Connecting to Wi-Fi
Using the Panel to Connect to Wi-Fi
The easiest way to connect your laptop to Wi-Fi will be to use the panel. In the bottom right corner of your screen you will find the applets and one of those applets represent your internet connection. Generally, you will see one of three symbols (or icons) that can tell you if you are not connected to the internet at all, connected using a wired ethernet connection, or connected using Wi-Fi.
No Internet
Two arrows pointing away from each other with a small X in the corner symbolizes that no internet connection can be found.
Wired Internet Connected
Three squares connected by a set of lines symbolizes that a wired connection (ethernet cable) has been found.
Wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) Connected
A set of curves (or arcs) that has the largest arc on top and the smallest arc on the bottom symbolizes a wireless connection (Wi-Fi) has been found.
Looking at the bottom right corner of our screen, we should be able to find the internet applet. If you have not yet connected to the internet, then you should see the No Internet Icon.
When you click on the No Internet Icon you should get a new window that gives you a list of all the available Wi-Fi connections that your computer can see.
If you don't see any Wi-Fi signals, but you do see the word Wireless, then you may need to click on the toggle to enable your Wi-Fi card. The toggle should be green if your Wi-Fi card is turned on, or gray if it is turned off.
If you don't see the word Wireless then there could be a number of issues. Check our Wi-Fi Troubleshooting Guide below to see what steps you should take.
Once your Wi-Fi card has been turned on, you can select the Wi-Fi network that you want to connect to. Usually, this should be the Wi-Fi at your home, but could also be a Library, Coffee Shop, or some other location that has public Wi-Fi.
When you click on the Wi-Fi connection that you want to try, you will likely be required to type in a password. A new window will appear asking for the password to the Wi-Fi network. Type in the appropriate password and click Connect.
If you have typed in the password correctly, the window will disappear and after a few moments, you should get a new Notification in the top right corner that says Connection Established.
Congrats! You have successfully connected to a Wi-Fi network!
Wi-Fi Troubleshooting Guide
Click on the issue you are experiencing below, and we'll try to lay out a way for you to attempt to fix the issue. If you are still having issues after trying these steps, please contact Free Geek Tech Support. Please note that Free Geek Tech Support only offers solutions for machines from Free Geek.
The Wireless toggle keeps turning "off"
This is likely because your computer has a hardware switch that can turn your Wi-Fi card on or off. Look around the outside of your computer for a little switch that you can slide in one way or another. Typically, these can be found on the left or right side of your machine, but occasionally they can be found on the front face.
If you have an HP laptop, it is not uncommon for this hardware switch to be enabled/disabled with a combination of the Fn and an F key (e.g. F1, F2, F5, F10, etc).
The word "Wireless" doesn't appear in my Network Options when I click on the "No Internet" icon
It could be that your computer doesn't have a wireless card, or that the drivers (the software that makes your Wi-Fi card work) aren't installed properly.
To check if you have a Wi-Fi card, you can open up your Terminal through the Menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+t. Then type lspci | grep "network" -i to pull up the list of all devices in your computer that are used to connect to a network. You may have a few devices listed, so look for one that mentions Wi-Fi or Wireless.
If you don't see anything, then you probably don't have a Wi-Fi card, or it isn't connected properly. If you think it may just not be connected properly you will have to open your computer and attempt to remove it and re-install it.
If you do see a line of text that includes something about Wi-Fi or Wireless, then your computer recognizes that you do have a Wi-Fi card, but doesn't know what to do with it. To fix this you will need to make sure the Drivers are installed properly. The first place to check is the Driver Manager located in your Menu. Once you find and open the Driver Manager you can look for a piece of hardware that matches what you found in the terminal. For example, if in the Terminal you found something that mentioned Broadcom Wireless then you should find something similar in your Driver Manager. Then you can try to select a different driver from the one that is currently selected, click Apply and restart your computer.
If no drivers are found for your Wi-Fi card, then you will have to turn to an internet search. Open up your favorite internet search tool (e.g. Google, DuckDuckGo, Startpage, etc) and search for the name of your Wi-Fi card along with "Linux Mint Drivers" to find something that will work. Ideally, you will find these drivers provided by the company that made the Wi-Fi card. If you can't find any indication that the company that made the Wi-Fi card has Linux Drivers (note that drivers made for Ubuntu or Debian usually work - not just Linux Mint specific Drivers) then you may have to ask the Linux Mint Community or contact our Tech Support Team.