HankSutherland

I've been reading the posts on wireless communications and haven't seen anyone describe what I'm trying to do. I travel alot to customer sites and always have a laptop with me. I'd like to be able to connect wirelessly to the laptop and then use the laptops connection to email, the internet, etc. The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite and has a "Toshiba Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card" installed. I purchased a Linksys WCF12 CF card and set it up as "ad hoc". It appeared that the two machines saw each other but wouldn't communicate. I called customer support and they told me I had a defective card and to return it. The next card produced the same results. This time customer support said that that card didn't support what I was trying to do. Next, I purchased an Ambicom card with the same results.

I don't need a wireless access point at home - the house is wired for ethernet already. Is there anyway to do what I'm trying to do? Is WiFi the best way or would Bluetooth work better?

Any opinions?

Thanks

jda5id

Sorry to ask the obvious but it wasn't clear from your post. You setup the CF card for Ad Hoc, is the Laptop card setup as Ad Hoc as well? I would guess the default might be infrastructure...

dcsatt

From what I understand (and I'm no expert on the matter), the two devices cannot "talk" to each other via 802.11. I believe that you MUST have an access point.
Bluetooth, however, does exactly what you're trying to do (and bluetooth cards were surprisingly cheap when I checked 'em out).

jda5id

dcsatt -

Actually, you do not have to have an access point with WiFi as long as you have hardware that supports Ad hoc mode. "Ad hoc" allows two WiFi devices to communicate with each other as opposed to "Infrastructure" mode which requires the presence of an AP.

HankSutherland

The CF was setup as ad hoc as well. I could see each device from the other but was unable to communicate. For example, if I pinged the laptop from the Axim, I could see the packets received on the laptop, but the Axim showed no response. If "Ad hoc" does allow two WiFi devices to communicate with each other, I have been unable to figure out how to get it to work.

jda5id

Hank-

Using Ad-Hoc this way is possible, but networking can certainly be tricky at first. Have you seen this tutorial-

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e.../02april08.asp


BTW - it would be most helpful if you can specify some more of your setup. What OS are you running on the laptop. Does the laptop have a wired card as well as the wireless card (where is the Internet connection coming from). Where is the IP address coming from for each machine? Also, how are you "seeing" the packets received on the laptop when you ping from the Axim.

jda5id

Hank

I just played with this some more this morning (for the first time in a while) and I was able to get things communicating. Here is exactly what I did and the issues that I saw.

On the laptop (This is a Win2000 machine with a DLink WiFi card)
* Configure the network connection on the laptop to use a static IP address (I used 192.168.0.2)
* Use Ipconfig to verify that the IP address is as expected
* Configure my WiFi card as following - SSID = "TEST", Mode = "802.11 Ad Hoc", WEP = disabled
* Add a user to the system that has the same name as my Axim (no password for this user)
* Create a share on the laptop that the user above has access to

On the Axim (I am using a Linksys WCF12)
* Configured the network setting for the WCF12 to use a specific IP address (I used 192.168.0.3)
* Configured the WCF12 settings to have SSID = "Test", Mode - "802.11 Ad Hoc", WEP = disabled
* SOFT RESET
* VxUtil to verify the IP address (this is freeware, search the forums and you can find a link to it)

I cannot verify an internet connection because my laptop won't support my WiFi card and an Ethernet card simultaneously. However, I was able to verify a successful connection. What I did was use Total Commander on the Axim (freeware, you can search to find a link) to connect to the shared folder I created on the laptop. I did this with the format \\<machinename>\<sharename>. Once I connected to the share I was able to open a text file that was on the laptop and view its contents. I added some text to the file and saved it, and then when I viewed the file on the laptop verified that my changes (made with the Axim) had been saved. Yes, it doesn't prove an internet connection, but I would venture that if you can get this far than an Internet connection isn't far off (you just have to get internet connection sharing configured correctly on the laptop)

This didn't work right off the bat for me until I got really careful about following this process exactly. The soft reset of the Axim after the configuration seemed helpful in ensuring that my changes had been made and earlier settings "flushed out." The one piece of flakiness I saw was that Total Commander didn't like mapping to my laptop using its IP address, it would only work with the machine name. This is true whether I am in ad hoc or infrastructure mode though so I think it is just a Total Commander "feature."

Hopefully something in all of this will be helpful for you, but rest assured, it is possible to do what you want to do if you can just get everything configured correctly.

HankSutherland

Thanks for all the help. A little more about my configuration. The laptop is running Windows XP Home Edition. I have a Linksys Cable Firewall Router (BEFSX41) in the basement that acts as a DHCP server for the PC's in the house. The Toshiba laptop has a wired card (Intel PRO/100 VE). I also have a Linksys switch between the router and the laptop (to handle a networked HP laserjet on a JetDirect printserver). The Local Area Connection and the Wireless Network Connection on the laptop are bridged. Hope that makes sense.

I tried giving both the AXIM CF wireless card and the Toshiba wireless card static IP addresses. I couldn't get one to ping the other. Actually, I could see the pings arrive from the AXIM on the laptop but it was eaten and nothing was returned.

What I was hoping to be able to do was to bridge the wired and wireless connections on the laptop so that the AXIM could sync and communicate thru the laptops connection. When I'm on the road, that may be a clients ethernet connection or a dialup connection at a hotel room.

Unfortunately, when I couldn't get either of the two CF cards to work, I returned them and so have nothing to test right now. I was trying to find out if it could work and how before reinvesting in a new CF card.

dmachine

I have the same setup you have. I have a laptop with a wireless card and also a wireless card in my Axim. How can I connect the two. I tried doing some of the things that were mentioned. I got the Axim to find the laptop( Im pretty sure). I cant connect to the internet or view shared files. What should I try?

emplynx

I also can have my two computers (laptop and axim) read one another, but I can't access the 'net.
EDIT:
OK, my two computers also can't ping one another.
My pings just timeout.

emplynx

I downloaded a program called Pocket WiNC. I've used it to find the network established by my laptop, but I use it to to "Check for Internet Availability" and it returns to me that internet is not available on that network. But under my "Wireless Network Connection Properties" on the laptop I hve "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection" enabled. Anyone on know what I might be doin wrong?

Also, I'm confused on what Ad Hoc Channels do. Do both computer have to have the smae setting?

emplynx

Well. I was on the internet for a few minutes -- then it died again. I managed to do it by using Windows XP Pro to Bridge my Wireless and LAN connections. I can't figure out why it cut off though.

stevenrp

I recently did just what you're asking while in a hotel. My laptop connected to the internet via ethernet and the Wifi set adhoc to my axim. See this thread on how I did it.
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showt...ht=hotel+adhoc

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skipppc

How did you find the Axim name?