Wireless doesn't work on new Toshiba laptop

[Jerry Lapham]

On Friday 21 August 2009 1:24:11 am Jerry Lapham wrote:

> On Sunday I picked up one of the Walmart special $348 Toshiba Satellite 17
> inch laptops (Laptop2) and was unable to connect wireless under Win Vista .
>  I installed Kubuntu 9.04 and eventually got network-manager to connect
> intermittently, but not for long.  I was never able to actually get a web
> page to load.  I couldn't even ping.
>
> Yesterday evening I installed wicd on Laptop2 and I think I see the
> problem. The "Connected to jerry at ..." rate varies rapidly between 100%
> and 0% with occasional instances of 2% and 4%.  I still have not been able
> to load a web page but I do once in a while get back some pings.
>
> My old laptop's "Connected to jerry at ..." rate varies from around 40% to
> 50% (it's a few feet farther from the router.)  It's been connected and
> working all day.
>
> Any ideas what I can do to get Laptop2 to work wireless?

Update:

When I connect while running  Windows it shows signal strength as "poor" with 
the first and sometimes the second bar lit but I can transfer files and surf 
the net with Firefox.  This is when the laptop is just a few feet from the 
router.  If I take it down the hall about 25 feet, I lose the connection.

Right now I have Kubuntu 9.04 running and wicd shows it connected at 32% but 
when I ping the router, I get "Destination Host Unreachable."  Firefox and 
Kmail can't find anything either.  Why can Windows work at these signal 
strenths and Kubuntu can't?

I intend to complain to Toshiba about the signal strength problem (my old 
laptop connects downstairs on the back porch) but I'd like to narrow it down 
to just that before I talk to them.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

	-Jerry
-- 
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Jerry Lapham
Monroe, OH  45050
rjlapham at gmail.com
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Let no good deed go unpunished.