Connecting a wireless router

[Avi Greenbury]

Bill Stanley wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am having trouble getting a connection to a wireless router.  The
> computer is a Dell laptop which dual boots Xubuntu 12.04 and Windows
> XP.
> When the computer boots to Windows, there is no problem so I am
> certain that the laptop and router are working properly.  (No
> hardware problems.)

What happens when you try under Ubuntu? Does the laptop, when booted
into Ubuntu, appear to have any wireless capabilities? Can you see any
wireless networks in network manager? Do you see any error messages
when trying to connect?

> 
> I searched some web-pages and some of them say I need to install the
> proper drivers.  The proper drivers would be the Windows drivers in
> a wrapper.  I doubt it so I am coming here for some help. 

This may be so for the wireless chipset in the laptop; when that is
properly working and visible to Ubuntu it should be able to connect to
any wireless router without issue.

> The router is a new Tenda Model W268R.  I looked up the docs on the
> router and nowhere does it mention Linux.  Maybe it is a Windows
> only router?

Fortunately, the WiFi interface is standardised enough that there's no
such thing as a Windows-only router. It's possible that the WiFi
chipset is Windows-only, but even then generally it's possible to get
it to work.

Which laptop is it? Do you know what the wireless chipset is? 
-- 
Avi