4150 Wifi Headaches

[calvin_hsieh]

Hi

Wondering if someone could help.

Recently went broadband (yes I know I'm slow), and also got myself a Wifi router (Netgear WGT624).

Now, I've successfully married my notebook with the router (after a night of initial headaches). However, I can't seem to be able to connect my 4150 to the notebook (via the router).

I've set things up correctly as far as I can gather. On the network card page: I see that the network is available AND connected. I've set both options in network management to "My Work Network" and set "My Work Network" to "Can connect onto internet" without any proxy settings.

However, despite this, I can't Activesync nor use Internet Explorer to access the web. What am I doing wrong??????

Help please.

PS. Also, I don't know if its my imagination, but each time I turn on the Wifi on the 4150, I seem to lose the connection with my notebook and the net (don't know if its notebook to router, or router to modem).

[nitestrike]

Are you able to access files on you laptop from you iPAQ?

Also using one of the below WiFi detection utilities might help to verify settings.

PocketWarrior
http://pocketwarrior.sourceforge.net

MiniStumbler (NetStumbler)
http://www.stumbler.net

[horseflesh]

download and install the free vxUtil. It will let you verify the IP address, DNS servers etc on your PPC.

If you see that you aren't getting an IP address assigned or something, you'll be closer to figuring this out.

It's worth figuring out. I have it running smooth at home and it's very handy. I listen to music from my mp3 file server while in bed, or even while mowing the lawn (with in-ear phones that block the mower noise).

[Vidge]

I have almost an identical setup to yours and I'm not having any problems at all. I have several computers on my router, though. My notebook is connected via Wifi to my router. I initially synced my 4155 to my notebook via cradle (to establish the partnership) and then I can sync wirelessly to either of the two computers (my desktop or my notebook).

I used Resco Explorer to map drives on my computers on my 4155.

Are you using adhoc instead of infrastructure to connect? If so, I can't help at all.

[calvin_hsieh]

Thanks for the help to date.

I'm still lost in the land of frustration though, and I don't know why.

Let me give my setup details so someone might be able to spot something I've done that is blatantly wrong:

Infrastructure setup
- Wifi (Netgear WGT624)
- Notebook (connects with no problems)
- 4150

4150:-
- Under "select networks", both options pointed to "My Work Network". Under each of these, the proxy setting active is "this network connects to the internet". No modem is selected.

- Under dialing locations, I've selected "Work", and deselected "Use dialing rules"

- Under "network card", I have "my network card connects to:" "work"
- Under WLAN wireless adaptor, I have "use server-assigned IP address"
- Under "configure wireless networks", I see I'm connected to my network, and I have networks to access: "only access points"

Currently, I can log into the Wifi network, but after that I can't do anything.

Ie., I cannot activesync, I cannot "see" the other network drives, I cannot surf.

[Sven Johannsen]

Until you install vxUtil (or vxIPConfig) www.cam.com, and can determine that you are in fact getting appropriate IP addresses deliverd to your PPC, you are stuck. Just because the WiFi says it is connected, does not mean the PPC got the DHCP load of IP, subnet mask, gateway, and dns values.

Do you have any security setup on the router (and laptop) WEP, WPA? If so it's usually better to get things set up in the clear the first time and then turn that on.

[StickyPenguin]

Have you logged into the router and checked the attached device list?

You haven't mentioned it so I presume you've turned Access Control on and added your Ipaq's Mac Address to the list?

[Cybrid]

Have you logged into the router and checked the attached device list?

You haven't mentioned it so I presume you've turned Access Control on and added your Ipaq's Mac Address to the list?
This may of course be silly but....
Most people wouldn't know their routers well enough to MAC filter. I doubt he'd have messed with it.
I think Sven is right. You need to verify your ip address.

[StickyPenguin]

This may of course be silly but....
Most people wouldn't know their routers well enough to MAC filter. I doubt he'd have messed with it.

Perhaps, but I own the same Netgear router and it comes with a nice easy configuration tool and instructions on how to do it.

I only suggested it because the same thing kept me stumped for about an hour :oops:

[calvin_hsieh]

Okay, thanks guys.

Still not working, but to answer the questions.

Yes, I have MAC filtering on. Yes, I have the MAC address of the iPAQ assigned.

I have turned off SSID Broadcast.

Interestingly, when I check for attached devices to the router, it spots the MAC address, but cannot name the device or give it an IP address.

On info with vx, I get:

IP Addres: 169.254.37.184
Subnet 255.255.0.0
Default gateway and primary DNS and DHCP server: 192.168.0.1

Now, the gateway etc address is correct because thats the router.

However, I'm pretty damn sure that the IP address and subnet are wrong!

I feel I'm getting somewhere and don't know what to do next.

I think I need to change the IP address and subnet...

Just changed the WLAN wireless adaptor setting to "use specific IP address" and gave the address of 192.168.0.3, on subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway of 192.168.0.1

However, the router still only sees the MAC address and does not see an IP address or device name.

NB. Under LAN IP setup, I have set an address reservation for the ipaq on 192.168.0.3

Have I done something wrong?

[Steven Cedrone]

Why don't you disable the MAC filtering, turn on SSID broadcast, disable WEP (if you are using it) and see if you can connect...

Steve

[Sven Johannsen]

IP Addres: 169.254.37.184
Subnet 255.255.0.0
Default gateway and primary DNS and DHCP server: 192.168.0.1

Just changed the WLAN wireless adaptor setting to "use specific IP address" and gave the address of 192.168.0.3, on subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway of 192.168.0.1

Obviously up top there the IP is way out of line with your subnet, and the mask fits it, not your subnet. That's a phoney IP used by the system when it can't get a good one. I don't understand how it is getting the gateway and indicating the correct DHCP server, since all that comes at the same time usually. DNS I'm a bit leary about. The DNS entries should be the same as on your other machines, not normally the router. Seems like you are communicating with the DHCP server, but it isn't giving you valid info. Do you have the DHCP server on the router turned on and are allowing it sufficient addresses to hand out?

The addresses you put in statically are OK, but you also need the DNS #s if you want to get to the internet, with someting other than IPs.

Oh, and follow Steve's advice. You can always turn things back on, one at a time.

[calvin_hsieh]

Ok, on turning all security off.

I can pick up the ipaq with the router!

I can ping the router from the ipaq!

However, I still cannot activesync, nor can I access the internet.

With vx, I can see the correct IP and subnet, but I have no DNS or DHCP.

Still a mystery...

Plus, I just tried to turn MAC address restriction back on and as soon as I do that I can't pick up the ipaq on the router, even though the correct MAC was given.

[Steven Cedrone]

As far as the MAC goes: double check your settings (O.K., triple check). For now, turn MAC filtering off. Are you using Pocket Hosts? If you are, remove it and try to AS again. When you say no DHCP, do you mean you are still using a static IP address? If you are, look at the router and check the DNS settings it was assigned by your ISP, manually add them and see if you can get to the Internet.

Steve

[calvin_hsieh]

No, unfortunately I have a dynamic and not a static address

[Sven Johannsen]

No, unfortunately I have a dynamic and not a static address

Where and what does this refer too? The WAN side of the router likely does have a Dynamic address. No problem. It also get the DNS adresses along with that IP from the provider. On the Lan side, the DHCP in the router should hand out the DNS numbers it has, and addresses in the 192.168.0.x range. It should also hand out the gateway address which is the IP of the LAN side of the router, 192.168.0.1. So your PPC should end up with

IP 192.168.0.x (something not already used)
Mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.0.1
DNS (same as is shown on router or on laptop by running ipconfig /all from command prompt)

Activesync comes a bit later. We need to get internet access working right. The PPC wants to sync with a PC by name, not by IP, and we are not at the point where anything is going to relate those yet.

Did you get vxIPConfig as well as vxUtil? The former has a Release and Renew function for DHCP, which might be helpful in seeing what is, or isn't being passed by the DHCP function in the router. Have you taken a look at the firmware in the router? Is it up to date? Since you just got it I would expect so. Early on there were DHCP issues with several routers and PPCs, but most have been resolved at this point I believe. Still you should be able to put in static addresses and have it work.

[calvin_hsieh]

Hi!

I know I'm reviving an old thread, but exciting news! Finally my Wifi connection works.

Now, part of the reason for the delay was that I was away, and partly because I had partially resigned to the fact that I would never get it working.

Now, here are my working notes:

1. *** Your ipaq name must be in capitals, with no extra characters like _ which I was using *** This is under the settings/about/device id.

2. SSID broadcast has to be on. Anyone that has found a way of making things work with it off, please let me know. However, at the moment, as soon as SSID broadcast is off, I can't get things to work.

3. Everything set to "My Work", with Proxy set to "can connect to internet"

4. Wifi access control is now on

5. WPA-PSK turned on (not WEP)

The rest I can't remember at the moment, but if this saves someone the weeks/months of frustration I've had, then something can be made of it.

See ya!