WLAN Card Blues

[wirebook]

I haven't been here for... over half a year. And for those of you who know me... yep, the WLAN card still doesn't work on the netBook. For those of you who don't, I have a Cisco Aironet 340 PCMCIA card and a Psion netBook that don't work together properly. The card will illuminate solid orange for about 5 seconds when put in the netBook, and then turn off. When I attempt to connect to the network, the card's orange light will turn on for 5 seconds, then go off, and at exactly the same time the netBook will claim that it cannot connect to the network. I have tried different frequency channels on the WAP, different SSIDs, and I even went to the extreme of opening up the netBook to check the solder-joints, and nothing was wrong. Any help or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated.:D

[wirebook]

I came up with an idea. For those of you who have a Cisco Aironet 340 card.... what color/time does your card display with the lights right when you plug it in? I attempted (for approximately the 53rd time unsuccesfully) and the error message said that there was a network problem, so I came up with that idea. Then, when does your card start to do the normal blinking thing when it connects up?



thanks!
wirebook

[netBookBabe]

Hi wirebook

I can't help very much I'm afraid. :( I have the Cisco 340 card, but don't yet have a network to connect to - that project is on the "To Do" list at the moment. :rolleyes:

For the record, the orange activity indicator does light when the card is inserted into the netBook, and stays lit for about 5 seconds, as with yours, then appears to go dormant. I've not had the opportunity to make an actual connection yet, apart from one very brief and abortive attempt in Starbucks a few weeks ago.

Anyway, I thought I had better post this reply so you didn't think that nobody was taking any notice!

Julie

[Beakynet]

Wirebook,

I am just starting on the road to a Wireless Netbook. So I don't really know much you, however, I have been working with a home network for some months now so understans the issues.

I would start symple - if you have controll over the WiFi gateway/bridge then I would configure it open and without WEP (Excryption). Get the settings on the NetBook to match and ensure that power saving is not on. What this should do is eliminate any features other than the card and its chip set. Also, you could try turning off DHCP and try fixing the Gateway IP and the NetBook IP and subnet mask.

I have tried a Belkin card without success and discovered the card I had was not compatable, however, from what I understand the Aironet 340 is. I am now waiting for a new card, when that arrives I might have some further suggestions.

Good luck
David

[wirebook]

Hey, thanks!

netbookbabe... thanks for the info about the light. And Beakynet... thanks. I'll try manually configuring everything and see if it connects up. And still, for those of you who have a Cisco Aironet 340 PCMCIA card, and have successfully connected to a network, could you tell me what the lights on the card did? And a quick question: On WinXP, how do you find where the IP address of the WAP is? I can find it on Win98, but have trouble on WinXP. Thanks!

[MikeMcC]

On WinXP, how do you find where the IP address of the WAP is? I can find it on Win98, but have trouble on WinXP How do you find it in Win98? I know what my WAP's IP address is because I've given it a fixed IP, but I wouldn't know how to get Windows to find it if DHCP was enabled.

[Beakynet]

Originally posted by wirebook
Hey, thanks!

On WinXP, how do you find where the IP address of the WAP is? I can find it on Win98, but have trouble on WinXP. Thanks!

Start->Run "Cmd" Enter to run the command line and type 'IPCONFIG' while connected - this should give you details of the systems current IP address and might give some other usefull information.

David

[pthwaite]

Right, Cisco 340 & Netbook and both work fine so here's what happens:

Switch on with card in situ and orange light illuminates for about 10s then goes off.

As soon a I call up Opera, the orange light illuminates for around 5s until I tell it to connect via the rlan

Hit okay and after about 2 - 4s the orage and green lights both start flashing away as the pages download.

Settings:
Used rLan as the profile example with teh Show connection dialog ticked

Configuration by DHCP
Hostname whatever you want I happen to call mine "netbook"
Device Cisco Aironet 3500/4800/340

Options SSID here I input a number as I found a text string didn't work, just make sure your Router or base station matches it.

under the advanced options I just left everything as the default.

I hope this helps

Oh and I've got the latest operating system loaded(v 158)

Howard

[wirebook]

pthwaite, what happens if you enter an invalid SSID that doesn't match the WAP/Wireless Router? Thanks! I'm getting more results than in the past. Thanks again!!

[wirebook]

Basically, what I mean, is what happens when you try to connect to a network that doesn't exist? Do the activity and status lights still blink like they should when you connect to a network? I'm starting to think that because I have entered in an SSID a bit too long for the netBook to work with, or something of the line of it not being able to find the network. Anyway, I'll try changing the SSID on the router, and erase WEP, and I'll see if anything changes. Hope for good luck:)

[PlutoPants]

"Configuration by DHCP
Hostname whatever you want I happen to call mine "netbook"
Device Cisco Aironet 3500/4800/340"

I could be wrong, but the only way I managed to get my NB onto my WiFi LAN was to ignore DHCP and set a manual IP address.

This has been discussed before - see thread:
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19108

Although DHCP should work in theory, several people have found that being old-fashioned and manually configuring the nB has worked.

Incidentally, no changes have been made to my Access Point or Router - they still dole out DHCP addresses to other computers on the LAN. They seem also to accept a device with its own IP address as long as it is on the same subnet and not masked wrongly.

As I said, I may be barking up the wrong tree, but IHTH.

;)

[KevinMillican]

Originally posted by PlutoPants
"I could be wrong, but the only way I managed to get my NB onto my WiFi LAN was to ignore DHCP and set a manual IP address.
This problem is not restricted to the netBook and occurs with several PDA devices. It is to do with DHCP lease times; some routers seem to struggle to give out an IP address every time you connect.

Manual setting of the addresses saves time when connecting anyway, so is well worth it for portable devices that regularly connect, especially if using more than one access point.

A couple of pointers:-

1. the SSID is case-sensitive.

2. in the netBook Ethernet settings, 'IEEE 802.3 encapsulation' probably needs to be switched OFF (or possibly ON depending on the infrastructure - important thing is that this parameter does make a difference)

3. if you're using the Lucent 802.11 settings (eg. Orinoco, Belkin cards), turn 'Card power management' OFF and 'receive all multicasts' ON

[daredevil]

To make troubleshooting your wireless lan less painful experience, you can launch the NatStatRF after trying to connect with Opera on netBook. This will give you info on Connected to and RemoteMAC address which is helpful to get your Ethernet settings right. This helps me to disable WEP on my wireless lan to go online.

[daredevil]

I need to mention that the NetStatRF only works with Lucent WLAN card. It does not show any info if you were to use it with Cisco card. NetStatRF is written for Lucent wavelan card.

[pthwaite]

Tried connecting with a different SSID and the lights all flashed a lot as though a connection was trying to be made, well mainly the green light flashed about every half second, but (obviously) no connection was made. The orange light came on in bursts every now and again.

Eventually "Could not connect to remote server" error


Changed back to my usual SSID and everything okay.

I have noted the comments regarding DHCP, but I have had no problems so far.

Howard

[pthwaite]

Forgot, I used only a 3 digit SSID as I read somewhere that problems may arise with this part of the process.

It is a bit of an art I must admit, try an SSID of say 110 and see what happens?

Howard

[wirebook]

Just to clarify, what's the SSID you use that works? (the one that your router is) I tested with a different SSID, a different frequency channel, and it's not quite working. Over the weekend I hope to finally get into Psion's support line (the U.S. support line is actually toll-free now and not in Canada!) Quick question: Anyone know of any stores that sell Psions? When I last called, they said they'd call me another time, but they also said for fastest service go to a dealer. Any clue of a store that sells them (eg. Office Depot, Best Buy, etc.)?



Thanks! I appreciate all of the help.
wirebook

[donkeyontheedge]

I tried using the default SSID of my AirStation which was the MAC address. My 7Book would not connect with this. Eventually I changed the SSID to "JOHN" on both the AirStation and the 7Book and it worked (after I used a static IP address anyway!)

John

[pthwaite]

Try 110, as an SSID, provided the Router and Card agree it should work, at least does for me. My Router is a Netgear MR314.

Howard

[pthwaite]

One of these days I'll finish thinking and then send rather than do multiple sends, anyway,

Make sure the WEP access is OFF for the Cisco card.

Howard

[donkeyontheedge]

You could always EDIT your last post to put in some extra thinking!

[andyahern]

"I could be wrong, but the only way I managed to get my NB onto my WiFi LAN was to ignore DHCP and set a manual IP address.

There's no problem with the Netbook using DHCP. This is more likely to be an access point issue. I've been running a Linksys wireless router / access point with my 7Book and Buffalo wifi card for about 6 months and have never failed to pick up a DHCP address yet.