Total Wifi newby questions

[PsiDan]

Hi,

I just took delivery of a second MnetBook from Sita, in the bundled offer was also a Cisconet Aironet 342 card.

I don't have a WLAN either at home or in the office, so cannot test the card, but would like to use it when I'm travelling.

I don't have any manual or other instructions, so what do I need to do to get it to work? There is the Ethernet setting in Control panel. Do I need to do anything else bar selecting "Cisco RLan"? Do I need to alter the standard settings? How do I set up WEP?

Once I get to a WiFi hotspot what do I do? Just insert the card or does it need to be activated in some way? What about Opera and Email - how do I tell them they need to connect via WLan rather than by modem?

Sorry if all this is very obvious to you, but I'm a total newby on this subject!

Ciao

Daniele

[diem]

Loads of help in my FAQ at the URL below - you will need to learn a little about TCP/IP networking to get going. To answer some of your points though:

You will need to set up and ethernet control panel entry to match the settings of whatever wireless access point you connect to - the folk running the hotspot will supply this.

The netBook only activiates the card when you actually attempt to go online. The 'Connect to Internet' dialog pops up, and you'll be able to select ethernet options as well as modem ones.

WEP is not supported for the Cisco cards.

Hope this helps..

[PsiDan]

Diem,

I know your website well - thanks for all the information you provide in there! But I was still rather puzzled about the WiFi setup.

Setting up TCP/IP is no problem, but surely hotspots would mostly work with DHCP? I can't imagine a Starbucks coffee waitress assigning individual IP addresses.

I noticed that when I launch Opera or eMail the little LED on the card lights up and (presumably) searches for a connection. With no connection this turns off after a few seconds. But the "Connect to Internet" dialog only shows the modems. Will the ethernet option pop up if a connction is available?

Ciao

Daniele

[diem]

Originally posted by PsiDan
Setting up TCP/IP is no problem, but surely hotspots would mostly work with DHCP? I can't imagine a Starbucks coffee waitress assigning individual IP addresses.
You are entirely correct on that front - DHCP is the simple way to go. One thing that will vary however is the SSID in use (AKA WaveLAN network name) - for Starbuck's setup it is 't-mobile' for example, so you'll need to set up one control panel entry per hotspot to handle the specifics.

But the "Connect to Internet" dialog only shows the modems. Will the ethernet option pop up if a connction is available?
Ah - I've heard of this happening to someone else in a previous post in this forum (this one: http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18097). I think its down to a corruption of the fabled CommsDB.dat file - have you either:

- installed the Mobile GPRS connectivity update, or
- restored a backup from an older device by any chance?

Either way I'm afraid you will have to do a backup, wipe your machine, then reinstall the OS to correct the corruption of the Commsdb.dat file. You do not need the GPRS update - its functionality is already in the OS.

[PsiDan]

Ah - I've heard of this happening to someone else in a previous post in this forum. I think its down to a corruption of the fabled CommsDB.dat file - have you either:
- installed the Mobile GPRS connectivity update, or
- restored a backup from an older device by any chance?

aargh! Yes, I've done both when transferring data from my Revo. Looks like I'll have to do the hard reset, and reenter all the comms data. :( Thanks for the tip!

Ciao

Daniele

[diem]

You can use all your old Revo data, only you'll need to restore it manually rather than via the 'Restore' function of Psiwin. There's a guide for doing this in the netBook section of my FAQ.

[PsiDan]

Mmm, let me see if I understand this. Remember I am using a Malaybook, with its specific OS.

1) by installing the GPRS Connectivity Update I corrupted the commsdb.dat

2) After the hard reset, the OS installs itself, presumably with a brand-new commsdb.dat.

3) I then reenter all the settings from the Modems, Internet, Dialling and Ethernet control panels.

Is this right?

I am a little confused :confused: as your website instructions seem to imply that I have to keep the old commsdb.dat.

Ciao

Daniele

[diem]

Sorry - yes - these instructions are tailored towards updating the OS from a previous version.

Your stated procedure is entirely correct - you will need to manually re-enter your modems and ethernet settings.

You can however use Psiwin to copy across all your old Revo data from the backup folder on the PC; the whole Documents folder at once, and Contacts.cdb into C:\System\Data.

[fladda]

Originally posted by diem

- installed the Mobile GPRS connectivity update, or
- restored a backup from an older device by any chance?

Either way I'm afraid you will have to do a backup, wipe your machine, then reinstall the OS to correct the corruption of the Commsdb.dat file. You do not need the GPRS update - its functionality is already in the OS.

No need to wipe your operating system to overcome the effects of a corrupted COMMDB.DAT file ! Shut down all open applications that are currently using comms (e.g. Opera etc). Then simply delete the corrupt COMMSDB.DAT file.

Next time you start the ethernet settings utility in Control Panel, Epoc will magically recreate the default CommsDB.dat file. You will see a momentary message saying something like "Default Settings Restored".

Same also applies to many other system files on ER5. Deleted files are automatically rebuilt to default if no longer present.

Ralph

[diem]

Thanks for pointing this out Ralph! Don't know why I didn't think of it myself. :rolleyes:

Daniele, you'll find the file in C:\System\Data - hope you read this in time...

[swing]

Hmm, I've started a new thread in the 7Book topic to discuss files like these, and problems with changing the OS and the support files that are affected.

Steve

[PsiDan]

OK, here is an update: over the weekend I gritted my teeth, poured myself a stiff drink, and got on with the job. :)

I renamed the commsdb.dat to commsdbold.dat, did a soft reset, then clicked on the Ethernet section of the Control Panel. I got a "rebuilding..." message and then the Ethernet settings dialog opened. The only settings available were IrLAN, LAN and rLAN. Clicking on rLan I found the Cisco and Lucent/Orinoco options.

I went into the Dialling, Internet and Modems sections and spent a good half hour reentering the various settings.

I then launched Email and tried to open a mailbox. The Connect to Internet dialog box however only offered my usual Modem settings, no sign of any LAN, rLan or whatever! :( Same thing happened if I started an Opera session.

What's worse, If I did try to connect via a mobile phone (both GSM or GPRS), I could not establish any connection at all, and got a time out error! :mad:

As GSM/GPRS is essential to me, at that point I decided to scrub the new commsdb.dat and restored the renamed one. Now I'm back to square one, GSM/GPRS connectivity is fine, but no idea how an rLan connection would actually work.

I will be travelling next week, so I may be able to do some testing near a WiFi hotspot. Is it possible that the rLan option only becomes available in the Connect to Internet dialog when a hotspot is active?

I do still have Mobile Connectivity update 2.00 installed. Could this still be affecting the rLan options? I don't really want to uninstall it as this will probably break my GPRS connectivity that is far more useful to me now than an rLan!

Ciao

Daniele

[MikeMcC]

I do still have Mobile Connectivity update 2.00 installed. Could this still be affecting the rLan options?We were discussing this yesterday in the Modems and Mobile phones section. It seems that one of the files installed by the GPRS Update causes the problem and this needs to be renamed (to hide it from the operating system) while using a LAN instead of GPRS. The file is TCPIP.prt in the path C:\System\Libs\TCPIP.prt

[PsiDan]

Excellent! That did the trick! I renamed TCPIP.PRT, fired up Email and now I have all the LAN options in the Connect to Internet dialog. And GPRS works fine too! :) Thanks very much for your help!

Does the TCPIP.PRT file have any practical use, or can I delete it?

Ciao

Daniele

[MikeMcC]

Does the TCPIP.PRT file have any practical use, or can I delete it?I've just tried a GPRS connection with the file renamed and it connected OK. If disabling the file lets both your LAN and GPRS work reliably, you might as well delete it.

[swing]

It seems most if not all the files from the MCU2.0 are not required / cause problems. Certainly the tcpip.prt file appears to stop the WiFi / Ethernet settings from working.

However, having looked at my 7Book, Inotice that the files continaed within the MCU 2.0 are already installed in the ROM image. Iwonder if the problem is linked to the MCU2.0 installing a previous version of these files, which is removing support, whereas on a netbook the MCU 2.0 is not required for GPRSsupport at all.

Idon't know whether these files are also in the MBook ROMimage, but if they are, then we know not to recommend the use of MCU2.0 on any netbook.

Steve

[PsiDan]

The tset for this theory would be for someone with a brand-new netBook to attempt connection via GPRS. If it works, then MCU 2.0 is not required!

Or maybe someone from Teklogix can enlighten us?

Daniele

[diem]

We already know this - MCU2.0 is not required on a netBook with the latest OS release.

[Craggy]

Absolutely, and I posted such on another thread last week.

My netBook is a virgin download from the PsTek website and I have both GPRS (web, not WAP) and 802.11 working.

The MCU should not be needed as AFAIK those files are already included in the ROM.

Personally I'm hoping PsTek may sign netBook 1 off with a nice stable 160 ROM, but that is just a hope (especially as a major problem is Opera, which isn't going to get updated beyond version 5.14).

[donkeyontheedge]

Do you have any knowledge that it is still being worked on then? Even if it may not be released?

What I would like to see is a list of beta drivers/software that exists in the non-public domain that we could beg/borrow or persuade someone to release in an unsupported format - preferably with code so somebody else could take up the challenge!

John

[cangiante]

YAN:
>We already know this - MCU2.0 is not required on a netBook >with the latest OS release.

That's exactly what I thought before actually trying my first GPRS connection. The fact is that without installing the MCU 2.0 I was not able to get connected to the network
(my nB is release 158 / 450)
cheers
gianluca

PS: Ciao Daniele, how curious we were actually dealing with similar problems, but from different perspectives;-)
I've been using Wi-fi connection since Xmas, but I experienced more troubles than expected with GPRS... now fortunately solved thanks both to Psion Fans Italia and PsionPlace...

[PsiDan]

Originally posted by diem
We already know this - MCU2.0 is not required on a netBook with the latest OS release.

FWIW, I have a Malaybook with release 158. But now that I've got both WiFi and GPRS working I'm not going to uninstall MCU 2.0!

Ciao

Daniele

[cangiante]

May you please tell me which GPRS files (and above all which path) should be expected to be found on a latest release of a standard netBook OS 450?
I am happy with the MCU 2.0 and the tricks you taught me here but I would like to understand what went wrong with the standard OS.
cheers
gianluca

[MikeyC]

Just an FYI really:

The MCU is not needed on OS 158 *unless* you want to connect to WAP via GPRS. If you do, you need it (but ONLY for WAP). Installing this update causes the LAN connection options (wired & wireless) to disappear until the TCPIP.PRT file is renamed, and then it all works fine.

If it's just internet access and mail over GPRS you want then it works fine 'out the box'.

Hope this clarifies.