Need help recognizing wi-fi

[MPSmith]

I am connecting a Netgear MA401 PC card and a MA101 usb hub to my XP desktop and a Jornada 720. I got the PC card installed and the link light is blinking on it. However, the desktop won't recognize the wi-fi network.

I think I have all the drivers installed correctly. For some reason, the systray app that is supposed to reside on the taskbar of my desktop won't show up. (Probably because there is nothing to detect.

I downloaded VxUtil and found that the INFO function shows this:

Current IP

Handheld_PC
192.168.XX.XXX

Adapters

PRISMNDS1 (my PC card driver)
IP address 24.207.XXX.XXX (ie. different than above!)
Subnet mask etc. etc.
...

then it shows this:

ppp1

IP Address: 192.168.55.101

Why am I showing two different IP's and what is ppp1?

Is this the root of my problem?

Thanks

[Pony99CA]

I am connecting a Netgear MA401 PC card and a MA101 usb hub to my XP desktop and a Jornada 720. I got the PC card installed and the link light is blinking on it. However, the desktop won't recognize the wi-fi network.

I think I have all the drivers installed correctly. For some reason, the systray app that is supposed to reside on the taskbar of my desktop won't show up. (Probably because there is nothing to detect.

I'm using my laptop hard-wired to my SMC router/access point. My iPAQ 3870 connects via WiFi to the access point. I haven't had any trouble.

Let's start with some basic stuff. Are you connecting to a LAN, or trying to have the Pocket PC connect directly with your laptop? If the former, have you ensured Infrastructure mode is set; if the the latter, have you ensured Ad Hoc mode is set? Are your SSIDs correct, and, if you've enabled WEP, are your WEP keys identical?


I downloaded VxUtil and found that the INFO function shows this:

Current IP

Handheld_PC
192.168.XX.XXX

Adapters

PRISMNDS1 (my PC card driver)
IP address 24.207.XXX.XXX (ie. different than above!)
Subnet mask etc. etc.
...

then it shows this:

ppp1

IP Address: 192.168.55.101

Here's my vxUtil data:


Current IP

SHM_iPAQ_3870
127.0.0.1

Adapters

CW101

IP Address : 192.168.123.102
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : 192.168.123.254
Primary DNS : 216.139.32.33
Secondary DNS : 216.139.32.37
Primary WINS : 192.168.123.100
Secondary WINS :
DHCP Server :

ppp1

IP Address : 192.168.55.101
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : 192.168.55.100
Primary DNS : 127.0.0.1
Secondary DNS :
Primary WINS :
Secondary WINS :
DHCP Server :



Why am I showing two different IP's and what is ppp1?

Is this the root of my problem?

As you can see, I have ppp1 as well, and my IP addresses are "different", although my iPAQ showing 127.0.0.1 just means it's a local connection. The ppp1 stuff may be a default dial-up account for PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) connections, but I don't know. It's interesting that we both have the same IP addresses, though.

Can you change your Handheld_PC IP address to 127.0.0.1 and see what happens? Also, I'd expect your PRISM adapter to be using a 192.16.xxx.xxx IP address.

I'm not a networking guru, though, so try these at your own risk. :-)

Steve

[MPSmith]

Hi Steve! I'm on day 3 of this project and am getting a little frazzled.... :oops:

To answer your questions:

I am trying to connect to a LAN.

I'm not sure what an infrastructure mode is, but I think that means ad hoc or not ad hoc. Mine is not adhoc.

I checked the SSID, and I typed "Handheld_PC" for both (is that an acceptable SSID?). I have enabled WEP, but checked the box for "the key is provided for me automatically" I don't think the key is an issue.

I think it's a good idea to try to change the handheld IP to 127.0.0.1, but I can't figure out how to do it yet. Any suggestions?

[sparky472]

I'm trying to troubleshoot my own network problems (a little different than yours). But, someone in another post explained that the ppp1 IP and settings is for Active Sync, and nothing to be concerned about.

The SSID is fine as long as it is the same on the access point and any device, such as your PPC, trying to connect to it.

The WEP key could be the issue. It also needs to be the same for all devices. On my Linksys, the key is generated by the password I choose. You probably have similar methods for choosing the WEP key, but it needs to be the same on all devices. You can find out if that's the problem by turning off WEP encryption on the access point and all devices. If you can connect, you know that's the issue. If you still can't connect, there might be something else going on.

[MPSmith]

I unselected the WEP options, and still no luck.

[Jorgen]

I assume that card was in the PPC when you executed vxutil:

Don't worry about the ppp1 data. ppp1 is the address used by Activesync. Vxutil just lists data for all your network adapters (I have a Socket LAN card as well in the list).

The 192.168... addresses are used locally (no Internet site will have it). The 24.207... must be something you have set.

"Current IP" shuld be the same as the "IP Address". It looks like you have set Settings/Connections/Network Adapters/your_card_name to use DHCP and that DHCP is not working. You can set a fixed address in settings (the 168 address would be fine) or find out why DHCP is not working (if your WLAN has a such).

It is a good idea to not use WEP until you have a connection. Check that you can ping to the computer (which also should have a 192.168 address).

Jorgen

[Steven Cedrone]

I am connecting a Netgear MA401 PC card and a MA101 usb hub to my XP desktop and a Jornada 720. I got the PC card installed and the link light is blinking on it. However, the desktop won't recognize the wi-fi network.

I think I have all the drivers installed correctly. For some reason, the systray app that is supposed to reside on the taskbar of my desktop won't show up. (Probably because there is nothing to detect.

I downloaded VxUtil and found that the INFO function shows this:

Current IP

Handheld_PC
192.168.XX.XXX

Adapters

PRISMNDS1 (my PC card driver)
IP address 24.207.XXX.XXX (ie. different than above!)
Subnet mask etc. etc.
...

then it shows this:

ppp1

IP Address: 192.168.55.101

Why am I showing two different IP's and what is ppp1?

Is this the root of my problem?

Thanks

Try this:

Pocket PC (If your pocket PC shows two adapters set them both to the same address):

IP address - 192.168.55.101
subnet - 255.255.255.0

Computer - 192.168.55.100
subnet - 255.255.255.0

Oh, and it looks like with the setup you have you will want to set up the two machines to work as ad-hoc, not infrastructure...

When both are set, see if you can ping from one to the other. If this works, reply and we'll tell you what to set WINS, DNS, etc. to....

Steve

[MPSmith]

I don't know how to assign an IP on my Jornada 720. Does anyone know how to do this? It uses WinCE 3.0.

Currently, under Vxutil I have:

current ip
Handheld_PC
127.0.0.1

Adapters
PRISM1
IP address: 24.207.239.202 (same as my desktop broadband connection)
Subset mask: 255.255.240.0 (same as my desktop broadband connection)

I can go to start/programs/remote networking and make a new connection, but I think it is intended for dial-up networking. This setting will allow me to enter an IP and dns & win settings, but not a sub set mask.

[Roosterman]

MPSmith,

Try going to Settings/connections/network adapters. You should then see your adapter. Select it and press properties. You should be able to set the IP here. If I remember correctly, the 127.0.0.1 is more or less turning the device onto itself. Back about about a year ago, I remember ready of assigning this address to cookies or something like that to keep popups from working. It didn't allow them to go out to where they needed to be able to present their annoying ad. This explaination may not be exactly right :oops: , but it was something along those lines.

You also need to have your base, computer and ppc in the same ip range. Such as 192.192.168.x, with x being unique for each machine.

[MPSmith]

Roosterman:

There is no "Settings/connections/network adapters" in the HPC 2000 operating system, which is what the jornada 720 runs. I can change the IP for my PC card and USB hub, but I can't find where to change it on the Jornada handheld itself. It stays 127.0.0.1 for some reason.

HPC 2000 (or WinCE 3.0) looks like Windows on your desktop, unlike ppc 2000 or ppc 2002.

The closest I have is "start/control panel/network", which allows you to change network configurations. It lists the following adapters on my machine.

Aironet1 LAN (built into the machine)
AsyncMac1 (built in)
NE20001 ethernet (built in)
PRISM1: Intersil PRISM wireless LAN PC card (I AM USING THIS)
PRISMUSB1: Intersil PRISM Wireless LAN USB Card (I AM USING THIS)
SocketLPE1 (built in)

As far as I can see, none of these options allow me to change the IP for the handheld.

[Janak Parekh]

Hmm.

I'm no expert on HPC's, but it's worth mentioning that any computer that implements TCP/IP has a "loopback" interface, with 127.0.0.1 as the respective address. This is an address you can refer to if the server or whatever you're connecting to is on the same machine that you're running the client program on. If you ping 127.0.0.1 on the PPC, for example, you'll get replies, network card or no. Subnetting prevents the 127.0.0.1 address from interfering with a "non-local" address. Getting rid of this is not something you want, actually.

Your big problem here is that your wireless card's IP address should be not the same as your desktop's. In fact, it shouldn't even be using the 24.207.* address; that's your desktop's connection via its wired card to the Internet, as opposed to its USB wireless card.

This is a little tricky to explain over a webboard, but essentially, you want:

(Internet) - Cable Modem - (Ethernet) PC (Wireless) - Pocket PC

The PC's Ethernet should be a public address, but its wireless USB card should not be; it should be a private (e.g., a 10.*, 192.168.*, or 172.16.*) address. Are you desiring to share your Internet connection to your Pocket PC? If so, there are two ways to do this:

- Set up "Internet Connection Sharing" on your PC, which should set up a DHCP server on the wireless connection;
- Buy a "Internet Sharing Wireless/Wired Base Station", plug the cable modem into that, plug the PC into that, and have the wireless-enabled HPC talk to that as well.

There's a lot more detail to this, unfortunately; such technology is not quite plug-and-play yet. There are some primers on the web on Internet Connection Sharing, you might want to start with a Google search (http://www.google.com/search?q=internet+connection+sharing&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0).

Good luck, this is all stuff I could do if I was next to you, but imparting such knowledge takes time. :)

--janak

[MPSmith]

I was able to make the Current IP and Adapter IP the same (192.168.x.x) but I couldn't ping in either direction.

When the Wireless Network Connection appear in my network connections, it now appeared as an IP of 169.254.87.1

I then tried to change my hpc & PC card to that same IP (169.254.87.X) but it still wouldn't work.

However, i can now ping from my hpc to the cpu with the broadband connection ip (24.207.239.202). Why is that? I then tried to use XP Internet Sharing help, but it wouldn't work.

[Janak Parekh]

When the Wireless Network Connection appear in my network connections, it now appeared as an IP of 169.254.87.1
This is a "special address" if the wireless card can't find a DHCP server.

However, i can now ping from my hpc to the cpu with the broadband connection ip (24.207.239.202). Why is that? I then tried to use XP Internet Sharing help, but it wouldn't work.
If your HPC's wireless card is on the 24.207.239.* subnet, it might see the other machine, although that is really, really weird.

What's the IP of the wireless USB card on your desktop? Is it the 169.* above?

--janak

[MPSmith]

On my desktop:
my USB IP is now 192.168.0.1
my USB subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

I then changed my HPC adapters to:
IP 192.168.0.2
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0

[Janak Parekh]

... and yet you can't ping either way?

Hmm, something is wrong here. :(

Question for you: why are two different drivers loaded? As per your earlier post:

PRISM1: Intersil PRISM wireless LAN PC card (I AM USING THIS)
PRISMUSB1: Intersil PRISM Wireless LAN USB Card (I AM USING THIS)
I'd make sure only one driver is in the HPC... it's possible the two could conflict (although they shouldn't).

--janak

[MPSmith]

Just to be safe, I hard reset and reloaded the driver again. Now, vxutil shows:

"Current IP
Handheld_PC
192.168.0.2

Adapters
PRISMNDS1
IP Address: 192.168.0.2
Subset Mask: 255.255.255.0"

On my desktop, the IP address of wireless network connection is:
192.168.0.1
255.255.255.0

My broadband connection IP remained the same @ 24.207.239.202

I don't have the wireless connection and the broadband connection bridged, because neither internet connection will work when they are bridged. I do have them each marked as shared. But my wireless network connection is showing as "enabled" albeit with a low signal strength. I still can't get it to ping either way.

[Steven Cedrone]

Are you still in infrastructure mode? Did you switch to ad-hoc? Since you do not have a true wireless hub, you need to be in ad-hoc. Your PCMCIA card and your USB wireless adapter should communicate in ad-hoc...

Give it a try, your IP addresses look good. This is the only thing I can think of that would give you problems...

Steve

[MPSmith]

As far as I can tell, I am using an adhoc connection.... quite puzzling.

[Janak Parekh]

At this point, I'd take the HPC out of the equation. First try it with a laptop and your desktop and see if they communicate. It'll help you isolate where the problem is.

--janak

[MPSmith]

There's no doubt to me that the HPC is making this difficult. I'm sure it would work flawlessly with a laptop. I'm thinking I should just return the hardware and try again.

Through this process, Ive found out that www.shadesj720.com has information about what hardware works. I think I'll use that resource.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Anyone wanna buy a hardly used (make that NEVER used) Netgear MA101 USB hub and a Netgear MA401 PC card?

Mike

[Janak Parekh]

There's no doubt to me that the HPC is making this difficult. I'm sure it would work flawlessly with a laptop. I'm thinking I should just return the hardware and try again.
OK, since you've been working with it you probably have an intuition as to the problem.

If it were me, I would probably go either for the Socket CF card, as they've generally been good with handheld support, it's low-power, etc.; or the Orinoco PC card, which I've been very happy with on every device I've used it (Windows, Linux, PPC), and has very good drivers in general (plus they've solved the currently-known WEP encryption vulnerabilities). Disclaimer: I've never used them with a HPC 2000 unit.

Anyone wanna buy a hardly used (make that NEVER used) Netgear MA101 USB hub and a Netgear MA401 PC card?
Didn't you pass about 5 packets through it? ;)

--janak

[MPSmith]

5 packets at least....

I won't post that detail in the eBay ad!!!

Thanks again for sticking with me. Mike

[Steven Cedrone]

You don't have BlackIce or any other firewall software running on your desktop do you???

This is weird...

Steve

[MPSmith]

I disabled my Norton Anti-virus altogether. Nothing

I then disabled the Internet FireWall under the LAN properties. Still nothing

[MPSmith]

I've discovered that my PC card driver is not installing correctly. I got the driver and installation instruction from www.cewindows.net, but everytime I soft-reset, I get this message:

"Application prismsta.exe has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor:

Program: prismsta.exe
exception: 0xc0000005
address: 00d8f2ac"

The driver doesn't seem to install properly. believe I am installing it correctly, but no matter how many times I do it, I get the same error message.
FYI, I got the installation instructions from: http://www.cewindows.net/faqs/wl100driver.htm