Wifi connection help - works at home, not on open hotspots

[kenknight]

Sorry if this is a FAQ. I\'ve read a lot here and I am willing to bet I\'m just missing something obvious. BUt then so is a fellow Zaurus owner friend of mine (pretty much the same Z as I have).

We can both connect to our respective home wirelss networks using our 5600s (only difference between them really in this regard is I\'m using a Linksys WCF12 Wifi card and he\'s using a D-Link). The home networks are setup as you might expect using wirelss routers running WEP. The home services obtain the Z\'s IP address from the DCHP router and work from there. No problem.

But if either of us tries to connect to open networks that we can see and use with varous laptops (a linux based box, Mac iBoo).  The repsective Z\'s get signals, not very strong sometimes of iffy quality, sometimes a MAC address that makes sense (other times they read as a series of 4s) and never get past initialization. Anyone got any ideas?

  ** Ken **

[TheFly]

I\'d be interested in hearing how folks set up for these as well.  I just got my SL-5600 and am looking forward to visiting Baltimore\'s Inner HArbor, Washington D.C.\'s Mall and other free WiFi clouds in the area.

[kenknight]

I learned a bit more about my problem with WiFi though I don\'t have a solution. In fact what I learned simply brings up more questions.

The strongest signal in the area is actually for a protected WLAN. The weaker signal, which a laptiop like an iBook seeks out after I suppose realizing the strong option is out, is the open WLAN. I know the name of the open WLAN and I created a network service with that specific network name (essid) in mind. As far as I know I enetered the name correctly, accounting for case, but the Z still locked on the stronger network and never tried to find the weaker signal.

Not sure what to try next. Furthermore, the Z still fails to connect even when I am sitting in the heart of an open hotspot where that surely is the strongest signal around.

  ** Ken **

[mjalkut]

I\'m at home with a 6000L and an ibook both connected wirelessly to a belkin 54g router.

Both computers work fine as long as they aren\'t too close to each other.  When I bring the 6000 near the ibook I start to get signal drops on the 6000.

At first I thought it was just due to a weak signal from the belkin.  Then I considered the proximity of the two.  

I determined that the ibook had no problems differentiating signals.  I could put two ibooks next to each other.  Or I could put the ibook next to a desktop.  I could run a ping from the ibook to the router or any other computer on the lan and there was no problem no matter where I put the ibook.

When I tried to run the ping from the ibook to the 6000, I get sporadic behavior.  It will run fine for short spurts and then lock up for 15-20 seconds.  Sometimes it would lock up indefinitely until I move the Z.  If I can find the right location   between the two or put the Z in the other room, the pings run smooth forever.

My take is that the 6000 gets confused by the stronger signal broadcast by the ibook, similar to what you\'re experiencing.  The stronger signal is locked onto instead of the base signal.  But I don\'t know enough about how it is supposed to work, or what to do to fix it.  Is this something that can be fixed by tweaking something on the Z?

[doseas]

I\'ve successfully connected to public WLANs by creating a WLAN entry (\"Public WLAN\") as follows:
Non-specific ESSID (\"ANY\")
WEP disabled
Obtain TCP/IP info automatically
Obtain DNS info automatically
No Proxy

If there is an access point with a stronger signal nearby, you may sometimes need to specify the ESSID of the access point you want to associate with (use Kismet or similar app to determine the ESSID).

For commercial WiFi services, you typically need to specify an ESSID and set the proxy.