You need to set up your network connection with security etc. before you can
try to connect. Have you done this?

The router is not secured by password but instead by inclusion by MAC address.
I got the MAC address for the HP netbook by using ifconfig (or something like
that) they showed the MAC address for eth0 and eth1. eth1 was identified by name
in one of the lines, so I added that MAC address to the inclusion list and tried
it. In the chance that I have the wrong MAC address, I turned off all that
feature in the router to make it completely unsecured. Still, no dice. I've
been booted in Ubuntu for onyl a few hours, so I haven't had the chance to see
if it will connect to a router somewhere else.

can you connect with a normal ethernet wire?
the icon on my ubuntu10.04 is along the top row,
like a forward slash with 2 bobbles in the middle,
looks a bit like a resistor.

what is your router?
I use mac filtering and hide the ssid and do network monitoring with my
router and only provide as many ip's as there are devices in my house.

I agree on security but I would add this: if you have a lot of networks
around then security is a must but, I have found WPA slows down my
network a lot so I do other monitoring and securing methods.

Presumably you've increased the number of available IP's to handle the
extra device ? Don't doubt you have but worth mentioning You may
need to manually add the MAC address of the Wi-Fi card in the HP mini
and you may also need to temporarily enable SSID transmission to tell
if the wireless is actually working - unless you have other Wi-Fi
signals around that it would be able to pick up.

Reading up a bit on the HP Mini I think that the Wi-Fi card is a
Broadcom one and these have always been a pain with Linux of any
flavour but usually updating Ubuntu with it plugged into a LAN is
enough to get the driver installed. Check for Hardware Drivers in
System / Administration.

BTW - one point about adding IP addresses to your restricted range on
the router. If you only add one more then this will be used by the
cable so you'd need another one for the Wi-Fi connection ! Maybe it
would be worth increasing the range temporarily until you get the
devices sorted then dropping back to the actual number required,
bearing in mind that wired and Wi-Fi use different MAC addresses ??

I also concur with the comments about security. Hidden SSID isn't a
great bar to anyone getting in these days and unfortunately it's a
fact of encryption that as you increase the strength then the range of
the router drops dramatically !!

Yea, I only set the number of IP's I need.

Something I have been using a lot of lately is Broadband over Powerline.
I plug it into the wall behind the router, plug a wire from the router
to the BPL and then in 1 or 10 other rooms where I need access, you
simple plug it in and you have either wired or wireless access in that
room.

I set this up recently in a cinderblock building with lots of metal
partition walls. They needed to use encryption and they were using
laptops so, we installed wireless bpl units which allowed them to run
WPA without dropping off their range or speed.

I have a set of Power-line adaptors to carry my broadband from the BT
hub in one room to the lounge where my TV is because BT supplies a
Vision box for HD TV and it uses the same stream as the normal broadband
with not interference. I can use my laptop plugged into the TV and be on
line as well.
I use WPA protection on the Wi-Fi side.

Make your ssid a simple, lower-case name.

Do not count on MAC address providing any security. I can easily spoof your MAC
address. Instead, use WPA security.

I agree.Even WEP is not a good choice. You need to set up a
secure network. However you do it, you still need to go through the act of
setting up a wireless connection in the network manager, even if it is
unsecured.

If all else fails instlal wicd.

What is my MAC address?.............

I thought MAC address's were those you got from your previous ISP to
give to a new ISP so they could over the Post Office line ?

You are thinking of a MAC Code and yes that's the migration code for
transferring ISP's.

MAC Address is a unique 48 bit address that can handle up to an
amazing 281,474,976,710,656 devices - every network device is assigned
one when manufactured which is hard coded into the hardware and cannot
be changed.

Yes I do Know but was just reacting to the obvious that most users would
know.

A lot of modern devices allow you to choose your own MAC address.

The MAC address is the pseudo unique number of the NIC. I asked what MY MAC
address was because someone insisted that he could easily spoof it. The first
step to spoofing it is to know it. I want to know how he is going to do that
"easy" first step.

Do you have an authoritative reference to back your claim that the MAC address
assigned to a device by the manufacturer is only "pseudo unique"?

Spoofing a MAC address does not require knowing the address. Given that the MAC
address consists of a limited set of characters, a simple brute-force method
would suffice to get through a MAC filter. And, given that you've probably got
several MAC addresses included in your security definition, the likelyhood of
hitting a valid address is increased.

I don't know. However, if I lived next door to you, I could know.

type in ifconfig at the command line and you will see something like this:

abc@abc:~$ ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr **:**:**:**:a7:e3
inet addr:192.168.1.105 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::230:1bff:febd:a7e3/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:166784 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:150063 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:122770772 (122.7 MB) TX bytes:23953862 (23.9 MB)
Interrupt:18

Look at your HWaddr address.
Mine is masked here but you will see all of yours.
You can log into your router to verify that your mac is connected either
wired or wirelessly.