How to search for wireless networks?

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04. I tried with this

sudo iwlist eth0 scan

but this doesn't seem to work :(..It says "interface dosn't support scanning" What to do? Please help.. I can't access Internet on Ubuntu.

Even I've mobile broadband usb, but even that doesn't get detected. Other pendrives get detected

More details

*-network UNCLAIMED 
description: Network controller 
product: Broadcom Corporation 
vendor: Broadcom Corporation 
physical id: 0 
bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0 
version: 01 
width: 64 
bits clock: 33MHz 
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:c1500000-c1507fff 

And more details: lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Panther Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Panther Point SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Thames XT/GL [Radeon HD 7600M Series]
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 4365 (rev 01)

Solution

Update:

Please follow this question to install the driver first. The answer is dependent on the kernel version. To know your kernel version you can execute uname -a

Broadcom 4365 wireless driver with 3.4 / 3.5 kernel

---

eth0 is not wireless adapter. It is Ethernet adapter.

Try sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning | egrep 'Cell |Encryption|Quality|Last beacon|ESSID'

Better, first enable wireless adapter using hardware switch.

then click on top panel network manager button to see the available networks.

Related:

How do I scan for Wireless Access Points?

Comments

[Sam]

It says "interface doesn't support scanning"

[Sam]

even this doesn't work: cd /sys/class/net/wlan0/wireless/

[Web-E]

edit your question and include result of sudo lshw -c network, lsmod and rfkill list all

[Sam]

*-network UNCLAIMED description: Network controller product: Broadcom Corporation vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0 version: 01 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:c1500000-c1507fff

[Sam]

0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: yes 1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: yes

[Web-E]

you don't have intel wireless card. you have broadcom. That makes everything invalid, please post result of lspci so that we can help. Edit your question to include the result don't post as comment.

[Web-E]

updated my answer.