wireless connection Very NB

[Gunfleet]

I know because of various posts on here that some of you are very expert at wireless connections, so I hope other posters will indulge me digressing a long way from boating. If anyone can answer the following problem I would be very grateful. I have a Centrino HP laptop running XPpro, I connect to the net via a non encrypted netgear radio wifi transmitter/receiver hardwired to my cable modem. It works fine. My son has a win 98 computer and we bought a pcmcia wifi card to connect it up. The problem is that nowdays there is a bloody great encrypted wifi somewhere close by - I think it belongs to a nearby NHS building. It overshadows my little netgear connection - no trouble on XP because you can set the order in which the computer connects to any Wifi lans it finds. However the son's Win98/netgear arrangement doesn't appear able to differentiate, and simply defaults to the strongest signal. I can get it to scan again and sometimes find my wifi/broadband router, but after a while it chucks it in and goes back to this strong nearby signal. Any thoughts on how I can get the win98 computer to ignore the strong signal? I have netstumbler and have the MAC address of the 'foreign' transmitter.

And for those of you who are thinking 'what'?... so am I!

 

[BrendanS]

Change to a different channel - you don't have to work on the same channel as the nearby powerful one.

You can also (even on 98) tell the card which network to connect to (in fact, very much advised) Run the Network connection Wizard on XP, then opt for manual. Print out the settings (it will prompt you to do this) then enter those setting manually onto the 98 machine). Don't go for the make a setup disk option when you run the Wizard - it won't run on a 98 machine, so you have to manually enter.

PS not sensible using a non encrypted wifi network if you are in range of other users

 

[Gunfleet]

Thanks Brendan. I hoped you'd reply because I knew you'd know, so it's gratifying to find I'm on the right track. I just wish I could find a way to make this bloody 98 machine choose networks. By the way someone told me the way to get a home wifi lan secure was to only allow machines with specified mac addresses to connect. I know how to get from the MAC addresses... but where to put them in is another matter. Luckily, I am not trying to make a living tinkering with computers! God knows where people get the patience.

 

[BrendanS]

by the way, change channels anyway, it will avoid interference from a much more powerful transmitter. I'm guessing you are currently on 11 or 13, as that is what most home networks default to.

As to where to enter information on the 98 machine.. you should have a utility that was installed when you first installed. If you can't find it, just get the install CD and reinstall. In that utility is where you enter the info. You just say "pcmcia wifi" if you tell me which make (and model, and even which version of utility software), I might be able to find instructions.

Yes, you can enter Mac address, and that is a secure way of connecting. Info goes into the same setup/management utility

PS - you are not the only one that has problems! I coincidentally put an old 98 laptop on to my home wireless network today. The thing wouldn't show until I pinged it, when bingo, it lit up on all computers on network for no apparent reason. However, I still couldn't share files or printers or map it on network, and struggled for an hour. Then realised I hadn't entered it's IP address into the firewalls on each computer, and vice versa. DOH! and I've set up loads of wifi networks, so this simple basic should have been second nature. Networks aren't simple unfortunately, and one of the worst things to problem diagnose at a distance.

 

[Gunfleet]

Brendan very sensibly suggested we post the rest of this on the board for the benefit of others.

I pm-ed him

<<Thanks Brendan, I guessed it fell within your expertise from some of your posts in the past. It's a netgear MA401 card, and there is a configuration utility which seems all tied in with the driver. I down loaded whatever software netgear has available on my other computer, so I think I'm up to date. There's nothing that really looks like a utility. >>

and he replied

<<here you go

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/N100421.asp

Probably worth posting this on the thread and following through to conclusion, as people learn lots from these type of posts. >>

 

[BrendanS]

re 98 card. see

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/review.asp?pid=351

Slight boo boo, due to time of night and not thinking straight
Mac addresses have to be entered at the access point which is wired to your cable modem.

 

[TrueBlue]

There's a lot of interest being showed in WiFi networks all over these Fora - and I expect the interest and questions will go on for some time as it is a very useful facility for boaty peeps.

Wouldn't it be nice if pointers to such threads could be collected somewhere to save peeps asking the same questions time after time - or more valuably encouraging folks to read around the subject?

For example Trouville's tread on "first" forum may well need the answer in this thread later.

On a more pertinent matter I have found WIN98 an absolute pain where anything to do with networks or USB is concerned. I tell peeps to go away - or get WIN2000 which runs well on a decently configured WIN98 box. It has most of the advantages of XP without the bloatware.

 

[BrendanS]

Win 98 is indeed a pain in the proverbial. Even USB flash drives don't work on 98 without a driver downloaded, whereas every other OS known to mankind just allows you to plug it in and download and upload.

Providing a knowledge database here on wifi, is probably outside the remit of what the site is about, and no two issues are the same. People can always search for details, but they are more likely to google search the same terms, and this probably more productive

 

[Heckler]

brendan
i used to puzzle why 98 machines would play silly buggers and then if you pinged them light up. however found out that it was because the card needed to have the ip address "re inforced" and some how pinging makes it do that, now i use
ipconfig /release_all and then ipconfig /renew_all to make sure that the ip address is correct on the card
stu

 

[BrendanS]

Yeah, IP config is a v useful command. Silly thing is, like the putting IP addresses in firewall, I know all those little tricks, but was in a huge hurry, tired, stressed, and somehow migrated back to 'newbie' status trying to do everything the hard way. Next time I'll sit back and think about what I'm doing.