Linksys WCF12 Questions....

MiniM3 · 01-24-03, 11:56 PM

Hey all, I just got my Linksys WCF12 card for my Axim, I have a few questions, I'm a little new at the wireless world, so bare with my ignorance.

1. SSID, what is this? and how do I obtain this for my CF wireless card, currently I'm using "ANY" which is what my laptop is using, If I pick anything else, I lose my connection, is there a way to change this? can I access my access point from my computer?

2. Encryption, I'm totally confused about this one. If I enable any encryption I lose my connection. How does this work? What am I suppose to put in the Key 1, 2 ,3 etc. fields. Where do I start with this????

3. Power Saver mode, everytime I enable this feature on the Linksys card, I lose connection, the link is on, but I cannot connect to anything.

4. I cannot seem to connect and share files with any of my computers. I've tried to map share drives on Resco File Explorer but it tells me it can't see any other computers. I've tried different settings suggested on some threads but still no luck.

I'm currently running Win2k Pro w/ICS enabled, no router, running Sygate Firewall. I have a SMC 802.11b 2.4Ghz Access Point.

If anyone knows of a good site that explains all this in layman terms, please post it, or if you have a few minutes you can blow to help me out I would really appreciate it. From what I've seen I think alot of ppl can also benefit of this.

Thanks.

Fritz · 01-25-03, 11:04 AM

OK, lemme take a stab at this with the best of my knowledge... if your network blows up, don't blame me =)

1) What:
SSID (Site Survey Identifier) -- Kinda analogous to 'Workgroup' in a P2P network, or 'Domain' in a Server-Client model. Just a 'unique' name that must be shared among all access points on the network in order for them to 'talk' to each other. If you only got 1 AP, just name it whatever you want. On the other hand, if you're implementing 'Ad-Hoc' mode (ie: Peer-to-Peer network, with each client connecting only via a WiFi card), then each client MUST have the same SSID to talk to each other. To make it short, if you have an AP, just name it whatever you please, and it'll deal with the client's automatically =)

How:
If you have an AP setup, you should be able to use a SiteSurvey app and scan for the AP's SSID (providing that your AP has broadcast SSID enabled). For those who has disabled SSID-broadcast, you will have to KNOW the exact name of the SSID, and manually input it in your WiFi config. According to you, you put in 'ANY', which sniffs out any available AP that broadcasts their SSID -- so I would say you have broadcast-enabled. You don't need to change it to the specific SSID, because leaving it in "ANY" will let you roam from one network to another automatically. So unless you put in the specific SSID of your AP or "ANY" (the 'wildcard' of SSID), you won't be able to access your AP.

You should be able to config your AP on your wired network. You should refer to your manuals for specific details. (If you have a Linksys router/wifiAP, or most routers for that matter; simply open up your browser and type in the static IP, usually http://192.168.0.1 or Http://192.168.1.1, and it'll bring u to a user/password then config screen.

Fritz · 01-25-03, 11:16 AM

2) Encryption:

Your client encryption setting should be set to whatever is configured in your AP. According to you, after you enabled encryption on your WCF12, you lose your connection -- which means you didn't need encryption, or it is simply not enabled on your AP. If you want to use encryption, enable it as mendatory on your AP (refer to your AP manual for how to access your AP config screen)

There are two WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption mode you can choose from 64bit (or 40bit.. but really it is 64bit -- we won't get to that, since it's irrelevant to the scope of this discussion) or 128bit. The easiest way to implement this is to use a 'passphrase' to generate the hex-string... or you can randomly come up with your own hex-string to use as the 'key'. So in the case of your WCF12, just punch in a passphrase that is the same as your AP's, and you're good to go.

Like SSID, WEP keys must be the same throughout the network in order for the clients to talk among themselves.

Fritz · 01-25-03, 11:19 AM

3) PowerSave Mode:

If you find your connection transient/ unstable, don't use this feature. This feature supposedly uses less power, which means unless you got a good strong signal... the weaker power output would mean weaker connection -- hence your dropped signal.

Fritz · 01-25-03, 11:27 AM

4) Network Shares:

First of all, can your wired-network see the resources you want to access from your Ax? If not, make sure that it works on your wired-network first. If the resources are shared on your desktop, but is not being seen in 'network neighborhood', make sure that you have all the file/print sharing stuff installed. Also, make sure that NetBIOs is enabled for your TCP/IP connection. NetBIOs allows other comps to see you using simple naming conventions (ie: myDesktop) as opposed to using IP addresses.

When using Resco, it attempts to look for any available comps on the network using this. A work around to this would be to manually type in the IP address of your desktop's share (ie: 192.168.1.101) and the folder name of the share.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

NMkiD · 01-25-03, 01:08 PM

good descriptions Fritz I jsut got my linksys working the other day adn man it was a pain in teh ass. I'll tell you.

I could never get it working under the "get a dynamic ip" option, I had to do a few more steps to get it working, so if you need any more help let me know and I'll try n help you out too.

MiniM3 · 01-25-03, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fritz@Jan 25 2003, 12:27 PM
4) Network Shares:

First of all, can your wired-network see the resources you want to access from your Ax? If not, make sure that it works on your wired-network first. If the resources are shared on your desktop, but is not being seen in 'network neighborhood', make sure that you have all the file/print sharing stuff installed. Also, make sure that NetBIOs is enabled for your TCP/IP connection. NetBIOs allows other comps to see you using simple naming conventions (ie: myDesktop) as opposed to using IP addresses.

When using Resco, it attempts to look for any available comps on the network using this. A work around to this would be to manually type in the IP address of your desktop's share (ie: 192.168.1.101) and the folder name of the share.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

This is awesome information Fritz, I set up my AP's SSID and Encryption according to your instructions and it worked like a charm, THANKS! I hope others will make use of this information as I did.