how do i discover if a wireless network is available?

Go to System / Administration / Networking, choose your wireless device, click "Properties". In the "Network name (ESSID)" combo box, you should see a list of available networks.

However, I recall seeing reports of this feature not working on all wireless devices on all distributions. In these cases, Network Manager (which you should install separately) is likely to still work. Also look for other wireless network managers such as GTKWifi, Wifi Radar and Connection Manager.

It would be useful if you listed which release of Ubuntu you are using. "gnome-nettool' isn't the best tool to view this. If you are currently running Edgy or Feisty and you have NetworkManager running, you should be able to perform a single left-click on the NetworkManager icon in the panel and see available wireless networks.

If for some reason you do not have NetworkManager, you could use one of these tools:

1. System > Administration > Network (network-admin)

 Go to the properties of your wireless card and in "Wireless Settings" you should be able to click on Network name and see a list of available networks there.

OR

2. Install the application wifi-radar (sudo apt-get install wifi-radar)

There you go, three choices.

Hope this helps.

thanks for the heads up! I will dig into this right
away..

Greg

--- Murat Güneş <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Your question #4879 on gnome-nettool in ubuntu
> changed:
>
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-nettool/+ticket/4879
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Murat Güneş proposed the following answer:
> Go to System / Administration / Networking, choose
> your wireless device,
> click "Properties". In the "Network name (ESSID)"
> combo box, you should
> see a list of available networks.
>
> However, I recall seeing reports of this feature not
> working on all
> wireless devices on all distributions. In these
> cases, Network Manager
> (which you should install separately) is likely to
> still work. Also look
> for other wireless network managers such as GTKWifi,
> Wifi Radar and
> Connection Manager.
>
>
_______________________________________________________________________
> If this answers your question, please go to the
> following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-nettool/+ticket/4879/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email
> or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
>
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-nettool/+ticket/4879
>

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I received a couple responses suggesting an application such as wifi radar which I have loaded and seems to be what I was lacking initially. Thanks for the quick responses guys (gals?)..
I now can search for networks and see if it is something I am able to access or not..

Again, thanks much...

Greg