KB) TX bytes:10764 (10.5 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:db:04:09:db
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)

wlan0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:db:04:09:db
inet addr:169.254.6.71 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 7724
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:19:db:04:09:db
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:19:db:04:09:db
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPREQUEST of 10.0.0.7 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPREQUEST of 10.0.0.7 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

And with lspci......

me ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

[67GTA]

Did you blacklist the Ralink module before installing the ndiswrapper driver? Run

Code: Select all

lsmod

in a terminal to see if the Ralink module is being loaded. It won't work with two modules loaded at the same time.

[melchizedek]

Did you blacklist the Ralink module before installing the ndiswrapper driver? Run

Code: Select all

lsmod

in a terminal to see if the Ralink module is being loaded. It won't work with two modules loaded at the same time.

Thanks for replying...I'm totally cracking up with this one....lol. No I didn't blacklist it. How do I do that?

Will post results of lsmod below...I just posted the results from the wrong machine....lol. I've removed them now. Sorry if you read them and were wondering what was going on. See, like I said.....cracking up

[67GTA]

I don't see one. I actually don't see your wireless card in the lspci output. It shows your ethernet card, but no wireless. Is it USB?

[melchizedek]

Okay...here it is.....

me-laptop ~ $ lsmod
Module Size Used by
ndiswrapper 192920 0
nls_iso8859_1 4992 1
nls_cp437 6656 1
vfat 14464 1
fat 54556 1 vfat
usb_storage 73664 1
libusual 19108 1 usb_storage
rfcomm 41744 2
l2cap 25728 13 rfcomm
bluetooth 61156 4 rfcomm,l2cap
i915 32512 2
drm 82580 3 i915
ppdev 10372 0
cpufreq_userspace 5284 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9740 0
cpufreq_conservative 8712 0
cpufreq_stats 7104 0
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
freq_table 5536 2 cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
container 5632 0
sbs 15112 0
sbshc 7680 1 sbs
dock 11280 0
iptable_filter 3840 0
ip_tables 14820 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 16132 1 ip_tables
parport_pc 36260 0
lp 12324 0
parport 37832 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
joydev 13120 0
snd_hda_intel 344728 3
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 78596 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_hwdep 10500 1 snd_hda_intel
video 19856 0
output 4736 1 video
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
serio_raw 7940 0
psmouse 40336 0
battery 14212 0
ac 6916 0
snd_seq_oss 35584 0
button 9232 0
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
snd_rawmidi 25760 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
evdev 13056 8
snd_seq 54224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
iTCO_wdt 13092 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4868 1 iTCO_wdt
shpchp 34452 0
snd_timer 24836 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9612 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
pcspkr 4224 0
pci_hotplug 30880 1 shpchp
snd 56996 17 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
intel_agp 25492 1
agpgart 34760 3 drm,intel_agp
soundcore 8800 1 snd
ext3 136712 2
jbd 48404 1 ext3
mbcache 9600 1 ext3
sg 36880 0
sd_mod 30720 6
sr_mod 17956 0
cdrom 37408 1 sr_mod
pata_acpi 8320 0
ata_piix 19588 3
8139cp 24704 0
ata_generic 8324 0
8139too 27520 0
mii 6400 2 8139cp,8139too
libata 159344 3 pata_acpi,ata_piix,ata_generic
scsi_mod 151436 5 usb_storage,sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata
ehci_hcd 37900 0
uhci_hcd 27024 0
usbcore 146028 6 ndiswrapper,usb_storage,libusual,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal 16796 0
processor 36872 2 thermal
fan 5636 0
fbcon 42912 0
tileblit 3456 1 fbcon
font 9472 1 fbcon
bitblit 6784 1 fbcon
softcursor 3072 1 bitblit
fuse 50580 5

[melchizedek]

I don't see one. I actually don't see your wireless card in the lspci output. It shows your ethernet card, but no wireless. Is it USB?

nope...just your bog standard internal laptop cheap rubbish

[67GTA]

I still don't see it. If the lspci output you posted earlier was from your laptop, then something isn't right. It should show the wireless card even if it is not working.

[melchizedek]

I still don't see it. If the lspci output you posted earlier was from your laptop, then something isn't right. It should show the wireless card even if it is not working.

Dear God...if I've copy and pasted the wrong information from the wrong machine I'm going to have to shoot myself...after apologizing profusely to you first. I'll boot up my lappy and do them all again, just to make sure. Will post it in a few minutes.

[melchizedek]

Okay, here it is...and I took these readings whilst actually connected to the net via wicd. Of course, it will freeze up in a few minutes. But the point is, my wireless card does function...and earlier on this afternoon I was running fedora 9 on it using the wificard for about two hours and all was well.

me-laptop ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

me-laptop ~ $ sudo /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/mintWifi.py
[sudo] password for me:
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
rt73 : driver installed
device (0DB0:6877) present (alternate driver: rt73usb)
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:off/any
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=-121 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
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:17 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:218 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:218 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:10900 (10.6 KB) TX bytes:10900 (10.6 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:db:04:09:db
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)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 134519072
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.6
Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:19:db:04:09:db
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:19:db:04:09:db
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:03:0d:5a:fe:2e
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST of 10.0.0.7 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPREQUEST of 10.0.0.7 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 18
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

me-laptop ~ $ lsmod
Module Size Used by
af_packet 23812 8
rfcomm 41744 2
l2cap 25728 13 rfcomm
bluetooth 61156 4 rfcomm,l2cap
i915 32512 2
drm 82580 3 i915
ppdev 10372 0
cpufreq_userspace 5284 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9740 0
cpufreq_conservative 8712 0
cpufreq_stats 7104 0
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
freq_table 5536 2 cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
container 5632 0
sbs 15112 0
sbshc 7680 1 sbs
dock 11280 0
iptable_filter 3840 0
ip_tables 14820 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 16132 1 ip_tables
parport_pc 36260 0
lp 12324 0
parport 37832 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
joydev 13120 0
ndiswrapper 192920 0
video 19856 0
output 4736 1 video
snd_hda_intel 344728 3
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 78596 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_hwdep 10500 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
serio_raw 7940 0
psmouse 40336 0
battery 14212 0
ac 6916 0
snd_seq_oss 35584 0
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
button 9232 0
snd_rawmidi 25760 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
iTCO_wdt 13092 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4868 1 iTCO_wdt
evdev 13056 8
snd_seq 54224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 24836 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9612 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
pcspkr 4224 0
shpchp 34452 0
pci_hotplug 30880 1 shpchp
intel_agp 25492 1
agpgart 34760 3 drm,intel_agp
snd 56996 17 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 8800 1 snd
ext3 136712 2
jbd 48404 1 ext3
mbcache 9600 1 ext3
sg 36880 0
sd_mod 30720 4
sr_mod 17956 0
cdrom 37408 1 sr_mod
pata_acpi 8320 0
ata_piix 19588 3
8139cp 24704 0
ata_generic 8324 0
8139too 27520 0
mii 6400 2 8139cp,8139too
libata 159344 3 pata_acpi,ata_piix,ata_generic
scsi_mod 151436 4 sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata
ehci_hcd 37900 0
uhci_hcd 27024 0
usbcore 146028 4 ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal 16796 0
processor 36872 2 thermal
fan 5636 0
fbcon 42912 0
tileblit 3456 1 fbcon
font 9472 1 fbcon
bitblit 6784 1 fbcon
softcursor 3072 1 bitblit
fuse 50580 3

[67GTA]

This is your ethernet card: 06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) It doesn't show a wireless card. That is strange. I've never seen that happen before. The kernel in Elyssa/Hardy has screwed up a lot of wireless cards. You might try using a live CD of Mint 4 or another distro that it worked with and write down the lspci output for your wireless card. There are a lot of wireless modules, so we need to know which one to try and remove to make ndiswrapper work.

[melchizedek]

This is your ethernet card: 06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) It doesn't show a wireless card. That is strange. I've never seen that happen before. The kernel in Elyssa/Hardy has screwed up a lot of wireless cards. You might try using a live CD of Mint 4 or another distro that it worked with and write down the lspci output for your wireless card. There are a lot of wireless modules, so we need to know which one to try and remove to make ndiswrapper work.

Well, it's somewhat of a relief that I posted the right thing. Anyway, I booted up LinxMINT 4.0 and ran lspci and it came up with.......

mint@mint:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

I'm not sure whether that helps much at all. However, out of pure desperation, last night I tried reinstalling Mint. No help at all. My WIFI still didn't work. Anyway, I knacked something up with that install, so I re-installed yet again, and for some reason I was able to stay online for long enough to upgrade Mint, and "touch wood" my WIFI has been working all morning.

That's not to say it's going to continue to work. But at the moment it seems to be holding.

That aside, is there anything in the above that helps isolate which module should be blacklisted? Just for future reference? And I have to say a big thanks for all your help to date.

[67GTA]

I don't see a thing. Do you have a "wired" ethernet card in your laptop? One possibility is that your wireless card is being detected as your wired card. Or it is combining them for some reason. Maybe it will continue to run.

[melchizedek]

I don't see a thing. Do you have a "wired" ethernet card in your laptop? One possibility is that your wireless card is being detected as your wired card. Or it is combining them for some reason. Maybe it will continue to run.

Hi there,

Well it's continued to run over the weekend, and is still good this morning. I'm not sure what you mean by a wired ethernet card. There's an ethernet port on the side of my laptop. But I'm not sure what's going on inside. And I suppose it's possible that something's going wrong with the detection process. When I used MEPIS my SATA drive used to show up as a USB device....lol. It worked fine though, so what the hell.

Hopefully, by the time I reinstall MINT again on my laptop, we'll be onto an Intrepid Ibex build of MINT, and maybe that Kernel won't be quite so hostile towards my WIFI card. Maybe

Again, thanks a lot for the time and effort you've put in helping me. It's much appreciated.