Can't detect wireless networks with an Intel Wireless 5100

Question

I’ve been searching the forums for two days now, but none of the answers seems to work for me. I have an Acer Extensa 5630 which has an Intel wifi 5100. Even when I am right next to my router I cannot detect the wireless network. The weird thing is, that when I create a hotspot from my mobile phone it automatically detects it and connects to it. I think I do have the correct drivers installed.

Here is the ifconfig:

$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:72:db:47:5f  
          inet addr:192.168.10.2  Bcast:192.168.10.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:72ff:fedb:475f/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:8419 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8173 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:5402459 (5.4 MB)  TX bytes:953135 (953.1 KB)
          Interrupt:16 

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:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:1377 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1377 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:193628 (193.6 KB)  TX bytes:193628 (193.6 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:5d:60:72:9a  
          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)

This is what it looks like when I scan and detect the hotspot from my Android device:

wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 02:1A:11:FD:BB:AC
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=34/70  Signal level=-76 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"AndroidAP"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
                              36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=00000000021577ce
                    Extra: Last beacon: 40ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 0009416E64726F69644150
                    IE: Unknown: 010482848B96
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32080C1218243048606C
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1A2C0103FF00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D1606000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101810003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
                    IE: Unknown: BF0C20018031FCFFB201FCFFB201
                    IE: Unknown: C005000000FCFF

can u see any other wireless networks? can you share output of ifconfig here? — Bhavin Doshi, Jun 07 '14 at 18:36
the suggested thread didnt work for me. ls produces no results although i am connected through a wired connection right now. — user289429, Jun 08 '14 at 12:50

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

I have had the same problem and you can enter in terminal:

   rfkill list

it show if there soft block or hard block, and then you can enter in terminal:

   rfkill nosoftblock
   rfkill nohardblock

or

   ifdown wlan0
   ifup wlan0

then enter in the terminal:

   lspci

you can see the wifi name if it is there, and then you can in the terminal enter:

   lsmod wlan0

set's the wifi to be users, and then enter in the terminal:

   lsusb -d wlan0

and then scan the wifi port, and enter in the terminal:

   nmap -v -iR 10000 -Pn -p port

if the network is asleep (if still not work), and then you can make a script called asleep.d in /etc/network

/bin/sh

   case bin/sh in
          ./bin/sh
          nmcli nm asleep=false 'network'
    end case

you can download it at: http://app.box.com/s/5nj2uhby5Kqk13y3oh7wb

and it might work fine this way.

i couldnt get all the instructions to work. How do i go about creating the script in the specified directory ? — user289429, Jun 08 '14 at 12:58
You could use kate and save it as a jisin7, and then from the terminal enter: gksudo thunar, and then you can allow writeable and save the file there. — Michael, Jun 08 '14 at 15:48

Can't detect wireless networks with an Intel Wireless 5100

1 Answers1

/bin/sh