HELP - Wifi Not Working for Acer Aspire 5100

[AnubisIV]

Hello Ultimate Edition Members,
I'm a noob to ubuntu basically but I got Ubuntu Intrepid currently dual booted with XP on my desktop and am going for the full switch once my Ultimate Edition 2.0 Download finishes.

I downloaded Intrepid on my brothers computer after fully reformatting it from Windows XP.
-That is also another problem, everythime i try the Windows XP Installer on his computer, it crashes through the reformatting, and yet it works perfectly on my desktop computer.

My question about Ubuntu is,
I installed Intrepid and am going to install Ultimate Edition 2.0 on my brothers laptop (again as soon as it finishes downloading, it will be Ultimate Edition 2.0). I can easily connect through my wired connection on my desktop. The same ethernet cord will not load anything on my brothers laptop.
When i tried getting his laptop on the internet I was to say the least, a little confused. Would i need a wireless driver or a full ethernet driver seems how it's a laptop? Also would you know if there is a way to get the Wifi radar on his laptop without being connected to the internet on it? I have tried multiple times to get him connected wirelessly and have the SSID and Mac Address (if the mac is the same as the wired one he had pre installed) and I have the WEP key, not too sure if I need the BSSID or even where to find it. Yet when i change things it just stays not connected, I have even tried resetting the router and his wireless switch on the computer.

My brothers computer is a:
Acer Aspire 5100
AMD Turion x64
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100

Would anyone be able to enlighten me on this subject?
Much thanks to whoever can spread a little light on this =P

[ixnod]

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2471

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1979



That may get you started.

Now for the laptop issue when you Hot Swap from desktop to laptop, it confuses the router. Which it doesn't like, because at the end of that chord, the router sees the MAC address of the computer. when you swap out the computer, the Router goes WTF?!! the easiest course of action, is to shut down the desktop. wait a few seconds for the router to update then plug the cable into the laptop. then turn the laptop on, boot into 2.0 livesession disk, and see if the cd will recognize the connection. also of not, make sure the wireless switch is in the OFF position. seeing two Nics from the same computer confuses the kernel and the router and they both go belly up trying to figure out whats going on.

Now that we have that out of the way, are you connecting with an internaal wireless card? or an external PCMCIA slot / USB add-on?

[AnubisIV]

Thank you for the links, they look very promising. I will also try the router thing with my ethernet cord when i get home from school,
Right now I can answer your question though.

My brothers wireless card is onboard, it is not external.

Also!
I am very confused as to what to do with this Ultimate Edition 2.0.rar (or whatever its called) pack once i download it from the site. How would i burn it to a disk so it boots it as a disk. It was just a bunch of files and .exe files.
I was just expecting a .iso file that i could burn to my cd like ubuntu..

[pch.shot]

Nick, if you have win rar installed on Windows an iso file will look like a .rar extension because that is what it's association is(an iso file is a compressed file). If you have winzip it would look like a .zip file.

[AnubisIV]

LOL I was totally clueless to not realize that. I just remembered that it would be called a .rar, so I'm assuming if i just send it to my comp with a burner and it reads .iso's on Nero it will be fine?

[pch.shot]

That's the way I do it. I use Nero as well. A lot of people don't like it but it has always worked fine for me.

[AnubisIV]

Oh I love Nero Burning Rom, it has worked perfectly for me for every iso i have ever burned, and taking iso's off winrar worked just great, it is again an iso file.
Thanks for that help guys, now to burn it and try a few of those ideas for getting my brother his wireless working.

[pch.shot]

Have a look here:
http://www.linux-drivers.org/
See if you can find your hardware listed as compatible.