[SOLVED]After upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10, cannot see wireless network

[leetuckert]

Re: [SOLVED]After upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10, cannot see wireless network

In one of those "DOH!" moments, I logged onto the web gui for the router and discovered that in changing a couple of the settings, I had inadvertently unchecked a box by "Broadcast this network?" which meant it was invisible. After checking the box, Kubuntu sees the router and connects fine.

Sorry for the bone-headedness.

Great! I am glad you were able to get this resolved. Didn't want to see you go to another distro

[nhtrader]

Re: [SOLVED]After upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10, cannot see wireless network

I had inadvertently unchecked a box by "Broadcast this network?" which meant it was invisible. After checking the box, Kubuntu sees the router and connects fine.

I'm glad your wireless is now working, but truth be told this issue is not solved.

You should be able to use your wireless without broadcasting your SSID. So something is still wrong.

[SteveRiley]

Re: [SOLVED]After upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10, cannot see wireless network

You should be able to use your wireless without broadcasting your SSID. So something is still wrong.

Not exactly. The ability to hide an SSID is not an official part of the 802.11 specification. There is no requirement that wireless hardware or software must support non-broadcast SSIDs.

[nhtrader]

Re: [SOLVED]After upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10, cannot see wireless network

Not exactly. The ability to hide an SSID is not an official part of the 802.11 specification. There is no requirement that wireless hardware or software must support non-broadcast SSIDs.

Didn't know that the specification to support hidden SSIDs was optional. Thanks for the lesson in 802.11.

Now that I know this detail, my wireless interface works.

Just let me add that it is quite frustrating to have spent the past week searching for the answer to "why won't my wireless work?" only to learn that you can't use a standard feature on almost all routers. I hope that the powers that be will include functionality for working with hidden SSIDs in the future b/c it will only help to make things easier and therefore contribute to a more positive LINUX experience. At the very least, there should be a prompt that warns the user that they will not be able to access hidden access points and not to waste their time trying to figure out something that has no solution.

[SteveRiley]

Re: [SOLVED]After upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10, cannot see wireless network

...only to learn that you can't use a standard feature on almost all routers...

Early in the days of wireless networking, people couldn't be bothered to set up WEP. They demanded an easier way "to hide" so manufacturers added this silly feature. Because there's no documented standard for non-broadcasting access points, that means there's no standard way to write a supplicant that supports them. Some versions of Windows will actively beacon for non-broadcasting APs that they once had been connected to. Talk about shouting in the forest...