Question:
Linksys E800 router working with linux?
mistakeninsanity
12 years ago
I'm running ubuntu 11.10 on an inspiron n5050. Bought a Linksys E800 router. I can connect to the network but I cant access the internet either wired or wireless. I'm assuming the router needs to be set up with the CD that comes with but if I try to run it with wine it fails and says my computer has no hardware for wireless. I know almost nothing about linux besides a few simple command line commands. Any help?
Three answers:
?
12 years ago
You do have a modem there somewhere, don't you? Presuming it's a home network, you should have modem sitting between your adsl(phone line)/cable(fibre) and your new router. You would most likely have bought the e800 to provide some functionality your existing modem/router lacked, such as a switch (multiple lan ports) or wireless, or some sort of sophisticated packet management.



One potential conflict could be if your modem/router is serving up an address to the wan side of your e800 that is in the same address range as the e800 is using to serve up addresses on its lan side.



Ubuntu/linux is not really part of the problem, as long as its wireless hardware is working (which doesn't rely in any way on the e800). For example, your mobile phone should be able to connect to the wireless lan, without putting the e800 cd anywhere near it!



Try this: If you can connect your inspiron to the modem/router (the one the phone line/fibre cable is connected to) and get on the internet, then connect your computer to the e800 (without connecting anything else to the e800), go into the config (192.168.1.1) and turn off the dhcp server (will be under the lan settings somewhere). Then connect your modem/router to your e800, but to one of the e800's lan ports, rather than the wan (internet) port. Connect your inspiron to another of the lan ports, and you should be able to get on the internet. You will need to set up a password on the wifi, but it will function like a port on the lan switch. Good to go!



This is a simple way to avoid double nat without passing authentication from the modem/router to the e800 (disabling routing on the modem/router). The reason for disabling dhcp on the e800 is that dhcp is already provided by the modem/router. Not making use of routing on the e800 means that everything stays on the one lan address range, you're basically using it as a wired/wireless switch.
efflandt
12 years ago
Make sure that the ethernet cable plugs are seated tight. Are any ends missing the little springy thing to keep it latched? Operating system should not matter at all for a router.



What is the router WAN port connected to? Do you get internet if you directly connect a computer to whatever the other end of that cable is connected to?



What were you using for internet before you got this router?



For WiFi Dell laptops often need a Broadcom driver. One or the other in Additional Drivers of Ubuntu should work. You should not need anything special for ethernet.
correcthorsebatterystaple
12 years ago
Is the router able to connect to the internet? Try with another device. you shouldn't need any special software or drives to connect to a new router. It could be your DNS servers, which turn URLs into I.P addresses. open terminal and enter 'ping 8.8.8.8' without the quotes. If you get something like

'64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=57 time=26.720 ms' or similar then try 'ping google.com' if you get something like 'could not resolve' or any other error, then you need to configure DNS servers for either your router or your computer. If 8.8.8.8 is unresponsive, then your router is not connected to the internet. I put two very good DNS providers that do it for free in the sources area. I just noticed you are looking to install the software, my bad. Try going to 192.168.1.1 in your browser. It seems like the CD only configures your computer to work with the router, so you can do this manually. if it asks for a password, routerpasswords.com should have it. When you connect change what ever settings you need to. Then go to Ubuntu's network manager and change those settings. I hope that helps and I'm sorry this is so vague.



UPDATE:



Go to your router and follow the fourth link to change those settings. I also put a network manager in sources. I have used it before. Google 'how to install launchpad projects ubuntu' for how to install it. Unfortunately my Ubuntu experience resides in remote servers and I have never really had to deal with this kind of thing. You may not need to install wicd if just changing the DNS servers works. Good Luck!


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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