Connecting to public wireless, but no internet (please don't dismiss as a simpleton posting!)

English Network/Internet
1

Hi everyone,
I’m really struggling with a wireless internet connection here. I’m on opensuse 11.3 connecting to an open wirelss network. I set up the connection with network manager, it connects quickly and the signal is good. However, I have no internet (I know, common problem, I’ve tried everything though…).

sudo /sbin/ifconfig:

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:FC:0B:FC:C8
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:28 Base address:0xe000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:690 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:690 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:46300 (45.2 Kb) TX bytes:46300 (45.2 Kb)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1B:77:02:A9:6B
inet addr:10.64.124.49 Bcast:10.64.124.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1524 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1611 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:856838 (836.7 Kb) TX bytes:199728 (195.0 Kb)

sudo /sbin/route -n

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
10.64.124.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 2 0 0 wlan0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 10.64.124.49 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0 # I added this line to my routing table manaully just to see if it would work
0.0.0.0 10.64.124.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

cat /etc/resolv.conf
(a bunch of stuff…and then:)
search hydro.local
nameserver 10.64.120.2

I’ve experimented with disabling network manager and going with ifup, and have tried a few other things, notably:
sudo /sbin/netconfig update -f
sudo /sbin/rcnetwork restart

The result is the same: the wifi connection is successful, but no internet, USUALLY. Here’s the rub: I use chrome and get an error 118 (connection timeout), but if I refresh enough times, usually once or twice each day I will actually be properly redirected to my network’s signin page. I can enter my username and pass, but after this stage the connection has died again and I can no longer open any other pages. This part is especially confusing.
Any suggestions are welcome. I’ll check frequently and make sure I post any requested output. But please help, I justed started a new job but haven’t been able to do anything in my first two days, since I can’t connect to their network! Thank you.

2

I meant to add, that everywhere else my wireless works fine. Here is the relevant line of /sbin/lspci:
02:00.0 Network Controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG…(etc etc)

iwconfig returns the expected output, and confirms that I am in fact connected to the SSID that I think I am
iwlist scan returns a long list of SSIDs in range (actually all the same one, but I think there are several wireless routers near me on the same network). I don’t think the actual output from these is relevant, but let me know if you’d like it posted. Thanks.

3

You give us a fair amount of information. That is good. But you did not post between CODE tags, which makes the reading difficult: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/information-new-users/advanced-how-faq-read-only/451526-posting-code-tags-guide.html

Then about you saying “no connection to the internet”. You failed to prove that. You only have an application (chrome) that gives an error, but you do not tell what you asked chrome to do.

To test if your system can reach the internet:

ping 173.194.78.94

Interrupt this after some time (a few seconds) with Ctrl-C. And see what it says.

It could be that you can not resolve names. Check that with

nslookup www.google.com

When you do not get a good resolution there you should go fort checking your DNS server. I see that you have 10.64.120.2 as DNS server, which is on a different network then your own 10.64.124.0/24. This can be correct.

What is definitely wrong is your added default route because you did not remove the original and thus now have two of them and who knows which one is used.

4

Hi, thank you for your reply, sorry about the tags. Here is the default output of route -n:


Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
10.64.124.0     0.0.0.0           255.255.255.0   U     2      0        0 wlan0
127.0.0.0        0.0.0.0           255.0.0.0          U     0      0        0 lo
0.0.0.0           10.64.124.1     0.0.0.0            UG    0      0        0 wlan0

I know that the formatting here is still horrible: since I have no internet access on that computer, I have to direct the output to a usb stick, which I then have to open with notepad and copy/paste here on a windows pc. I know it still doesn’t look right. The output of your requested ping command:

From 10.64.124.1: icmp_seq=1 Packet filtered
From 10.64.124.1 icmp_seq=1 Packet filtered
From 10.64.124.1 icmp_seq=2 Packet filtered
From 10.64.124.1 icmp_seq=3 Packet filtered
From 10.64.124.1 icmp_seq=4 Packet filtered
^C
--- 173.194.78.94 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, +5 errors, 100% packet loss, time 3001ms

Clearly something is an issue here, I’d tried pinging things before and had spent some time on google trying to understand what packet filtering is. I understand it’s a cisco thing? It sort of makes sense, since at this stage I have not yet managed to be redirected to the login page through a browser, so possibly I’m being denied the ability to communicate with any external server?

…and the nslookup command:

Server:  10.64.120.2
Address: 10.64.120.2#53
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.2
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.7
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.6
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.1
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.4
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.8
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.14
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.5
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.0
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.3
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.43.9

Thank you again, let me know what I can do to help.

5

From your posted information,
It looks like you indeed have a working network connection and have been issued an IP address… And as you speculate I also suspect that the AP is blocking access for other reasons.

Here is a shot in the dark which could work…
Considering this is a Public WiFi (as you describe) it’s more than likely that the AP itself is doing the authentication… So I recommend pointing a web browser directly to the IP address of the AP which appears to be 10.64.124.1.

HTH,
TS

6

It looks as if you are behind a captive portal, and that portal is poorly setup.

I usually don’t have problems, but I did have a similar problem at a motel last summer, while traveling. It would sometimes work and sometimes not work. But if I rebooted to windows, it worked better on Windows.

7

While I was sleeping, I see you got some good suggestions allready.

I am not sure if you understand what the results of your posting in post #3 above mean, but they mean
a) that you do have connection to the intenet (because you can ping a system on the internet (173.194.78.94, which is btw Google);
b) that the DNS server you use gives you correct results (it can find the IP addresses of Google for you).

Do you see that simply jumping to the conclusion “I have no connection to the internet” because of an error message by one program that can not reach one HTTP server on the internet is a bit to much?

It thus looks as if some traffic is not working and other traffic is. This leads to the suggestions by tsu2 and nrickert above.

8

Thank you all for your replies. I’m sorry if my conclusion that I couldn’t connect sounded alarmist, but I wasn’t sure of a better way to phrase it that fit in the subject bar. I do understand though that yes, I have a working connection, and that the problem is deeper than that.

I had some degree of success this morning. I entered the IP address directly into the address bar, and on the first try, was redirected to the signin page, which is good. However, once I signed in, all other pages that I attempted to open resulted in a network timeout (as before). Reentering the IP address a second time ALSO timed out, which means that it may have been just coincidence that it loaded the first time.

As an interesting note, I booted windows on the same laptop and had the same error. However, using one of the laptops running windows that’s been set up by the company gives me no issues. Does this point to a particular error? I don’t expect that I will be able to ask to have the AP altered to accomodate me, so I have to find my own way around it…

9

Any more suggestions? One thing that was mentioned was that it may be an issue in the setup of the wireless AP in the first place: I don’t expect that this can be changed, but if it can, what might I ask the IT experts to address? Thank you in advance for any help.

10

On 2012-03-28 15:26, tbinnington wrote:
> I had some degree of success this morning. I entered the IP address
> directly into the address bar, and on the first try, was redirected to
> the signin page, which is good. However, once I signed in, all other
> pages that I attempted to open resulted in a network timeout (as

That looks to be a DNS problem. Use another server, like 8.8.8.8

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

11

Interesting. I can fairly reliably be redirected to the public login page using 8.8.8.8 (I’m not sure what’s special about that IP though). My understanding of a DNS issue is that there is no connection between the name of a site and it’s IP, is that right? But if that’s true, I should be able to access sites based on their IP: I tried entering google’s IP (or one of them), hoping that it would take me there, but I get the same error. So perhaps the problem runs deeper?

12

On 03/29/2012 09:56 AM, tbinnington wrote:
>
> Interesting. I can fairly reliably be redirected to the public login
> page using 8.8.8.8 (I’m not sure what’s special about that IP though).
> My understanding of a DNS issue is that there is no connection between
> the name of a site and it’s IP, is that right? But if that’s true, I
> should be able to access sites based on their IP: I tried entering
> google’s IP (or one of them), hoping that it would take me there, but I
> get the same error. So perhaps the problem runs deeper?

There IS a connection between the name of a site and its IP. That connection is
what Domain Name Service (DNS) handles.

Based on your questions, I’m not certain that you implemented the 8.8.8.8
correctly. Please state exactly what you did.

If I understand you correctly, this is one of those public network where your
first attempt to connect to the Internet is redirected to a login page and only
when you complete that step can you get to the rest of the net. If my
understanding is correct, do you know the IP of that login page? If you do, then
we will use it later.

By this time, we have all forgotten what had to be done to make networking work
with 11.3; however, there are some steps that analyze the issue. Please report
the results of the following:


ping -c5 10.64.124.49
ping -c5 <IP of login page>
ping -c5 8.8.8.8
13

Hi, thank you for your reply. I simply entered 8.8.8.8 in the address bar of a browser. This is actually no more reliable than any other method. Sometimes I am redirected, but mostly not (your understanding of the public network I’m trying to access is correct). Here is the output that you requested, in the order in which you requested it:

PING 10.64.124.49 (10.64.124.49) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.046 ms
64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.039 ms
64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.035 ms
64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.046 ms
64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms


--- 10.64.124.49 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 3999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.035/0.040/0.046/0.007 ms

Next, you wanted to ping the IP of the login site. I don’t know what this is, but in the past when I HAVE been successfully redirected, the page is 1.1.1.1/login

PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.


--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3999ms



PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.


--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3999ms

Sorry I can’t provide more unsolicited information.

14

On 03/29/2012 01:26 PM, tbinnington wrote:
>
> Hi, thank you for your reply. I simply entered 8.8.8.8 in the address
> bar of a browser. This is actually no more reliable than any other
> method. Sometimes I am redirected, but mostly not (your understanding of
> the public network I’m trying to access is correct). Here is the output
> that you requested, in the order in which you requested it:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> PING 10.64.124.49 (10.64.124.49) 56(84) bytes of data.
> 64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.046 ms
> 64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.039 ms
> 64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.035 ms
> 64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.046 ms
> 64 bytes from 10.64.124.49: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.036 ms

The 8.8.8.8 address is to be used as a nameserver. Run the command ‘kdesu
kwrite’ and browse to /etc/resolv.conf. Before any other nameserver line that
you find there, add


nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Please post the nameserver line that was already there.

We have verified that your connection to the AP is working. The next step is to
get the verification site to reliably come up.

15

Hi there. The nameserver that was already there was 10.64.120.2. I added the two lines you suggested above it. Nothing appears to have changed. when I try 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 in a browser, I am redirected to the login page (fairly sure this is at 1.1.1.1 now, since the redirection warning that I get from chrome tells me I’m being redirected there). I can login, but the same problem occurs. Even the welcome page that would display once I log in times out. Really this behaviour isn’t any different than before, so it’s hard to say if adding the two lines to /etc/resolv.conf make any difference.
Thanks for your reply though, I hope we get to the bottom of this!

16

On 03/29/2012 02:16 PM, tbinnington wrote:
>
> Hi there. The nameserver that was already there was 10.64.120.2. I added
> the two lines you suggested above it. Nothing appears to have changed.
> when I try 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 in a browser, I am redirected to the login
> page (fairly sure this is at 1.1.1.1 now, since the redirection warning
> that I get from chrome tells me I’m being redirected there). I can
> login, but the same problem occurs. Even the welcome page that would
> display once I log in times out. Really this behaviour isn’t any
> different than before, so it’s hard to say if adding the two lines to
> /etc/resolv.conf make any difference.
> Thanks for your reply though, I hope we get to the bottom of this!

You cannot browse to 8.8.8.8, and I’m quite sure that the log-in page is not
really at 1.1.1.1. According to my nslookup, 1.1.1.1 does not exist, at least
not from here. That must be some kind of NAT redirection.

From the old nameserver line, we have another address in the internal network
of the AP. What does ‘ping -c5 10.64.120.2’ show?

17

IMO you need to do same basic network troubleshooting here.

<After> you follow my previous post to find the AP Logon page by IP address (The page should be served from the AP directly, you should not be re-directed elsewhere for the page),

Re-inspect your local network configuration, particularly verifying your assigned IP address, assigned nameserver(s), and the default gateway.

Ping the default gateway (If PING turned off, then do a tcptraceroute or telnet a port you believe should be open.

If necessary, run wireshark and capture some packets. Even if you don’t know how to analyze the content of the packets deeply, you can at least determine whether some protocol traffic is being exchange or if there are problems.

Also, I recommend you focus for the moment simply on whether the AP is blocking or not, or if you’re not pointing to the proper DG. This whole exploration about nameservers should be done only if you’re certain you’re not being blocked, the problem is faulty name
resolution services.

Also, a long shot issue… I have the FF plugin “HTTPS Everywhere” which screws up AP authentication because although the AP accepts SSL (for later traffic), the logon page itself is usually not SSL enabled so forcing SSL causes a problem. The simple solution for me is to use a different browser without the plugin (I use Chrome) to do the initial logon, then afterwards I can use any browser I want.

HTH,
TS

18

On 2012-03-29 21:16, tbinnington wrote:
>
> Hi there. The nameserver that was already there was 10.64.120.2. I added
> the two lines you suggested above it. Nothing appears to have changed.

Don’t add, replace.

> when I try 8.8.8.8

Don’t.
That’ address is not a link to browse.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

19

Hello all, thank you for all your help and replies. I’ve been a linux user for about five years, so I’m fairly familiar with some of the configuration, but networking is something I’ve never explored or understood well. I’ll try to follow your recent post, HTH, and see if I can make some sense out of it.

One thing that has come to light recently is that the AP has a very restrictive firewall. I don’t know the details, but it turns out that even if I were to be able to log in, I would not be allowed to access an external VPN, which is what I need to do in the first place. I know you’ll find this amusing: the only feasible way for me to do what I need to is to tether to my phone while I’m in the office.

I’m actually encountering another issue because of this, but I’ll start a new thread for it and provide you with the link, if you’re interested.

Thank you for all of your help in this matter!

20

here it is:http://forums.opensuse.org/forums/english/get-technical-help-here/network-internet/473945-unable-ssh-while-logged-into-proper-vpn.htm