Odessey Client

It is simply a program that finds Wireless networks and then connects to them. It can find more networks and you can choose which ones you want to connect to.

I don't see the point in it when there is already one, but really there is no issues with problems. I think it can probably find more hotspots than the default Wifi program. I dunno.

[Roudou]

Odyssey is actually an application that will allow you to connect to a Wireless LAN (WLAN) by using an authentication/encryption method of your choice. Basically you authenticate first using one of the following method :
- open (SSID match)
- shared (WEP challenge)
- 802.1x + LEAP (using certificates)
Once you pass the authentication, you can connect to the WLAN and your traffic will be encrypted using the encryption key which can be static (static WEP key - entered manually on both client and router) or dynamic (received by an authentication server after you passed authentication; can be WPA or Dynamic WEP; key will be renewed typically every 15 minutes automatically).
That's it in a nutshell.

[lamxing]

so Odyssey is a replcement of the Dell WLAN Utility ? If I turn on Odyssey, I can turn off the Dell WLAN and still be able to connect to the net, is that correct?

[jacklew]

I got rid of Odyssey starting up almost immediately upon upgrading to A02. Think it starts up under \windows\startup. You can blow away files under \program files\funk software ... If you need to run this in the future, you can run odClientCE.exe or put odClientCeAutoLaunchSmart.exe under \windows\startup. It's in ROM so you can't delete them. I connect much faster without Odyssey than with it so I don't see what value it adds, unless you need it for Cisco LEAP.

I seem to remember you need the WLAN utility running with Odyssey. Stop it and Odyssey breaks.

[Roudou]

The major difference between Dell WLAN Utility and the Odyssey client is that 1) Dell supports 802.1x - MS PEAP while 2) Odyssey supports 802.1x - Cisco LEAP. Which one to use ?
Answer : your router must be configured to pass on authentication request to an external authentication server like Radius or Windows IAS. The EAP type used on this authentication server (PEAP, LEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS,...) determines what you need to configure on your X30. Depending on the one you choose you might have to import certificate on the X30 to validate the identity of the server and to know its public key.
So 802.1x EAP (whatever flavour it is) is the most difficult to configure but also the most secure. I guess at some point Dell felt that it was not fair to provide a PEAP client (Microsoft) and no LEAP client (Cisco) because both protocols are very popular and frankly speaking I do not see yet which will survive.