Dell Latitude D600 Wireless not connecting(solved)

[hedgeclippers]

Hi I know my wireless card works completely in sending and receiving to my router as I have had it set up with Windows XP and it works fine. With PCLinuxOs though I can see the wireless networks but I can't connect. I do have an ethernet port and I am able to directly plug into my router so using my laptop in my basement office is not a problem but if I want to move the laptop anywhere else it then becomes a big problem.

I have an Intel Pro/Wireless Lan 2100 3A Mini PCI Adapter as my wireless card. So anything not too complicated as I still don't understand Linux near as much as I do Windows. So please make your explanations as uncomplicated as possible. Thank you for your help!

[OldGuy]

Taking a quick look on the net found these references.  One is to the manuals available from Dell, the other is from a site called eHow, which I have gotten good info from in the past.

I hope this helps with your problem.

Manuals for D600
http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/Product/latitude-d600


From eHow
http://www.ehow.com/how_8353685_turn-wifi-dell-latitude-d600.html

Toggle Wi-Fi Switch "On" Using the Function Keys on the Keyboard

    Press and hold the "Function (Fn)" key on the keyboard.

    Press the "F2" key once while holding the Function key.
   The F2 key is located on the topmost row of keys on the Dell keyboard.

    Press the F2 key again to turn off Wi-Fi on the Dell laptop.

Good luck.

[hedgeclippers]

Hi thank you for your help this was a new install of Linux and I don't remember turning the wireless off. I don't even think you can do that with Linux and the FN key that controls the functions at the top of the keyboard. Must be something wrong with how the software is written as I can see networks so I know it wasn't off. I unfortunately can't connect to any of them even if I had the key.

[trustytrev]

Hello,
     Have you set your firewall to allow your wireless to connect?
trustytrev?

[hedgeclippers]

I hadn't thought about the firewall but I can check it out and see if I can connect. I know wired to the router I can connect directly to the internet but not wireless presently. I know from using Windows though that the firewall is always on even wired it stays on as it has questioned downloads at least in Windows 7. Maybe Linux works differently? I can't say as I am still new to it although I have looked at many different flavors and distributions out there.

[hedgeclippers]

Hi I thought I would update this. I tried adjusting the firewall a while ago and still no luck I can see my router and I was able to put in my wep key but it still will not connect. This by the way was a test to see how Linux would work with this laptop using another hard drive I have for it. So I know for sure that it works with Windows XP and would if the driver was right for this in Linux. Any way to fix the driver?

[DeBaas]

If you have the WindowsXP .sys and .inf for this card you could try ndiswrapper

[trustytrev]

Hello,
     I have the PCLOS KDE desktop running on a Dell Latitude D610 with the 3.2.18-pclos1.bfs kernel and it uses the driver in the kernel.
Maybe you could try a different kernel,possibly an older one.Sometimes things get dropped from newer kernels and older kit won't function anymore.
trustytrev.

[Waldo22]

I am typing this from a Dell Latitude D600 with an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG internal card.  The setup went effortlessly on LXDE and every other version of PCLinuxOS I have tried.  I wonder if you are entering the proper encryption key for your router? 

[hedgeclippers]

Waldo You are absolutely right. I have the mini KDE and I think it was kismet that was installed to help set up the card and I realized I had it set for WPA instead of WEP. So I fixed it I also installed all of the ndiswrappers and all of the wireless stuff I could find so between that and changing the key to WEP I finally fixed it. Thanks to everyone who came to my aid I will keep this open in case anyone else wants to comment.

[Waldo22]

Waldo You are absolutely right. I have the mini KDE and I think it was kismet that was installed to help set up the card and I realized I had it set for WPA instead of WEP. So I fixed it I also installed all of the ndiswrappers and all of the wireless stuff I could find so between that and changing the key to WEP I finally fixed it. Thanks to everyone who came to my aid I will keep this open in case anyone else wants to comment.

Glad you got it sorted out.