Wifi SDIO Help

[gregchod]

Coming from the world of the iQue 3600, I do not have any expereince with SDIO. I do however have a wireless b/g network in my house. Can I assume that all I need to do is to make sure my security on the router (WEP, with hexidecimal code) is the same as my M5. I have done this with very minor success using the SanDisk Wi-Fi Card SDWSDB-000. I have downloaded all of the latest drivers from Sandisk, but still no luck. Is there an issue with these cards, and if so, is there a preference out there by some of you power users?
Thanks,
Greg

[AnswerDude]

What exactly have you been able to do with this card? 3 things that you want to check:
1> If there is any security software or setting in the router, make you you allow the pocketpc inside the network.
2> If you use MAC address filtering , add the address of the WiFi card.
3> Make sure your router is not in G only mode, set it to mixed mode or B only.

[gregchod]

What exactly have you been able to do with this card? 3 things that you want to check:

I have been able to access the web only a few times, and that only lasts for a few minutes. Then when I try back, the card recognizes the network, but will not connect. This is even when i turn off all security on the router (Open, Disabled)

1> If there is any security software or setting in the router, make you you allow the pocketpc inside the network.

I do not think so. I am assuming you are talking about WEP, etc.. I run Symantec Internet Security on that PC, but I am asumming that is a PC side software and not at the router level.

2> If you use MAC address filtering , add the address of the WiFi card.

None

3> Make sure your router is not in G only mode, set it to mixed mode or B only.

It is currently set to B.

Could it be a bad card? What have others used? Thanks for all of your help.
Greg

[JMckie]

Isolate the problem.

How about trying it with another AP, in a friend's house or a Starbucks? If it works there, then it is your home network. If it doesn't then it is your handheld and/or card.

[AnswerDude]

Another thing i just remember is to disable power saving mode on the wifi card.

And here're free network utilities that may help pin point the problems;
vxUtil
http://www.cam.com/vxutil_pers.html
vxIPConfig
http://www.cam.com/vxipconfig.html

[AKlopper]

Originally posted by gregchod
Is there an issue with these cards, and if so, is there a preference out there by some of you power users?

I had driver issues with the Sandisk Wifi+256MB SD card. The problems were more along the lines of being unable to write large files (greater than around 20KB) to any SD card after having installed the drivers, but I seem to recall battling a bit with the Wifi as well. I swapped out the card for an Ambicom WL11-SD Wifi-only card and haven't looked back.

One issue I had with the Sandisk Wifi was that there were two places to configure exactly the same settings for wireless networks (under Windows Mobile and within the Sandisk utility itself). They seemed to update each other, but once I resorted to only configuring wireless profiles within the Sandisk utility program I had much better results.

I also had issues with the Wifi card not being detected, and sometimes having to soft-reset the M5 to get wifi access even with a green Wifi icon on the Today page.

I haven't had any of these problems with the Ambicom card, and it uses the native Windows Mobile wifi configuration pages which is a lot less confusing. It hasn't completely eliminated the need for the occasional soft reset to get wifi access, but from what I understand, this is a fairly normal PPC thing.

[gregchod]

Thanks all. Will give all a try and will report back soon.

[OWG]

Also, if you are getting an address through DHCP, make sure you have enough DHCP clients allowed in the router. I had mine set to three at one point (for additional security) and was puzzled that sometimes I couldn't connect. Turns out it was only when my notebook was connected as it was using the last available DHCP address.

[gregchod]

All is fixed, Thanks. It was either a bad card or drivers that were a bit shaky. I swithced to AmbiCom and had not had any problems. One side note, after using the M5 for a month, you could not pay me to go back to the 3600.