Need wireless advice from someone very experienced

[Jorgen]

I have a really wierd problem:

My hp-568 has stopped working with my wireless d-link DCF-660W CF-card. If I set it to use DHCP, it either picks up a 0.0.0.0 or 169.254.151.169with netmask 255.255.0.0 while it should pick 11-dot-something with netmask 255.255.255.0. Setting the address to what the router expects does not help - I cannot ping to anything, let alone connect.

I have tried both with and without pockethosts and pocketDHCP. I used to have netuse on the machine.

It is not the WLAN card; it works fine in my hp-548.

My socket wirefull network card works as it should in the 568, with and without DHCP.

I have hard reset the machine a couple of times without any effect, reinstalled, rebooted before and/or after etc.

In other words, the d-link card works as it should. The networking on the machine works with a wirefull card. It cannot be the network settings as the wirefull card works. Does the machine store things that survives a hard reset? Just in case it could have something to do with it: I cannot connect to the Interent through the cradle at the moment (not that I want to either): it asks me to change the settings. Synching via the cradle works fine.

The router has been set to only recognise certain addresses (but since it works with the hp-548, they cannot be the problem unless the 568 sends the wrong hardware address back - but why should it when the socket card did not).

Any ideas? We are heavily into wireless at home and I have tried everything I can think of. Is it hardware or software? What am I overlooking? The d-link card and the 568 has otherwise worked like a dream since it bought it.

Jorgen

[dhettel]

Sounds to me like it is a configuration problem. So I would look at things like the SSID, and your password. If you have word completion turn on, it may have added a space to your password, or the name of your system.

You can download vxUtil and it will show you the MAC address of your card. But that is unlikely to be the cause. As a simple test turn off wep, and your MAC address filter, reboot your AP, and see if you can connect then.

If it works add them back one by one.

[Jorgen]

I have tried all that many times: the SSID and WEP pass-phrase are OK.

I have vxutil + tigertools and checked the MAC address and IP address.

No, something prevents wireless networking (at least with that card), with or without DHCP - I just can't figure what it is. It just stopped working from one day to the next and not even a hard reset helped.

But thanks for trying!

Jorgen

[daS]

My hp-568 has stopped working with my wireless d-link DCF-660W CF-card. If I set it to use DHCP, it either picks up a 0.0.0.0 or 169.254.151.169with netmask 255.255.0.0 while it should pick 11-dot-something with netmask 255.255.255.0.
I have seen this happen as well with a few different Pocket PCs.

Switching to a fixed IP address and connecting to the network worked. Then, changing back to DHCP all was well again.

I don't know what caused it, but I haven't seen the problem for a few months now. :roll:

[Jorgen]

>Switching to a fixed IP address and connecting to the network worked. Then, changing back to DHCP all was well again.

Been there and done that too, not because I thought it as a solution but because I set the IP address manually and, when that did not work, switched back to DHCP - no success.

Could it be storing data in the safe storage area? This is the only thing that survives a hard reset.

Jorgen

[Steven Cedrone]

Turn off WEP, MAC filtering, DHCP(assign everything manually), and try again...

You did check your SSID and channel? Very strange (if it weren't for the fact that it does work in the 548, I'd think the card died)...

Where's Sven??? :wink:

Steve

[Jorgen]

Well done, Steven! Then it works! I switched the WEP off on the router and the PPC and I can ping. I switched it on again and I can't. I reentered the number: still no go. I entered the number in another key slot; same result.

It will not allow me to either enter the code or does not recognise the code entered. I enter it in hex format as always (it won't accept it as char format anyway, pass phrase won't work for this input).

But now we know where to look!

Jorgen

[Jorgen]

I wonder where it stores the WEP code. It looks like the code survives a hard reset but I cannot see the code entered. I will find a registry editor and have a look. Or even ask d-link's helpdesk to see how good they are.

Jorgen

[Steven Cedrone]

It will not allow me to either enter the code or does not recognise the code entered. I enter it in hex format as always (it won't accept it as char format anyway, pass phrase won't work for this input).


Double check your WEP key by using this online tool (http://www.warewolflabs.com/portfolio/programming/wepskg/wepskg.html)...

See if it helps...

Steve

BTW, I have had nothing but good luck with D-link... YMMV though :wink:

[Jorgen]

Thanks. I instead downloaded PHM Regedit (freeware) to check the registry.

I found the keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Comm / dcf-660w1. One of the keys I had tried was OK, the other had gone back to default. I then changed the registry to the same as the one on hp-548 (use this as argument if your better half complains about you having too many PDAs!). I had some extra ones on the 568 (probably from PocketDHCP) and hardcoded the defaults there to what the end-result should be. However, still no connection. :( I must have lost my lucky touch!

I walked up to Paddington Station to shop in the supermarket and tried the hotspot there - the Megabeam logo came up (except that the free one seems to have disappeared). It has definitely something to do with the encryption.

Jorgen

[ctmagnus]

It will not allow me to either enter the code or does not recognise the code entered. I enter it in hex format as always (it won't accept it as char format anyway, pass phrase won't work for this input).

I have the same issue. I use a Linksys BEFW11S4 in conjunction with an Orinoco Gold card and I cannot get 128-bit WEP to function. There was the one passphrase that produced a wep key on the linky that functioned with the Orinoco, but I haven't been able to get others to work. 64-bit wep works fine, however, with virtually any passphrase I throw at it.

[Jorgen]

The real interesting issue is that I still have the problem after a hard reset. Something odd must have survived a hard reset? Spooky!

Jorgen