WiFi Help

[Ollie03031]

WiFi help
I just purchased an AmbiCom CF WiFi card for use with my iPAQ 2210. I installed the .Net software from the CD and then traveled to my local Panera Bread place where they have free WiFi. I do not have WiFi at home and I purchased to WiFi so I could get fast access while traveling. At Panera I got the blue light an a connection but was unable to get my Movian VPN software to tunnel to my work network. I also could not get InkSpot to access the Microsoft new server. All I could get was the Panera home page. I then went on travel and took my modem, my Socket ethernet card and the WiFi card. When I got to the hotel I paid the $10 for ethernet access. I pluged in the ethernet card and again all I could access was the Hotel home page. Movian VPN got no response from the Work ISP when I tried to VPN into it. I was able to ping the server. At the Seattle airport they have WiFi access. Again all I could get was the server home page.
I can use the modem with a phone line to call Access4free's ISP then use Movian to VPN to my work ISP to get email, run InkSpot and connect to the internet.
With the ethernet card I can plug in to the ethernet port in my office and it works with no problems. I tried playing with the "the network card connects too" with no better results.
Anyone got some good instructions on how to use either an ethernet card or WiFi to connect to an ISP and then VPN into my work networks. Why does the phone work through Access4free and the other methods not work?
Any insight will be great.
Ollie

[Jason Dunn]

You said you could get the Panera home page? Were you able to browse to other Web sites?

It could be, unfortunately, that their service only allows port 80 (http) connections and blocks NNTP (newsgroup) ports and VPN ports as well. I've seen this done before. :|

If you can get out to other Web sites, but can't use other services (NNTP, VPN), port blocking would be my guess. And unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do other than call the service provider and complain that you can't do what you need to do with their service...

[Ollie03031]

Jason,
I tried to go to other web sites but always ended up with the Panera site as a default. Every time I went to favorites and selected a site all that came up was the Panera site.
I had the same result in the Marriott Hotel with a socket ethernet card. Even though I paid the $10 for ethernet service all I could get was the hotel web page. In both cases no one in the hotel or the Panera store could explain why.
I have use the socket ethernet card at work for fast installs and backups but had never tried it on travel before. This trip was an experiement using wired ethernet and WiFi and both seemed to have failed. Actually I just need to figure out the correct settings to make these interfaces work.
With the same connections settings I can use a modem and call Access4free and connect with MovianVPN to work with on problems. I can also search the web and use InkSpot. I think it has to be something in my setup but given their is little to change or set I am at a loss.
Thanks
Ollie

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, I think I know what's happening - in every instance I've seen, when you first go to use a hotel Internet service, the first thing it does it take you to the sign-up page where you agree to their terms of service, pricing, etc. You can't get on until you agree and they assign you an IP. It sounds like these services aren't compatible with Pocket Internet Explorer. :cry: When you get these pages, is there anywhere you can click? Anything you can check off to get started?

[Ollie03031]

Good question, and I don't know the answer. I did not study the pages that closely. At the Seattle airport I did see the web page and it asked for a credit card number. That was because I did not have an account and was just looking around. I did not enter a credit card number.
In the hotel I was upset at not getting anywhere and don't remember seeing a buttom to tap to contine, but that does not mean there was not one. At Panera bread I don't think they had a button but again I am not sure. I guess lunch tomorrow will be at Panera bread so I can check it out again.
Also I am wondering about Internet vs work network. When I first connected to Panera I got the connection screen and I think it wanted me to connect to the internet vs work. I have nothing set up on the internet side, everything points to connect to work. After the initial connection I found no method of returning to that screen and changing or checking to see what I was connected too. I had the network card set to connect to work in all cases but that connection screen offered a choice and I don't remember what I chose. I do remember it wanted me to chose Internet and I felt work was the correct choice.
I tried a soft reset without the card and still could not return to that screen. All other connections were automitic - just connected as if they were old friends. I have since loaded all original AmbiCom Pocket PC 2002 software and then the .NET driver over that. That should allow me to see more detail and maybe delete a connection so I can restart it.

Note, I also have a Dell X5 which I have upgrade to WM 2003. It is interesting that the Dell has a wireless file/driver - something on the connection page while the iPAQ 2210 does not. For some reason the Dell seems to have a bit more control over the connection but I also still had the same connection problems.

I also have loaded PocketDHCP so I can check and see if I actually do get an IP address. That should give me a bit more information towards resolving this problem.
Thanks for your help
Ollie

[Steven Cedrone]

Make sure you set PIE to "Text size smallest" in "view" and check "fit to screen", see if you see the option to accept the end user agreement Jason spoke about (you may want to "uncheck" fit to screen and scroll around to see if you can see the acceptance option as well)...

Steve

[Ollie03031]

Good call guys.
I took my Laptop and first tried to connect with the laptop. Sure enough it showed a screen that required you to accept Panera's rules. After accepting the laptop worked. I then switched to the Pocket PC. I got to the page but could not find the button to accept. I then turned off fit to screen and was then able to scroll through the screen as it was shown on the Laptop and there was the button. After taping the button everything worked.
Thanks for the help.

I did have other problems with the correct AmbiCom driver. I had loaded both the .Net driver and the Pocket PC 2002 software. That configuration did not work. The setup file for the Pocket PC 2002 said I had a good connection but the card was blinking and the WM 2003 saw no connection. I had to delete all the Pocket PC 2002 stuff before I could get anything to work. It sure would be nice to have more status information about what your wireless card is doing then just the two connection arrows at the top of the screen. But at least it now works.

Looks like Panera is going to become my favorite hangout.

Thanks
Ollie