Wi-fi connection by way of dial-up

[ethancaine]

A 56k dial up connection is my only available internet option and I want to be able to use my Axim to surf while in/around the house.

I have a WinXP Pro desktop downstairs (primary PC) sharing that internet connection with the laptop upstairs by way of a standard 10/100 wired LAN. The laptop upstairs is sharing the printer (so the kids can't mess with it downstairs).

Anyone have ideas on the most efficient way to establish the PPC internet connection? If possible, I'd like to print directly from the Axim also (I don't know if this is possible). :confused totally:

[Pony99CA]

A 56k dial up connection is my only available internet option and I want to be able to use my Axim to surf while in/around the house.

I have a WinXP Pro desktop downstairs (primary PC) sharing that internet connection with the laptop upstairs by way of a standard 10/100 wired LAN. The laptop upstairs is sharing the printer (so the kids can't mess with it downstairs).

Anyone have ideas on the most efficient way to establish the PPC internet connection? If possible, I'd like to print directly from the Axim also (I don't know if this is possible). :confused totally:
It's easy. :-) Get a WiFi router that supports a modem connection and let it dial your ISP. Connect both your laptop and desktop to the router, either via Ethernet or WiFi. Get a WiFi card for your Axim, and you're done.

Before I got DSL, I shared my dial-up connection between two laptops and my iPAQ using an SMC 7004AWBR router.

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

It's easy. :-) Get a WiFi router that supports a modem connection and let it dial your ISP. Connect both your laptop and desktop to the router, either via Ethernet or WiFi. Get a WiFi card for your Axim, and you're done.
Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) just to get a standard WAP and plug that directly into the Ethernet hub (that I assume he already has) and then plug a WiFi receiver into his Axim?

That's exactly what I do at home (I also share a dial-up internet connection). You just need to configure the network settings on your PPC and you should be set.

[ethancaine]

I just tried a Linksys "Wireless Access Point and Cable/DSL Router" and it messed up my internet sharing for my laptop so I took it back.

Would a WAP do what I need? (internet sharing and printing) Also, would I need a bridge between the wired and wireless networks?

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! So many questions... so few ridges in the grey matter of my brain!

:cry:

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Would a WAP do what I need? (internet sharing and printing) Also, would I need a bridge between the wired and wireless networks?
No. Your WAP would act as your "bridge". You would literally just plug a CAT5 cable from the WAP into your Ethernet hub and then plunk a CF WiFi card into your Axim. From there, you just configure the network settings on your PPC and you're set.

[Sven Johannsen]

Installed correctly, the Linksys AP/Router shoudn't mess up your current setup, but instaliing it in that situation would not be typical and a little confusing. (You would hook it up using just the switch and AP, disregarding the router part)

If, as ekkie indicated, you have a hub (or a switch) with a spare port, between the two PCs you have working via ICS now, yes, an Access Point should take care of the network aspect of your desire.

ICS sets up a network on the ethernet side of the PC that is sharing the modem connection. (It essentially turns the PC into a router) The two machines will be in a particular subnet (eg, numbers between 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255). The first three sets are consistant in the network (though maybe not the ones I used as examples) and the last number is distinct for each device. The number that is assigned to the ethernet port on the PC that is sharing the connection is the gateway. The AP point will need an IP in that range that isn't being used, as will the PPC. Both will need to know the gateway, and the DNS addresse(s) that your ISP gave you. The DNS IPs are not in your network. Anyplace you are asked for a Subnet Mask, you will be fine with 255.255.255.0.

I haven't run ICS in a long time. Can someone who does pop in and indicate if ICS in XP will hand out all the addresses to connected devices (DHCP). If that is the case, setup should be a snap. You basically set things you hook to the switch to DHCP and let XP handle the details.

Printing is a different issue. You will at the very least need a third party software solution for the PPC to print at all. It has no native print feature. HP has a free print option available, that I have had luck with over IR, but haven't tried it over a network. There are a couple of options though, that you could likely find at Handango, or folks here will point out.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I haven't run ICS in a long time. Can someone who does pop in and indicate if ICS in XP will hand out all the addresses to connected devices (DHCP). If that is the case, setup should be a snap. You basically set things you hook to the switch to DHCP and let XP handle the details.
The DHCP setup doesn't work for my PPC. I do have to set up an IP address (for my PPC, it's 192.168.0.4) and use my ISP DNS settings as my device DNS settings in order to access the internet. The desktop that dials into the internet should be as the gateway (likely 192.168.0.1). The subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0 and the WINS should be left blank. On the connection manager page, I leave my profiles as Internet, Internet, Work and that allows me to do both ActiveSync and Internet surfing simultaneously.

[Sven Johannsen]

Great, given ekkie's post, I bet the net numbers he posted are consistent if you set up ICS (192.168.0.x). Normally 192.168.0.1 would be assigned to whatever is going to be the gateway in a small network, so that is consistent.

Ekkie, does DHCP work with other PC's, and just not with the PPC, or are you having to set up IPs for all the other machines? Just curious.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Ekkie, does DHCP work with other PC's, and just not with the PPC, or are you having to set up IPs for all the other machines? Just curious.
You hit it on the head. I didn't have to configure any specific network settings into my other machines to leverage the XP box's ICS, just my PPC.

It may have had something to do with the Socket drivers. I'm not totally positive, but I did find that a bit odd myself.

[Sven Johannsen]

I thought that I had read that XP (and 2000) would act as a DHCP server when you set up ICS. Much nicer than carrying a setup disk around like in Win98 (or manually configuring everything) I recall that Linksys routers had a problem providing IPs to PPCs via DHCP early on as well. (That has been fixed BTW). Maybe the DHCP server part of ICS, isn't quite as full featued as it needs to be to play nice with PPCs.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

You know, I'm compelled now to take a second look at that. I'm usually overseas 3 weeks out of every month, so when I am home, I feel so short on time that I tend to rush through things getting them to work.

So it's possible that DHCP didn't work for me b/c I had something else misconfigured (WEP key, MAC filtering, WiFi mode, etc.), though I don't *think* that's the case. It wasn't long ago that I installed XP and evel less time when I last did a hard reset on my iPaq. So if something didn't work immediately, I may have just hastily input settings that I knew should work.

[Pony99CA]

It's easy. :-) Get a WiFi router that supports a modem connection and let it dial your ISP. Connect both your laptop and desktop to the router, either via Ethernet or WiFi. Get a WiFi card for your Axim, and you're done.
Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) just to get a standard WAP and plug that directly into the Ethernet hub (that I assume he already has) and then plug a WiFi receiver into his Axim?
I really wouldn't know. I was just telling him how I shared a dial-up connection. I have never used ICS.

However, my solution means that you don't have to always keep one PC running to share the Internet. The router dials the phone and maintains an almost-always-on connection. Also, most wireless routers have NAT and firewall capability built-in. You don't need to run a software firewall (although some people argue that you should to block outgoing traffic).

Wireless routers are so cheap now, I wouldn't bother with Access Points in a home network unless you'd have to dismantle something.

Steve

[PetiteFlower]

Ok here's a good one for you then--what's the difference between a router and an access point? Is an access point something that you would get if you already had a non-wireless router, and you plug that into the router to get the wireless signal? Or am I way off?

[Pat Logsdon]

Ok here's a good one for you then--what's the difference between a router and an access point? Is an access point something that you would get if you already had a non-wireless router, and you plug that into the router to get the wireless signal? Or am I way off?
You're correct. You plug an access point into a wired router. Which is good for those of us that need print servers, since I've yet to see a wireless router that incorporates one.

[Pony99CA]

You're correct. You plug an access point into a wired router. Which is good for those of us that need print servers, since I've yet to see a wireless router that incorporates one.
My SMC 7004AWBR WiFi router (http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?sec=Products&pg=Product-Details&prod=63&site=c) includes print server software. I believe there are other routers that have print server capability, too.

Steve

[Hyperluminal]

I also only have dial-up, and want WiFi.
I'm just thinking of getting an SMC7004AWBR, a 56K serial modem to attach to it, and of course a PCMCIA receiver for my notebook. That would work, right?

[Icebaron]

I carry an apple airport WAP in my laptop bag. I have some java apps to configure it, and it includes a built-in modem as well as a NIC. This allows lots of flexibility for connection type and the apple "space-ship" form factor fits in my laptop bag nicely.

[Pony99CA]

I also only have dial-up, and want WiFi.
I'm just thinking of getting an SMC7004AWBR, a 56K serial modem to attach to it, and of course a PCMCIA receiver for my notebook. That would work, right?
Yes, as my post on the first page of this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10345&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1) alluded to. :-)

I don't know if other SMC routers support dial-up, but you might want to check into it. The 7004AWBR is missing a couple of useful geeky things like VPN passthru and Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) to avoid Denial of Service attacks.

Steve

[Hyperluminal]

Thanks. :)

By the way, could I establish an ad hoc network between my PC and an iPaq 5455 (which I don't have now, but will probably get soon) to transfer files, or ActiveSync? Also, could I use Terminal Services Client on my PPC to run my PC remotely, on a WLAN connection?

And sorry if those questions are really obvious, which they probably are, but unlike PDAs, networking is really not my speciality. ;)

[Pony99CA]

By the way, could I establish an ad hoc network between my PC and an iPaq 5455 (which I don't have now, but will probably get soon) to transfer files, or ActiveSync?

I haven't tried it, but I don't see why not. However, if you're going to get an SMC 7004AWBR router, why would you want to? I suppose if your PC is a laptop and you had both out of range of the router, it would make sense, but if you're near the router, running in infrastructure mode seems to make more sense.

Also, could I use Terminal Services Client on my PPC to run my PC remotely, on a WLAN connection?

I've never tried it, because my understanding is that you need Windows XP Pro (or maybe Windows 2000) to run a Terminal Services server. If you have the appropriate OS, though, I think you'll be able to.

Did you search for Terminal Services on this site? Both the "Remote control of PC question" thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10429) and the "How to use the Terminal Client on your PocketPC 2002 with Windows XP Professional's Remote Desktop" thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5258) seem to have useful information.

Steve

[Hyperluminal]

I haven't tried it, but I don't see why not. However, if you're going to get an SMC 7004AWBR router, why would you want to? I suppose if your PC is a laptop and you had both out of range of the router, it would make sense, but if you're near the router, running in infrastructure mode seems to make more sense.

Yeah, my PC's a notebook, and sometimes it'd be convenient to connect them directly. Although I guess I could just get a BT card...


I've never tried it, because my understanding is that you need Windows XP Pro (or maybe Windows 2000) to run a Terminal Services server. If you have the appropriate OS, though, I think you'll be able to.


You're right, I forgot; you do need XP Pro or Win2K to use Terminal Sevices, and I have XP Home. I do know someone with a copy of Win2K they're not using anymore, so I could install that, but it's not really worth it.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

By the way, could I establish an ad hoc network between my PC and an iPaq 5455 (which I don't have now, but will probably get soon) to transfer files, or ActiveSync?
Yes, I do that all the time while I'm on the road travelling (where carrying a WAP+Ethernet hub doesn't make much sense).

Keep in mind that ad-hoc networking is direct peer-to-peer networking which *can* be rather high maintenance (similar to networking using crossover network cable or via crossover "laplink" cable). You'll often have to recycle both units to establish a connection and the moment you lose that connection (via lost signal, crashed computer, reboot, etc.), you won't be able to reestablish the signal until you again recycle both machines (not a big deal for my PPC, but a pain to do repeatedly with my laptop).

Also, while you can ActiveSync and move files between computers, I don't believe you can connect to the internet, even through the ActiveSync connection. The ActiveSync support for "pass-through Internet" is only available through serial connections (serial, USB, BT), not network connections. I've tried to bridge the ad-hoc network with my dial-up network, but thus far have been unsuccessful.

Overall, it's always ideal to have a hub (Router or WAP+Ethernet hub), but ad-hoc does work well in circumstances where you want to limit the amount of devices you're carrying around.

[ethancaine]

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for the ideas.

I believe I have found the solution to my original problem... here goes:

I bought a second (used) desktop, threw WinXP Pro on it and now have the following setup- WinXP Pro desktop downstairs is wired to the router which splits off to the WinXP Pro desktop (print server) upstairs and to the WAP downstairs.The Win98SE laptop is connected via wireless USB adapter and gets *decent* reception throughout the house. Axim will be connected (when it finally gets here via snailmail) with a CF card.

To set everything up, I simply ran the Home Network Setup Wizard on the WinXP machines designating the downstairs PC as the ICS machine. After installing the wireless USB adapter to the laptop, I manually configured it to accept the DHCP from the downstairs PC. All computers can access the internet and print. I fully expect to have the Axim up and running in no time once it arrives and I will update this thread when I accomplish this.

:oops: BTW, do I qualify for nomination of this year's "Most Expansive and Difficult Home Network Set Up Only for Hobby" award? :D

[Janak Parekh]

You're right, I forgot; you do need XP Pro or Win2K to use Terminal Sevices, and I have XP Home. I do know someone with a copy of Win2K they're not using anymore, so I could install that, but it's not really worth it.
Be careful - Win2k Pro did not have a Terminal Server - you need Win2k Server, WinXP Pro, or Windows Server 2003 to get Terminal Services.

--janak

[Hyperluminal]

I didn't know that. Thanks. :)