Sl-6000l Wifi Partial Success

[mmoriss48]

My three-week-old SL-6000L has never connected with my Netgear WGT624 router.

I called Sharp for help and sent it in for repair.

It was returned with a new WLAN module (the MAC address was different anyway).

The technician had added a second Wireless Lan Account for the "ANY" access.
I guess this was to test the new WLAN module.

But it still won't connect to my Access Point.  It behaves exactly as it did
before repair: Signal 51% for several seconds, Quality always zero, then
"The signal level is low." repeats forever.

So, I took it to a Cafe (like a Starbucks) that has Free WiFi, and tried the "ANY"
account.  It connected!  Seeing the IMDB (movie database) come up on the screen
made me want it to work in my house even more.

I'm looking for any help or suggestions from folks who might have this or a similar
experience with success and failure of WiFi.

Here are a couple of alternatives I'm considering:

1. Try a second Netgear WGT624 configured for "ANY" access.  I don't want to change
   the current WGT624 because two MythTV recorders depend on it.

2. Try a Compact Flash WiFi card, bypassing the built-in WLAN module.  But here, I have
   no idea which CF WiFi card is supported by the stock kernel that comes installed
   on the SL-6000L.

The SL-6000L looks like it will work for what I want - looking up stuff from the IMDB
while watching TV.  But I just can't get the wireless to work in my house.

Next week (26-28 Sep), I will call Sharp again and ask for some official recommendations
for getting the SL-6000L to connect wirelessly to the internet.  Before calling Sharp
again, I thought I would try asking here in the forums.  Thanks for any ideas or help.

--
MM

[cvmiller]

My three-week-old SL-6000L has never connected with my Netgear WGT624 router.

But it still won't connect to my Access Point.  It behaves exactly as it did
before repair: Signal 51% for several seconds, Quality always zero, then
"The signal level is low." repeats forever.

So, I took it to a Cafe (like a Starbucks) that has Free WiFi, and tried the "ANY"
account.  It connected!  Seeing the IMDB (movie database) come up on the screen
made me want it to work in my house even more.

I'm looking for any help or suggestions from folks who might have this or a similar
experience with success and failure of WiFi.

[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=96878\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

MM,

I suspect that you have a WEP (wrong key) problem. Are you running WEP (or WPA) on the Netgear WGT624 router? If so, did you set WEP with a passphrase? (if you are running WPA it is going to be quite a bit more difficult). A WEP passphrase and the WEP key (you enter on the Z) are not the same. If the router has an option to enter a WEP key (usually a string of hexadecimal numbers/letters) directly, then you can enter in the same on your Z, and you should be able to connect.

To test this theory, turn off WEP (again if you are using WPA on the router, turn that off) on the router and try to connect with the Z (also configured for no WEP). If that works, then you just need to resolve your WEP issue. If it doesn't work, let us know, and we'll continue troubleshooting.

I hope this helps,

Craig...

[polito]

This may be a silly question but did you turn on MAC address filtering on your router? It could be that you've not told the WiFi router to allow your Z6K to connect to it.

I know I've made this mistake more than once (though usually with a different netgear router which decided it liked to 'forget' all the allowed MAC addresses when it got rebooted...grrr.)  

[mmoriss48]

Thank you both, cvmiller and polito, for your replies.

Both areas, WEP key and MAC address, are suspect in my mind, too.

First, WEP key.  I almost did turn off WEP, but as I was doing so, I
noticed that the Netgear cleared the key I am using with the other two
wireless computers in the house.  Since Netgear gave me a very hard
time entering the 26th character, I do not wish to repeat that experience.
So, I stopped before clicking on the "Accept" button, clicked "Cancel"
instead, and my WEP key was re-displayed.

Seeing this behaviour of the Netgear gave me the idea to try a second
Netgear Access Point (justified as a backup to the current working unit).
I would temporarily switch to the second Access Point with no WEP, no
security of any kind, and see if the SL-6000L connected.  It's less than $100,
but I'm tempted to try this.

Second, the MAC address.  Yes, I too have forgotten to add the MAC address
for a computer in my house.  The second wireless computer just sat there,
unable to ping anything until I realized that I had to go upstairs to the Netgear
and add the MAC address.  After adding its MAC, it took right off and hasn't
stumbled (yet).

So, when I got the SL-6000L back from repair, I made a note of the new/changed
MAC address of the SL-6000L and changed it in the Netgear's list.  When it failed
to connect, I doubled-checked what I had entered into the Netgear and found a typo.
Even after correcting that typo, it still failed to connect.  Then, I disabled MAC filtering
on the Netgear.  No change - no connection.   I wasn't reluctant to make this change
because the Netgear never gave me any trouble entering MAC addresses.  That is, it
doesn't clear the MAC addresses when the "Enable" box is un-checked.

I have tried changing various parameters of the Netgear (not WEP key), but none
of the changes made any difference.  

Thanks again to you both for taking the time to reply.  It's my own fault for not
being brave enough to turn off WEP.  But it took a full year to build the two
MythTV recorders and get them working.  They have become something I'm not
willing to intentionally disable as part of getting the SL-6000L to connect.
That is, the recorders currently have more priority than the SL-6000L.

I'm just hopeful that Sharp might have databases that can shed a bit more light
on the situation, but I'm not holding my breath.  If everything fails and I get down
to the point of giving up, I will just give the SL-6000L to someone with a different
set of priorities and let them play with it.  Good old pencil-and-paper still work
for making notes and looking stuff up the next day, using a workstation.

--
MM

[mmoriss48]

Following up:

Complete success - The SL-6000L connects with no problem at all
to the Access Point in my house.  How did this happen?

Short answer is, I changed from "802.11 Ad-Hoc" to "Infrastructure"
on the Config page of the WLAN edit option.

After changing just this one item, I tried connecting and was shocked
to see both Signal and Quality at 100%.  The Z accesses the internet
very nicely, not too slowly, so the outlook is quite good that I'll be able
to use it for looking stuff up in the IMDB (movie database).

A little more detail - the Longer answer is that I had given up on WEP
and decided to install another Access Point.  The second Access Point
would not use WEP, instead being a free-for-all public access Hot Spot.

While waiting for the new equipment to arrive, I started looking for
the file(s) where the WEP keys are kept.  I never found them, but
while searching this forum for the term "wlancfg" I found a post
that mentioned switching "sharedkey" and "opensystem".

That led me back to the Edit button on the Network Settings screen.
As I started to review the settings for the WLAN account, I saw
"802.11 Ad-Hoc" for Network Type.  That seemed wrong, so I changed
it to "Infrastructure" and tried to connect, thinking this will be just
another failure.  What a shock to see the signal/quality both at 100%.

I blinked and blinked again - still 100% !!  Next step, trying Opera
of course, and that worked, too.  Twenty-six (26) days from when it
first arrived, I finally have a working SL-6000L.

I like a story with a happy ending, don't you?  (And a spare Netgear WGT624.)

--
MM

[cvmiller]

Following up:

Complete success - The SL-6000L connects with no problem at all
to the Access Point in my house.  How did this happen?

Short answer is, I changed from "802.11 Ad-Hoc" to "Infrastructure"
on the Config page of the WLAN edit option.

I like a story with a happy ending, don't you?  (And a spare Netgear WGT624.)

--
MM
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=97442\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Congratulations MM. If only you had told us sooner that you were in ad-hoc. Anyway, glad to hear that you have it up and running.

Craig...