Airpanel 100 question

OK, I took the plunge and bought this one: http://i.ebayimg.com/20/!BMwucvg!Wk~$(KGrHgoH-D4EjlLl0WegBJmKV1oBjQ~~_1.JPG

kommie2000, can you confirm that's one that'll work? I'll let you all know how it goes after it arrives.

Gonzo, for what it's worth, I have CE.NET 4.1 on my Airpanel and a Cisco Aeronet 350. It does not work. Not sure if going to 4.1 is a great idea if you have it currently working with 3.0 and might lose your IR.

Edited by v100hell 2009-02-23 10:36 PM

Kommie-

I'd also like the files and instructions. I PM'ed you, but it's stuck in my outbox.

seanriddle _at_ cox _dot_ net

Thanks-

Sean

That should work. Appears to be identical to the one I have.

They are on their way.

Worked great! Thanks a lot. The DLINK DWL-650 is now hitting my home network.

Sean

Well, maybe I was a little premature. Things were going fine until I suspended the airpanel. When I woke it up, I couldn't hit the network. I peeked around, and finally noticed my IP address was 169.254.96.139 instead of 192.168.0.xxx. The PRISM1 status shows connected to my network, signal strength excellent, and I can see the airpanel's MAC in my router, and it says it assigned it an IP address through DHCP. I've tried releasing and renewing the IP address on the airpanel, but it always gets the 169... number. I also switched to a static IP address, but even though the IP Information tab says Address Type: Static, it shows 169.254.96.139. If I go back to the IP Address tab it shows the static address I put in. Weird.

I tried several warm boots, with and without the DWL-650 inserted, but got the same thing. So I tried a cold boot, and reinstalled the Prism driver, but still the same thing! I know I'm not crazy- I was able to browse the web with IE, ping computers on my network, and pull up my HTPC's web interface. My wireless network is still working fine for 2 laptops.

Any ideas?

Thanks-

Sean

I found out that if I do a warm reboot after setting the static IP address that it sticks. But even though that address is on the same subnet as everything else in the house, the airpanel can't hit anything, and nothing can hit it. I've got 2 laptops connecting to the same wireless router that are working fine on that subnet.

I wonder if it has to do with how my wireless router is connected to the rest of the network. I don't have anything connected to its Internet port- instead, one of the ports on its built-in switch is connected to a port on a wired router. That wired router's Internet port is connected to my cable modem.

The 2 laptops (and a PC connected to one of the wireless router's switch ports) are getting their IP addresses via DHCP from the wired router, and they all hit everything just fine.

It's almost as if the airpanel (other than right after I initially installed the drivers for the DWL-650) is unable to "get past" the wireless router to the rest of the network. I'm sure I disabled the wireless router's DHCP server, since I'm using the one on the wired router, so maybe that explains why the airpanel is stuck with the local link address 169.254.xxx.xxx.

I think I'll test by enabling the DHCP server on the wireless router and seeing if anything changes.

Sean

I trust the router is set to B (or combined B/G) mode.

Yep. The airpanel associates with and connects to the wireless router, and link quality and signal strength are excellent.

I checked the wireless router, and its DHCP server is enabled. If I disconnect it from the wired router, then my laptop gets an IP address from it (in the 192.168.1.xxx range). But the airpanel still doesn't get an address. I even upgraded the firmware on my wireless router, but nothing changed.

The PRISM Wireless Settings / Status screen shows Rx: throughput, and If I ping an address on the 169.254.xxx.xxx subnet, there is Tx: throughput. So all indications are that I'm communicating with the wireless router just fine, but DHCP is failing. I've run netstat on the airpanel with all the different options, but I don't see anything that shows me the problem. Maybe there's an issue with IPV6?

Thanks

Sean

The problem lies in the link between the Prism settings in the control panel and the wireless settings on the selection screen. Check the SSID in the Prism settings. I had some problems with this when I was setting up my adhoc network link to my laptop. You will need to soft boot after changing the SSID.

Umm.... I've been waiting for my D-Link to arrive and thought I'd check back here to see if there's been any updates. I read the threads on seanriddle getting his Cisco Aeronet 350 going with 4.1. I read about the Prism settings and think... Hmm... I haven't tried that yet. So... I boot up my AirPanel and it find not only my network by my neighbors!!! The battery was completely dead, so to start it I plugged it in and it went through the stylus calibration sequence. I get on and I see my network! I got on and ended up with the same 169 IP as sean. What the... Where do I find the PRISM settings? I swore I saw them before but I'm not seeing them now. I checked Control Panel and Netwok and Dial-up Connections. I'll keep looking but if anyone knows, let me know please. I can't believe it's showing up now!!! So odd, I didn't change a thing.

Still haven't found where I can edit my PRISM settings, but I did take a look at the WEP settings. It's set to get a key automatically, so I tried changing it so I could enter my key. After I enter it and click ok I get a message stating "Infrastructure Service Set Identifier ... is already configured. Please change either the Service Set Identifier or the Infrastructure mode before adding this entry to the preferred list." What do I do?

Update: OK, I realize I need to install the PRISM drivers first. What version do I need for CE.NET 4.1 and the Cisco Aeronet 350? Is there a version that works?

Edited by v100hell 2009-02-27 2:44 AM

I'm on!!!! I did a hard reset and this time when I first connected to my home network I was able to configure the settings to use my network key. I can browse the internet now. Next step will be to see if I can RDC to my XP machine. No PRISM drivers needed.

The following is what I did:
1. I made sure my Cisco Aeronet 350 was plugged in before the following
2. I removed the battery
3. I waited about a minute
4. I inserted the battery and immediately plugged the power cable in - before boot
5. I went through the stylus calibration
6. The network scree was there with my local network listed
7. Instead of connecting, I selected it and clicked on configure
8. I entered my WEP key and connected
9. I opened IE and the mobile msn page came up

I have no idea why it didn't work before. My only guess is I had to start clean with the network card already inserted on boot and I had to have the power cable plugged in. I do know that if you don't a message will come up asking if you want to run the PCMCIA card without being plugged in as it will drain the battery. Maybe it misses the sequence it needs to set up? I have no idea. The Cisco Aeronet 350 is working. Off to try RDC with XP...

Update: Remote Desktop to XP works fine.

Edited by v100hell 2009-02-27 3:10 AM

So... this is what I think happened and what I needed to do. Note this is just an assumption. I think when you first start the AirPanel it goes through an initialization. The only thing visible in the initialization is the stylus calibration. I think the network card/network settings also has to go through this the first time. I think the AirPanel needs to be plugged in for this to work. The reason why is I'm guessing the system does not enable the PCMCIA card until you confirm you want to use it without being plugged in. That question comes up AFTER the initialization process - that or you simply can't respond to it until after initialization. By then it is to late. You click yes and the card is enabled BUT the AirPanel never had a chance to do whatever it needed to do with it during initialization.

When I received my AirPanel, the first thing I did was charge it. I then used it without a network card. I then purchased the Cisco 350 and plugged it in. Nothing. I then tried resetting it by pulling out the already charged battery and putting it back in. Still no go as I received the message asking me if I wanted to use the PCMCIA adapter after initialization.

Last night the battery was completely dead, so I plugged in the cable and started it up with the 350 plugged in. I didn't get the "do you want to use the PCMCIA card" message because I was plugged in. The system probably enabled it right at start-up/initialization. That worked. The first time, I clicked on connect to my network thinking it would prompt me for my WEP key. It didn't and I was stuck with the wrong IP unable to configure the connection at that point. I then decided to try again. I unplugged it, removed the battery and tried to put the battery and the plug back in at the same time. This time when it came up I configured the connection with by WEP Key before connecting and I was in.

I hope this helps others with the Cisco Aeronet 350 out there.

Edited by v100hell 2009-02-27 1:00 PM