Roner

Hi Everyone,

It took me nearly a day to take out all the glitches, and I hope I can help some of you here.

My equipment: Axim Basic with SMC WiFi, Toshiba Satellite Laptop (WinXP) with Siemens USB Wireless Adapter; Cable Ethernet Conncetion; ZoneAlarm Pro.

Step 1 - Follow the instructions in all the guides in the forum and establish a good connection between the two machines. Notice that the closer you get to DHCP the better you are off, because you will not have to constantly change your settings.

A word of advice - many times your Axim will not be recognized and assigned an IP in the desired 192.168.0.X domain because the network responds slowly to changes. What worked for me, with WEP encryption working, was this: configure the encryption and a key on the Axim, hit OK and save all the settings, TAKE THE CARD OUT, enter the key on the PC (even a second time - the computer is only too happy to forget it!), REFRESH the network on the PC and then insert the card to the Axim. Remember - a 169.x.x.x IP on your Axim is the 'default connection error' IP. You can either find your IP in your WiFi utility on the Axim, or using the freeware PocketDHCP.

Now, to the GUEST sync problem. The SMC driver (and maybe a few others) has a problem in ad hoc mode - it does not associate the host address (192.168.0.1) with the name of the host computer. This, my friends, is why some of you get the annoying GUEST wireless sync.

Solution: Keep your WiFi adapter settings on "Use Server Assigned IP" - do not enter numbers if you can avoid it. Make sure that in your "Connection" applet all is set to "work settings" and "work". Download "Pocket Hosts", a freeware, from Handango, and in it create one entry, that would solve the problem: the name would be that of your host computer (your desktop/laptop PC), and the IP will be 192.168.0.1.

If you have disabled the XP network firewalls, you will now have a pleasant surprise, as I had - no more GUEST sync.

Finally, getting to also surf the web. Remember to avoid using the XP firewalls - there is very little you can configure about them. I use ZoneAlarm Pro, and I have been adding my aunt to the trusted zone, to no avail. Finally I did the unthinkable and checked the built-in help, and voila. MAXIMIZE your ZoneAlarm screen (there are buttons hidden otherwise!), go to MAIN in the Firewall category, then advanced, and then tell the silly program that your computer is the host of an ICS (internet connection sharing) partnership, and that all alerts concerning communication to other devices on the network should be supressed.

That's it - I am up and running and happy. I hope I helped - feel free to post questions if you have them.

Ron

snathanb

Roner,

Always glad to see someone be successful, and ever better to see them passing their experiences on.

I've got wireless all over my house (see thread "My Crazy Wireless Network").

DHCP is so flaky on Wireless networks. On all my home PCs, I hard code the IPs. It makes booting faster, and you don't have to worry about getting stuck with the default IP address if it doesn't get a good one from your router.

As much as I would like to hard code an address to my Axim, I do keep it on DHCP as I roam with it.

Roner

Well, I was not too happy about using Pocket Hosts myself, but my SMC driver doesn't really support DHCP as well as it should. As far as I know, for me it was the only way to get ActiveSync to recognize the established partnership. I wonder if other people with SMC cards, using the SMC drivers, had similar problems.

Ron

MentalV

snathanb... why dont you create 2 profiles? I have on profile hardcoded with the IP and WEP and another DHCP and no WEP for roaming.. what card you have?

snathanb

MentalV....

Where would I do that? I have the LinkSys WFC12 card, and I don't see anyplace for profiles.

The only place I have found for specifying the card address is in ettings->network adapters->WCF12 Compact Flash Adapter.
That's were I get the choice of DHCP vs. Manual IP settings.

I do have mulitple profiles under connections, as I use a proxy on my home network, a difference proxy at my school network, and a 3rd for networks with no proxy...