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The Radio 3 Boards > General Chat > The Coffee Bar > The IT Helpdesk. > How to go wireless?!
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Author Topic: How to go wireless?!  (Read 484 times)
Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #15 on: 19:46:42, 30-08-2008 »
Quote from: Ron Dough on 19:44:28, 30-08-2008
Much closer to Warren St, IGI.

Indeed, Ron. The only small satisfaction I had following a lengthy, but pleasant amble up Tottenham Court Road, was the discovery that Warren St is closed at the moment. So I had a long walk back...
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
Andy D
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« Reply #16 on: 20:08:02, 30-08-2008 »
Of no interest to you IGI but I spotted when I was looking around this morning that BT are selling their 2110 wireless router at an incredibly cheap £29-98 - Amazon is £54-94. So I'm ordering one from BT together with a 1055 adapter which is about the same price as Amazon. Amazon do a package of the 2 items but BT still works out cheaper by >£12 even after adding P&P.
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Andy D
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« Reply #17 on: 17:44:02, 02-09-2008 »
I received my Voyager 2110 router and 1055 adapter today and I'm posting this wirelessly from the desktop using it. BT pretty quick, I only ordered on Saturday evening and it arrived at lunchtime today.

I've got 2 problems though:

1) I've tried changing security from WEP to WPA and I couldn't get it to work so I've had to reset and go back to WEP Angry

2) I can't get my laptop to connect - it will connect to a neighbour's unsecured wireless OK(!!!!) but not to mine Angry
« Last Edit: 18:01:53, 02-09-2008 by Andy D » Logged
Andy D
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« Reply #18 on: 13:40:39, 03-09-2008 »
Got 2) sorted now. In fact, when I turned the laptop on with the wireless switch turned on, it connected automatically Smiley

I then found that I couldn't post here - seems to be some problem with using the Firestarter firewall, which I suppose I don't really need since the router is supposed to have a firewall. I've now turned Firestarter off and I can post OK.

I've looked at the spec for the 2110 and it says: "Packet filtering firewall based on IP address, Port or Protocol" so that should be OK. I've also run a Shields Up test on the laptop and it found that all ports were in stealth mode.

If you don't know Shield Up, it's well worth having a look at it https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

I've also connected the laptop via an ethernet cable and that's worked ok.
« Last Edit: 14:45:52, 03-09-2008 by Andy D » Logged
Andy D
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« Reply #19 on: 04:49:09, 05-09-2008 »
No sign of IGI since before his move, hope it's all gone well and that he's soon got his wireless set-up working at his new house.

I've managed to change my router's security from WEP to WPA now, the 1055 adapter on the desktop is now happy with it, but it's stopped my laptop from connecting automatically. It was most frustrating, as I couldn't get it to connect at all, until I finally realised that the Ubuntu Network Manager is corrupting my password - it's only displayed as blobs, but it was considerably longer than the 12 characters it should have been. Other times it was losing the password altogether, which wasn't quite so frustrating since I just typed it in again. Looking at forums, a few others have had similar problems so it seems to be a bug. Possible get arounds appear to be doing some complicated editing on system files or using an alternative manager called WICD, though neither might work Sad
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Andy D
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« Reply #20 on: 16:12:29, 05-09-2008 »
Hooray, WICD (Wireless Interface Connection Daemon) works and the laptop connects automatically when I boot it up again. It doesn't have the bug about losing my WPA password and it's also got a much more helpful interface than the supplied Network Manager. A similar situation to a lot of supplied Windows software, I suppose, other people have usually written much better tools for doing most jobs.

The only remaining problem I've got is that the desktop doesn't recognize the presence of the 1055 USB adapter on boot-up, until I unplug and replug it. I've rung the Voyager helpdesk and they've suggested ways of testing whether it's faulty.

Edit: as I was typing the above, I suddenly had an idea - the software for my old modem was still starting at boot time, presumably interfering with that for the 1055. So I've disabled that and all is now fine, both machines connect automatically when they boot up Smiley

To be fair, the manual for the 1055 did say uninstall your old modem but I didn't at the time in case I needed to use it again if I couldn't get wireless working.
« Last Edit: 16:28:34, 05-09-2008 by Andy D » Logged
Andy D
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« Reply #21 on: 23:59:38, 16-09-2008 »
The BT dongle eventually died on me (it's going back for a refund) so I had to use an ethernet cable connection - until today, when I installed a Belkin PCI card which seems to be working OK - so far!
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #22 on: 00:04:11, 17-09-2008 »
Eventually? How long was it actually working for?

(Sorry to interrupt your monologue.  Wink)
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #23 on: 00:23:14, 17-09-2008 »
Quote from: Andy D on 04:49:09, 05-09-2008
No sign of IGI since before his move, hope it's all gone well and that he's soon got his wireless set-up working at his new house.

Only just seen this, Andy! Yes, I'm safely set up here once BT had got my broadband activated. The homehub is downstairs and the Belkin adaptor is doing the business; indeed, when I first connected it I was presented with a couple of options to connect to - one was my own homehub, whilst a second is presumably a neighbours! I had a few 'dropouts' in the first few days, presumably as optimum speeds were being established, but this was BT-related rather than a wireless problem.
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
Andy D
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« Reply #24 on: 00:33:10, 17-09-2008 »
Quote from: Ron Dough on 00:04:11, 17-09-2008
Eventually? How long was it actually working for?

(Sorry to interrupt your monologue.  Wink)

About 10 days, though even then it wasn't right as it wasn't being recognized by the desktop when I booted up.

Which homehub have you got IGI? Is it the new N model? I've been presented with as many as 7 wireless connections (including my own) - one of which is unsecured and which I've several times connected to accidentally.
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Il Grande Inquisitor
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« Reply #25 on: 00:50:09, 17-09-2008 »
No, it's the older model which I've been running for a couple of years now.
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Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency
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