A challenge to PPCT members

[merk1821]

I have a simple peer-to-peer network consisting of a PIII550 and a PII350 thru a Linksys hub. Both machines are running Windows XP Home. The PII350 gets access to the Internet thru ICS when i ran the Network setup wizard on both machines. That must mean that the PIII 550 is the gateway for the PII 350 to gain access to the internet. Ohhh i forgot to mention that i am still using a dial up connection and the PIII 550 has the modem in it. Everything is running perfectly. Then throw into the mix a Jornada 548 and LinksysWCF 12 Wifi CF card. After the initial rush of sniffing ut AP points in larger centers :roll: ( i live in a small town) i have recently purchased a SMC 7004WBR wireless router to add a wireless component to my peer to peer network.

I hurried to open the box and take the router. Knowing that i did not need the to hook up anything to the WAN port, i quickly plugged in the cables from my two computers. Good luck graced me, as I was able to see the shared drives on both computers from both computers. :lol: the trouble arose when i punched in the IP address for the SMC router. Nothing happened. :( I quickly pulled out my Jornada PPC, plugged in the Linksys Cf card and tested to see if there was any success. Hurrah! :D My jornada had picked up the signal from the SMC router. When i punched in the IP address of the router in PIE, the setup screen appeared. Now im confused. :? Since i can see all of shared drives on both machines, i know that the wired component of my network is ok. And since my Jornada can access the router's IP address and the linksys software can detect the signal, i know that part of the router is working. What i want to do is for my jornada to access files off of my two desktops and to able to use the intenet when my PIII 550 is online via dialup.

So.............

0.25) what did i do wrong? :oops:

0.5) Is it strange that my two desktop computers cant get he login screen of my router?AP but my jornada can?

1) can i uses the SMC wireless router as a switch and access point only. Ive looked thru the manual and it looks like a lot of the setup requires a DSL/cable connection to the internet.

2) I have noticed that the Ip address for this particular router is outside of the range that ICS gives out. Do i have to make changes to the IP address of the router or of the desktop computers in order for the jornada to see the other machines thru the wireless connection?

3) How do i get the Jornada to see the other machines on the network as well as connect to the internet when the PII550 is connected via dialup?

[Sven Johannsen]

The key is 2) I have noticed that the IP address for this particular router is outside of the range that ICS gives out.

Your ICS setup is on a different subnet than the router/AP & PPC network. The router has a DHCP component that handed an IP address to the PPC and that is why it could see the router. My guess is that the router is 192.168.1.1 and the IP it gave the PPC is something like 192.168.1.100, differing in the last #.

You have a couple of choices. Probably the easiest of which would be to set the router LAN side to an IP within the ICS IP range. for the IP like X.X.X.Y use the same first three numbers X.X.X as your PCs have and use a last number .Y that is different than your PCs have and between 2 and 255. Look for the DHCP setup in the router and tell it not to hand out addresses.

Hopefully what will happen is that the PPC will attach to the router and ask for an address, the router will forward that request onto the wired LAN and the ICS machine will respond with an address in the correct range. That's the theory.

If it doesn't work, we can deal with that. You might want to download and install vxUtil from www.cam.com. It is free and invaluable for troubleshooting network issues.

If a guy named Sooner Al jumps in here and tells you anything different than me, listen to him, I would :)

[Small Town Man]

To make it simple ...
All computer have to be in the same adress range to see each other.
The ICS uses the private IP 192.168.0.x and provides a simple DHCP server.
Your router uses a different IP and provides a DHCP server also.
There can only be one DHCP server in one network.

What you have to do:

Assign an IP from the 192.168.0.x range to your router ( 192.168.0.254 would be a good idea).
Disable the DHCP server in the router.

[Steven Cedrone]

The default IP address of your WAP is 192.168.123.254

Type that in the URL of your desktop PC and you should be able to connect to the WAP...

Once you connect (BTW, the password should be "admin"), change the IP address of the router at this point in the address: 192.168.XXX.254 ... The XXX will probably be 000 on your PC(or it may just be a 0 in your IP address. Example - you run IP config from a CMD prompt on your desktop and it says your IP address is: 192.168.0.1) Change your WAP IP to 192.168.0.254 and your network should be configured...

Hope I haven't I confused you???

Steve

[Alexis]

did it ever cross your mind that your jornada is connecting to another smc router that might be 2 doors down ?

[merk1821]

Well my SMC router must have felt the wrath Of Pocket PC Thoughts because i was able to type in the original IP address on one of my desktop and it appeared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All it took was to change the IP address to fall within in the range that ICS hands out and to disable DHCP on router just like Small Town suggested. I fired up my Jornada and typed in pocketpcthoughts.com in PIE and....... yes i was able to see the site. :i got it: Sven's theory that the router would turn the Jornada's IP address request over to my PIII 550 proved to be correct. Way to go Sven!!!!! :clap:

And Steven, no, you didnt confuse one bit :silly:

Finally Alexis congrats on your first post!!!! :clap: :clap: To answer your question, Im pretty sure that i wasnt picking up another SMC router. I live on an acreage so if i did pick up another SMC router Id be very happy....another PDA geek had moved in !!!!! :robot:


But the challenge to PPCT is not done yet...There is one final quest to fulfill. I had asked how i could get my Jornada to see my two other machines. I would like to stream video and mp3's and access other documents from my desktops to my Jornada. ASo i turned to the vast knowledge base that is Pocket PC Thoughts. But alas most of the information pertains to PPC 2002 and PPC 2003.(Netrunner, Resco, etc.) There is very little info for PPC 2000 and playing files over a Wifi connection to a Pocket PC. Any answers?

[Anthony Caruana]

It's been a while since I used Josnada 548 but it I recall it can handle streamed audio. That means you could use the free Windows Media encoder to stream content within your network.

I'm pretty sure this was the subject of a recent front page article.