Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

T400/T410/T420 and T500/T510/T520 Series
Post Reply
Message
Author
Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#1 Post by Catanatron » Sun Jan 27, 2019 11:39 pm

When I was at home, my T420 had no issues connecting to the internet using ethernet or wifi. When I got on campus, however, I was unable to connect to the wifi. Wifish would seem to connect just fine, but when trying to connect to the internet I would be unable to do so. If anyone has any potential ideas for what could cause this, I would be grateful.

RealBlackStuff
Admin Emeritus
Admin Emeritus
Posts: 23812
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:17 am
Location: Loch Garman, Éire

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:13 am

Running W10?
Try a Life-Linux CD to check if you can connect with that.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

Thinkpad4by3
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2670
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:25 am
Location: N. Bellmore, ny

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#3 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:12 am

Catanatron wrote:
Sun Jan 27, 2019 11:39 pm
When I was at home, my T420 had no issues connecting to the internet using ethernet or wifi. When I got on campus, however, I was unable to connect to the wifi. Wifish would seem to connect just fine, but when trying to connect to the internet I would be unable to do so. If anyone has any potential ideas for what could cause this, I would be grateful.
Does your campus have that WiFi that requires a username and password to login because my X61s was having much trouble getting in and a little bit of trouble on my T520.
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#4 Post by Catanatron » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:49 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:13 am
Running W10?
Try a Life-Linux CD to check if you can connect with that.
Sorry, I'm running Void Linux. I could still give it a try to see what happens.
Thinkpad4by3 wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:12 am
Does your campus have that WiFi that requires a username and password to login because my X61s was having much trouble getting in and a little bit of trouble on my T520.
Yes, it does. What did you do?

Thinkpad4by3
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2670
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:25 am
Location: N. Bellmore, ny

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#5 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:54 am

Well I don't exactly remember...I might have just tried it a few times. The X61s was running Mint when it was having trouble. Switched to Ubuntu and the problem was solved. T520 was on 7 and I think I just "brute forced" it. It might have something to do with that stupid authentication and bad WiFi drivers. Try updating them.
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

MrBurgerKing
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:33 am
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#6 Post by MrBurgerKing » Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:33 pm

It also depends on the authentication method. Make sure you are selecting the right kind as you connect.

Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#7 Post by Catanatron » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:07 pm

MrBurgerKing wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:33 pm
It also depends on the authentication method. Make sure you are selecting the right kind as you connect.
Wifish seems to handle that on its own. Either way, even ethernet doesn't seem to work, and I don't have to select anything for that.

MrBurgerKing
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:33 am
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#8 Post by MrBurgerKing » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:59 pm

Catanatron wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:07 pm
MrBurgerKing wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:33 pm
It also depends on the authentication method. Make sure you are selecting the right kind as you connect.
Wifish seems to handle that on its own. Either way, even ethernet doesn't seem to work, and I don't have to select anything for that.
On ethernet, are you assigned an ip address from the DHCP server? Can you communicate with other devices on the network? Does your school have authentication over ethernet by chance? Maybe a login portal? If there is, are you using the local DNS or did you set yours manually? Do other laptops work just fine and it's just yours that has this issue? Does your university have any support documents related to this issue? Are there any special steps they want you to take to connect?

Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#9 Post by Catanatron » Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:33 pm

MrBurgerKing wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:59 pm
On ethernet, are you assigned an ip address from the DHCP server? Can you communicate with other devices on the network? Does your school have authentication over ethernet by chance? Maybe a login portal? If there is, are you using the local DNS or did you set yours manually? Do other laptops work just fine and it's just yours that has this issue? Does your university have any support documents related to this issue? Are there any special steps they want you to take to connect?
I'm not sure about the first one or how I'd check that, I don't think so, ethernet has no authentication or login portal, I did not set my dns manually, my other laptop works fine, afaik there is no additional documents on connecting.

MrBurgerKing
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:33 am
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#10 Post by MrBurgerKing » Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:58 pm

On windows, open command and type

Code: Select all

ipconfig
On linux, open terminal and type

Code: Select all

ip a
If the network interface shows a valid address, first ping the gateway by opening a terminal and typing ping, then leave a space, then the gateway's address.
If that works, try pinging a website like www.google.com

If it doesn't, there is a problem with your configuration. Linux can sometimes be really picky about what drivers and utilities it will and won't work with.

For wifi, wifish does not support WPA2-Enterprise. Use a different tool.

Consider posting in the linux section of these forums. You may also want to use Windows since that's what the school's network and your laptop were designed for.

Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#11 Post by Catanatron » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:34 pm

MrBurgerKing wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:58 pm
On windows, open command and type

Code: Select all

ipconfig
On linux, open terminal and type

Code: Select all

ip a
If the network interface shows a valid address, first ping the gateway by opening a terminal and typing ping, then leave a space, then the gateway's address.
If that works, try pinging a website like www.google.com

If it doesn't, there is a problem with your configuration. Linux can sometimes be really picky about what drivers and utilities it will and won't work with.

For wifi, wifish does not support WPA2-Enterprise. Use a different tool.

Consider posting in the linux section of these forums. You may also want to use Windows since that's what the school's network and your laptop were designed for.
Neither of the network devices return an ip.

RealBlackStuff
Admin Emeritus
Admin Emeritus
Posts: 23812
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:17 am
Location: Loch Garman, Éire

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#12 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:47 pm

Did you check that the wifi switch on the right side is ON? And is it working?
Tried Fn/F5 under Windows?

Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#13 Post by Catanatron » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:53 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:47 pm
Did you check that the wifi switch on the right side is ON? And is it working?
Tried Fn/F5 under Windows?
Yup, the switch is on.

Catanatron
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:08 pm
Location: Oxford, OH

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#14 Post by Catanatron » Wed Jan 30, 2019 4:22 pm

Sorry for the double post. I tried using a Manjaro Live CD and upon trying to connect to ethernet it says:

"Error checking authorization
failure creating GDBusProxy for authorization request"

I hope this is meaningful to someone. Thanks for the help.

evening_hunger
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 303
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:55 pm
Location: Normandy, France

Re: Can't connect to wifi or ethernet on campus

#15 Post by evening_hunger » Tue Feb 05, 2019 9:14 am

It is possible that ethernet connection requires you to be registered somewhere and, until that happens, you won't be assigned the ip. Who's the ISP on that campus? Are you able to compare with friends who use ethernet?
About wifi, what exactly is the authentication method used by the network (WPA, WEP, eduroam, etc...) ? Which network manager do you use?
T14amdR7-4750U/32GB/500gb.ssd/debian_testing (main driver)
X320/i7-2620M/8GB/256gb.ssd/FHD13.3''IPS/debian_testing (ex-main driver)
T30Pentium-M 4 1.8Ghz 512MB RAM - under restoration
X230/i5/8GB/500gb.hdd+256gb.m2ssd/IPS/debian_stable+win7
755CE, 486DX, approx 28MB RAM (Win95 JP)

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad T400/T410/T420 and T500/T510/T520 Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 75 guests