Fixing Ubuntu Issues: No Wireless on Reboot

Continuing on with my series on solving problems I've encountered while using Ubuntu 11.10, I've found yet another solution to a problem that I heard a lot of people talking about. It's also a hot topic on the Ubuntu forums. I',m speaking, of course, about Ubuntu and wireless internet access.

In recent times it has not been uncommon for Ubuntu to not be able to connect to my wireless network on boot up, so I did some digging and found out that the problem was that the Automatic DHCP IPv4 settings were to blame. My solution: use manual IPv4 configuration. Here's how.

My internet set up is as follows :- My modem is connected to my wireless router which propagates the signal that my PC's USB wireless adapter receives. There's plenty of networking going on there, (something I am not the best at) but I do know that finding out the IP addresses of my various pieces of network hardware will be the key.

So on my Windows machine i ran ipconfig and found out those addresses:

192.168.1.1 - My modem's address
192.168.2.1 - My wireless router's address (Default gateway)
192.168.2.5 - Address of PC
255.255.255.0 - Subnet mask

I took those settings over to Ubuntu, opened the network manager by clicking the Wireless icon in the top task bar, selecting Edit connections... > Wireless > FBI_VAN_467 (My SSID) > Edit... > IPv4 Settings and entering the information as follows:

I chose a random non-conflicting IP address for my Ubuntu PC's address, used my wireless router's IP address for my default gateway and set my DNS server address to my modem's address.

After that it worked like a charm. I hope this helps!