Troubleshooting Network Issues in Linux

Troubleshooting Network Issues in Linux

The first step you can do to fix your wireless network is to check if all your hardware drivers have loaded successfully. Visit the Terminal using  Ctrl+Alt+T and Use code: sudo ifconfig –a.

If your wired network interface doesn’t show up as eth0 or/and wireless as wlan0/ath0/eth1 then repeat the test by inserting a Live CD and then running the code: sudo lspci –k, and lspci –v for a detailed information. This should give enough information on the card to search the web so that you can locate the correct driver.

If you still can't find the driver for wireless card then as a last option, you can install the NdisWrapper which uses the NDIS drivers supplied for Windows in Linux as a kernel, from your distro's package manager.

When done,  find the driver file that acts as the .inf file on the CD. In case a .exe file exists instead, you can unzip it using the command: unzip. /path/abc.exe

To load, use the command: sudo ndiswrapper –i /pathtodriver.inf. Finally, to load the required module, use the code: sudo modprobe –v ndiswrapper and reverify the interfaces.

The next thing you can do is, turn off encryption for a couple of minutes. This might be unsafe, but it often removes a lot of potential problems.

You may also see to it that your router filters is out only on specified MAC addresses. If it doesn't, then check if your access points are set to broadcast their SSIDs.

For a last option, check for the presence of available networks with command:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 scan!