Frustration setting up Wifi

[calvin_hsieh]

Hi,

I am at my wits end trying to set up a Wifi ad-hoc connection between my iPAQ 4150 and my Centrino notebook.

I've gone through all the help files, documentation and web sites, and have adjusted all the settings, to no avail.

Can someone help?

My setup:
1. Notebook: Wifi turned on, Wireless network enabled, set "use windows to configure m wireless network settings", I see my network in the available networks, deactivated software firewall and unchecked built in Windows firewall. Oh, and Activesync is set for remote sync, manual (however, the sync button doesn't light up to allow me to try to sync)

2. PPC: Now this is an area I'm definitely not comfortable with. The Settings->Connections->Tasks page. I'm not sure what to do with it. Anyway, under the Advanced tab, I see my network there as "connected". I've tried both "My Network card connects to:" "Internet" and "Work". The "Connectivity" icon on the Todaypage indicates I'm connected.

I cannot connect using Activesync (tried it using manual sync on the iPAQ). I cannot connect to the web on the iPAQ via the notebook.

What's going on? What have I missed?

Frustated.

Calvin

[Sven Johannsen]

Don't feel bad. ActiveSync over an Ad-Hoc connection is not trivial, though it might seem a common desire.

Normally AS sets up a small private network between the PPC and PVC using th USB or serial as the transport. Using Wireless, or a cabled network assumes both the PC and PPC are independently attached to and accessing the same network to start with. That normally requires something to supply all teh right IP addresses to each device. That could be a DHCP server located in some piece of hardware like a router, or it could be a PC set up for Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).

In your case, the IP addresses for each device likely aren't being set by anything, or if they are being set at defaults, likely aren't compatible.

Make sure the IP addresses of your PC and PPC are in the same subnet, i.e. the first three sets of numbers are the same (last one different of course), and that the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0.

You might want to get copies of vxUtil and vxIPConfig from www.cam.com too. They are free and can help you and us troupleshoot connectivity problems.

If this stuff is totally greek to you, I would recommend investing in a WiFi router like the Linksys BEW11S4. They are under $50 now and can actually save you way more than that in aggravation. It is not neccessary to have a broadband internet connection to benefit from a Wireless Access Point/Router BTW