Clueless...Need a LOT of help connecting to internet w/ iPaq 4150

[davidlim]

I need a lot of help....

I can't connect to the internet through my wifi or bluetooth. I need some major help with configuration, etc. Please help, I'm new to the PPC and wireless technology.

Can anybody help me?

[Janak Parekh]

Perhaps, but first explain your setup and what exactly what you want to do. Both WiFi and Bluetooth are wireless networking technologies that are useful for different environments.

--janak

[davidlim]

Perhaps, but first explain your setup and what exactly what you want to do. Both WiFi and Bluetooth are wireless networking technologies that are useful for different environments.

--janak

Good idea. Basically I need help from start to finish. I just want to be able to connect to my wireless network at home. I currently use Verizon DSL on a Linksys wireless router. I have a desktop computer and my PPC is my sole wireless device.

For bluetooth I would like to connect to the internet through my bluetooth phone. Do I need to enter some specific information that I don't readily have?

I was getting pretty frustrated to try and get things to work last night. Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

[Janak Parekh]

Good idea. Basically I need help from start to finish. I just want to be able to connect to my wireless network at home. I currently use Verizon DSL on a Linksys wireless router. I have a desktop computer and my PPC is my sole wireless device.
OK - this needs to use the iPAQ 4150's WiFi capabilities. You first need to turn it on in the iPAQ Wireless applet. Depending on your configuration (that is, if SSID broadcasting is enabled in the router), at this point it should detect your router and give you the opportunity to connect. If it does not, you can try entering the wireless network information (i.e., Network Name and possibly WEP key) manually under Start => Settings => Connections => Advanced => Network Adapters (I believe). That's the first main step, and based on far how you get there, that might actually be sufficient!

For bluetooth I would like to connect to the internet through my bluetooth phone. Do I need to enter some specific information that I don't readily have?
Yes - and it depends on the phone. You can try searching for your phone's model here as well as on www.howardforums.com which has a lot of cell-phone specific resources.

--janak

[davidlim]

Good idea. Basically I need help from start to finish. I just want to be able to connect to my wireless network at home. I currently use Verizon DSL on a Linksys wireless router. I have a desktop computer and my PPC is my sole wireless device.
OK - this needs to use the iPAQ 4150's WiFi capabilities. You first need to turn it on in the iPAQ Wireless applet. Depending on your configuration (that is, if SSID broadcasting is enabled in the router), at this point it should detect your router and give you the opportunity to connect. If it does not, you can try entering the wireless network information (i.e., Network Name and possibly WEP key) manually under Start => Settings => Connections => Advanced => Network Adapters (I believe). That's the first main step, and based on far how you get there, that might actually be sufficient!

For bluetooth I would like to connect to the internet through my bluetooth phone. Do I need to enter some specific information that I don't readily have?
Yes - and it depends on the phone. You can try searching for your phone's model here as well as on www.howardforums.com which has a lot of cell-phone specific resources.

--janak


Thanks for your reply! The thing is, my PPC identifies my wireless router and even shows it as "connected," but when I go to my Internet Explorer...it can't connect to a website. I can even detect a wireless signal at work, but once again cannot surf the internet. Am I missing something?

[aliensub]

If it´s a standard setup of your linksys wireless, you just need to do the following:
On your PPC do:
Start -> Settings -> Connections, and press connections.
Choose Advanced.
Choose "Select Networls"
In both fiels set it to "My ISP" and press OK.
Choose "Network Card"
Set "My network card connects to:" to Internet
Disable and enable your wifi and see if it connects.

Just so you know. This kind of setup is very unsafe, atleast disable SSID broadcast and use WEP. IF you don´t know how i can give you a complete guide. But wait to do that until you have the unsafe up and running, just verify that it works.....

[davidlim]

If it´s a standard setup of your linksys wireless, you just need to do the following:
On your PPC do:
Start -> Settings -> Connections, and press connections.
Choose Advanced.
Choose "Select Networls"
In both fiels set it to "My ISP" and press OK.
Choose "Network Card"
Set "My network card connects to:" to Internet
Disable and enable your wifi and see if it connects.

Just so you know. This kind of setup is very unsafe, atleast disable SSID broadcast and use WEP. IF you don´t know how i can give you a complete guide. But wait to do that until you have the unsafe up and running, just verify that it works.....


Thanks so much for the info, but it still doesnt work. I keep getting "The Page you are looking for cannot be found."

My wifi card shows that it has a signal, but why can't i get on the net? This is very frustrating.

[Janak Parekh]

If you understand a bit about IP addressing, download vxIPConfig from www.cam.com and see if you get an IP address for the wireless interface. (vxUtil, BTW, is another great free tool from that site that's useful for debugging).

--janak

[shawnc]

Just a thought, is your home network b or g? I had this problem when I first got my 4150 and had to change my home configuration from g to mixed.

Once I did that, I was off and surfing. Good luck.

[davidlim]

Just a thought, is your home network b or g? I had this problem when I first got my 4150 and had to change my home configuration from g to mixed.

Once I did that, I was off and surfing. Good luck.


it looks like I'm grabbing an IP address according vxIP, but I don't understand why IE won't let me surf???

Is there anything specific I need to input on my PPC?

My wireless router is a b....is there anything I need to configure on my router? If so, how do I go about this?

As I've said before, I'm completely new to wireless networking. Thanks so much for your help!

[Steven Cedrone]

You can always try running welcome.exe (in the windows directory on your Pocket PC)....

Steve

[aliensub]

Ok, to determine the errors please specify the exact model of your router, and how it is connected.

As far as I have understanded your have your DSL put into the router. Your desktop PC is connected to the router via RJ45 (normal ethernet)and it gets it's IP automaticly from the router (DHCP). You want to connect your ppc to it via wifi. Correct me if i'm wrong.

I have a Linksys BEFW11S4 so I will use it as a reference, and I will assume you haven't changed it from the factory setup.

Point your browser to http://192.168.1.1 don't put anything in the name field, and if you haven't changed anything the password will administrator (as far as i remember, check your manual to be sure, and change the password afterwards)
Go directly to the Wireless tap and check that it is set up as follows>
Wireless: enabled
Wireless Network Name (SSID): (it will propably be linksys, just leave it there for now)
Wireless channel: You can change this, mine is set to 11 which works fine.
Wireless SSID Broadcast: Enabled (you should turn this off when you have got the network running)
Press save settings if you have changed anything. Afterwards go to the "wireless security" tap
Wireless security: Disable (Remember this is only for testing, it should be enabled when in normal use, otherwise it's like having your front door wide open with a big blinking sign saying "take all my stuff...."
Press save settings.
Go to the "wireless Network Access" and choose allow all. (When in normal use, you should choose restrict access and remember to put the ppc in the access list. You can get your MAC address by start -> settings -> System -> asset viewer -> Wireless LAN)
After this choose save settings

Try this first. Remember to write down the settings you change from in case of something goes wrong or anything. These things will only change the wireless part so it won't have any effect on your normal ethernet connections.

[Janak Parekh]

it looks like I'm grabbing an IP address according vxIP, but I don't understand why IE won't let me surf???
What address? If it's 169.254.*, then it's not grabbing an address - that's a default "I can't talk to the router, I give up" kind of situation. In that case, aliensub's tweaks may be of help in narrowing down what's causing that situation.

--janak

[davidlim]

thanks so much for the responses guys. I feel like I've done and tried everything. Everything looks like it's connected, but I keep getting "The Page you are looking for cannot be found"

I'm at my wit's end. I've been trying so hard for two days and I can't get a single page to come up on my browser.

Why is this so hard???

[Janak Parekh]

Why is this so hard???
Obviously, there's a little hiccup somewhere. It's hard to debug remotely. :( Keep on persevering, and you should eventually get it working. WiFi is not quite as smooth a technology as some people make it out to be -- even now.

--janak

[cynicbynature]

Do you have to ordinarily enter in a password when you go online on your desktop? I'm not sure, but I know at my dad's office each computer has to log in with a Verizon program even though there's a Linksys router connecting them all. If you do you probably need to enter something on your router/PPC/both to let you browse. Something having to do with PPPoE I think, but I don't use DSL at home so I couldn't tell you.

Sorry I can't help much more than that, but hopefully this'll trigger some thought in someone's head. ;)

[davidlim]

Do you have to ordinarily enter in a password when you go online on your desktop? I'm not sure, but I know at my dad's office each computer has to log in with a Verizon program even though there's a Linksys router connecting them all. If you do you probably need to enter something on your router/PPC/both to let you browse. Something having to do with PPPoE I think, but I don't use DSL at home so I couldn't tell you.

Sorry I can't help much more than that, but hopefully this'll trigger some thought in someone's head. ;)

Each time I disconnect/connect my internet connection (i almost always keep it running) I need to enter a log-in and password for Verizon DSL. Maybe I do need to enter something to tell my router and PPC to let me browse. Good suggestion.

On another note, why can't I connect to these other wifi signals that my PPC picks up? Let's say I go over to my buddy's place and he has wireless running through his house....how do I go about connecting to that then?

I'm just worried that my PPC has connectivity issues. All of you have been very helpful and I hope more thoughts and suggestions come in.

[Janak Parekh]

Each time I disconnect/connect my internet connection (i almost always keep it running) I need to enter a log-in and password for Verizon DSL. Maybe I do need to enter something to tell my router and PPC to let me browse. Good suggestion.
Wait a second... you actually log into Verizon every time you surf the web, even with a wireless router?

That needs to be changed. Most wireless routers support direct login to Verizon's DSL service -- one needs to enable the "PPPoE" option in the router, and then any machine on the network can connect automatically with zero additional software. The Pocket PC should then work.

On another note, why can't I connect to these other wifi signals that my PPC picks up? Let's say I go over to my buddy's place and he has wireless running through his house....how do I go about connecting to that then?
The process should be the same (minus the DSL bit). What happens? What IP do you get, if any?

--janak

[aliensub]

Each time I disconnect/connect my internet connection (i almost always keep it running) I need to enter a log-in and password for Verizon DSL. Maybe I do need to enter something to tell my router and PPC to let me browse. Good suggestion.



See there´s a big showstopper in your current setup. You can set the router to aut. have it entered.

As before go to : http://192.168.1.1 and on the first page you will see:
http://www.hobo.dk/danny/wireless.gif

Nr. 1 should be set yo PPoE

Then it will look like:
http://www.hobo.dk/danny/wireless2.gif

Here you insert username and password from Verizon

[davidlim]

You guys are awesome.

Still haven't had the chance to try the setup, but will as soon as I get off work. Is there any specific way I'm supposed to configure the wireless signals that I'm connecting to?

If I see a bunch of available connections on my network card, how do I go about connecting to these signals? I'm sure it's not as easy as selecting the connection and pushing connect. If only it were that easy.

[Janak Parekh]

Still haven't had the chance to try the setup, but will as soon as I get off work. Is there any specific way I'm supposed to configure the wireless signals that I'm connecting to?
I don't quite understand. There's a network name/SSID and a WEP key... those are the two variables that we've discussed in this thread.

If I see a bunch of available connections on my network card, how do I go about connecting to these signals? I'm sure it's not as easy as selecting the connection and pushing connect. If only it were that easy.
In theory, it should be. ;)

--janak

[davidlim]

You guys are truly great. THanks so much for your patience and advice. I went home and took your advices and set the username and password on my router. And that's all it took!

I just got to my buddies' place and I was able to connect to his wireless network seamlessly. Loving the WiFi.

Thanks all.

[Janak Parekh]

Congratulations! :D

--janak