Unable to connect internet on Compaq Presario having a openSUSE 11.1 O/S

[Gandhik]

I have a Compaq Presario Laptop with a Intel quad core processor, 2 GB of RAM and 500 GB of internal memory . I have got two O/S installed in my laptop One is Windows Vista and the other one is newly installed O/s of Linux, it's name is openSUSE 11.1. Since Windows Vista is a heavyweight Operating system and is quite tedious to operate, I mostly rely on the other operating system. I have a wireless setup established at my place. But I just encountered a problem after installing the openSUSE. I discovered that there is some issue in the operating system while I try to connect the internet i.e I am unable to access the internet while I use openSUSE o/s, The internet works well and good in Windows Vista. I want this network issue to be fixed with the openSUSE operating system as well. Suggestions and replies regarding this problem would be appreciated.

[Solomon]

I think you are correct, Windows Vista is indeed an heavyweight operating system, because it has lot of tools and features which are not of any use for a home user. I too would have chose the alternate O/s if I were in your place.I too had the same issue that you are facing right now. I have got two laptops one is Compaq Presario CQ50-110US and the other one is Acer Aspire. In both the laptops I could not connect to the internet . Later on I found that in my Acer laptop there was some issue with the network card, so check whether the correct wireless PCI Adapter is loaded in your laptop. I am not aware about the adapter being used in the Compaq Presario laptops, because the problem in my Compaq laptop was resolved after adding a WEP key into the network Manager. So you can resolve your issue either by checking the network adapter or the settings in the Network Manager.

[MrChris-]

I do not think there should be any issue to access the internet in the Windows Vista O/s. You are not the first user to use it. A big number of people use Vista including me. Just ignore those applications which you find complicated. but still you want the issue with the other O/s to be resolved then I will be very pleased to guide you for that. Since you have a wireless setup, you should check for the disabled channels. In many European countries such as Germany, channels 12 and 13 are disabled by default but are allowed to be enabled. So in case if your channels are disabled, you can enable those channels by overwriting the regulatory domain. This channels re allowed only in United states, Japan and the European countries.

[Lillebror]

Yes you can check for the disabled channels, but if you find all the necessary channels enabled, check the output of uname command. Uname is a command that provides information about the kernel. I am asking you to type this command and check the output because I think the kernel of your openSUSE could be of older version. You can type this command in a bash shell using any of the xterm,rxvt or while terminal.

[jesse]

In case of network failure, always the external connections of the peripherals such as router or modem should be checked first. But as you mentioned that you could access the internet with some other operating system, then certainly there is no problem with the hardware connections. If you do not want to use Windows Vista, I would strongly suggest you to uninstall it and install Windows 7 or Windows xp instead. Windows 7 is a successor of windows Vista and all those unwanted features which were present in Windows Vista have been eliminated in Windows 7. So now you do not have to rely on any other O/s once you have Windows 7 operating system. You can efficiently use the internet in Windows 7 than any other operating system.