[PLUG] network connection issue

Randy Stapilus stapilus at ridenbaugh.com
Mon Mar 15 22:11:30 UTC 2010


Around Thanksgiving I picked up a notebook at Free Geek, outfitted  
with Ubuntu, for use by my brother in law in northern California. We  
also set up a wireless broadband system for the house. His computer  
literacy is very limited, but he just uses it mainly for web surfing,  
and for the last four months it has been working fine.

Yesterday, he started it up and seems to be blocked from going  
online. All the wireless and modem equipment seems to be operating as  
per normal, and the notebook is otherwise functioning okay.

I've tried a few basic checks to try to figure out what the problem  
is, but no luck. Firefox had the "work offline" box checked at one  
point, but we got it de-checked and it's still not connecting. (The  
error messages we get, when asking the browser to go to a URL, have  
been "server not found.")

BIL would not have *intentionally* made any changes to settings, but  
might have inadvertently done something - the computer's touch pad  
and even keyboard are very sensitive.

His ISP, AT&T, wants extortionate amounts of money to put someone on  
the line and work it through. (Apparently Linux isn't included in  
their basic support.)

Any suggestions?


Randy Stapilus
www.ridenbaugh.com
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