Wifi issues on EPC-1026 with Windows CE

I don't know why, but the computer seems to ignore Android. I was never able to boot Android. It goes straight to the WinCE desltop.

The Hopelesness rom was... hopeless. I modified the script to adjust it to 1024*600 but it doesn't seem to care.

Back to the 10'inch WinCE 6.0 ROM from HPC Factor. Grrr...

I'd like to point out the fact that I can browse with ZetaKey Browser (until it shuts down due to memory problems, that is). What does ZetaKey do differently from IE and Opera Mini?

it's called cyber warfare? heard of it?

I'm having some success in the last two days, but I decided not to report on this until I could post from the netbook.

So... here I am to thank everyone. I'm posting this using Internet Explorer Embedded.

How did I solve it? I don't know. I applied every soluton possible so now I don't know... I reflashed he OS and applied the FixWiFi patch.

Now let me mention some oddities:

- Even when the connection didn't seem to work, I was able to connect using Zetakey. It would've been perfect if it didn't shut down after a couple of pages every time. Plus, it has input problems.

- I could never get my three browsers working at the same time. For exmaple, I'm now on IE because Opera is having a tantrum and won't connect at all. Zetakey always work but it shuts down. Previously, Opera would work and IE wouldn't open a page.

- IE needs around ten minutes to load the first page (even a simple one like Google). But after loading the first page successfully, it works fast.

- It's still very hard to establish a connection. I have to try several times an the wait for IE to crawl for ten inutes.

- My favorite social network is Google+ but it's not compatible with IE. I'll have to wait for Opera to be back in a good mood.

Am I the only one experiencing these problems with the browsers?

Well... again, thanks everyone for your valuable help.

I'm beginning to think you have some intermittent hardware wifi problem.

Curious...what if you turn on wifi and then use Total Commander and visit an FTP site...that should connect nearly instantly and there should be zero lag time uploading or downloading a file.

Have you tried the Iris browser yet? It's webkit based. It's the only browser i can stand using on my netbook. You can find it and a ton of freeware software in an old archive i posted years ago. After a quick google search i found it mirrored here: http://files.chatnfiles.com/Sylvania_Netbook/WinCE_6/

Also i'd suggest connecting via ethernet to see if its a wifi issue or browser/dns issue. Would narrow it down anyway.

Cheers

Edited by RTFM 2014-06-11 6:08 PM

Ricos Hawley: I'll try when I go back home. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for the link, RTFM

I've downloaded Iris some days ago but I still don't have the cable to install from the host computer.

As for Ethernet, I've tried when I was still unable to connect with no luck. Now that my connection sort of works I think it deserves another chance.

Edited by Tincho 2014-06-11 6:14 PM

Everything in that archive (including iris) is ready to run. Just copy the apps you want to an SD card and execute (or copy to device from sd card and execute).

Cheers

Oops... I mean Rich I probably clicked on a dictionary suggestion or something. Sorry for misspelling.

RTFM: Downloading. Thanks a lot!

I thought maybe Ricos was the local translation of Rich.

Me too

I think the ethernet cable is the best idea actually...or my name isn't Ricos

LOL

Well, ti's close to a local translation. "rico" is the local transltion to "rich". but as a name it would be "Ricardo" And no, the browser has no dictionary (it's IE). It seems I'm a bit stupid and misread the name

Well, time to report...

Rich: I've tried with an Ethernet cable and it made no difference.

I have to say, however, that this time I used a stopwatch. The connection does not take 10 minutes as I said before. It's around two minutes. I thought it was longer (or maybe it was longer before). That time was measured using IE. I'll post the load times with the rest of the browsers below.

RTFM: I tried all the browsers from the pack, except for the Java apps (I still have to install the VM). All of them were tested connecting to google.com first and then going to hpcfactor.com

Iris Browser After 1 minute and 22 seconds it displayed the connection timeout page. I clicked on Try again and it happened again. In the third attempt it connected. It didn't take more than a few seconds to open Google (the homepage is still about:iris). Then it took 30 seconds or so to open HPC:Factor. Going from the main page to the forums took 3 or 4 seconds.

iSee Browser: 28 seconds to open Google. That's fast considering the times I'm getting from other browsers. But then I typed hpcfactor.com and hit [Enter] and nothing happened. I retried twice. Even worse, it seems to show no feedback at all. No status bar, no progress bar. There is no way to know what's wrong with the browser. Second try: 16 seconds to Google. I still can't get past Google. Fourth try: I decided to go directly to HPC:Factor. It took 15 seconds. But it doesn't seem to take any input when I click on "forums".

Skyfire: Tjat thing shows the splash screen first, then shows a zoomed in version of the same splash screen and then greets me with an "Application Error" message. It happens every time I open it.

UCWeb: It must be in Chinese or some other language I have no fonts for. It mostly displays squares.

ftxBrowser: It seems to be identical to IE with the addition of tabs. 3:30 minutes to open Google. 20 seconds or so to open HPC: Factor. A few seconds to display the forums.

MiniBrowser: That thing really hates me. It never started. I tried several times and when I double click on the icon nothing happens.

Opera Mini 5 (ARM): 1:05 minutes to show a "Connection Failed" message. It used to be my broswer of choice because it was faster than IE. But now IE takes a couple of minutes while Opera takes only 1.05 minutes... to display an error.

ZetaKey Browser: 16 seconds to open Google. It shuts down when I click on my G+ profile link. I launched it again and it took 26 seconds to load HPC:Factor. It takes a couple of seconds to open the forums. I can visit a couple of pages (reusing the only tab/windows) and it inevitably shuts down. My personal record is 5 pages.

MiniBrowser depends on one or two DLLs that are present on CE 5 devices but absent on CE 6 devices. Dunno why they were left out of the latter.

It's really a problem of inadequate hardware. The WM8505s generally have only 128 MB of RAM, and the processor runs at only 300 MHz. The subsequent 8650s (which support either CE 6 or Windows Embedded Compact 7 and run anywhere between 600 MHz and 1 GHz) and 8850s (which support WEC 7 only and are rated from 1.0 to 1.5 GHz) handle most Web pages better, though they still have inadequate Flash support. Both generally have 256 or 512 MB of RAM.

Yes I know I can't expect much with such low specs. I knew that when I bought the computer. But I didn't expect to et a non-working Wi-Fi connection. Yes, I expected it to be slow. Now that it connects, I think I can live with it once I choose a browser that works fine for me.

I have two questions now:

1. Can I update Internet Explorer? I think it has 4.0 (equivalent to IE 6.0 for the destkiop versions). Is there an HTML5-capable version of IE for WinCE 6?
2. What if I buy a Wi-Fi dongle? Could this solve the problem? This dongle is compatible with WinCE 5.0. I don't know if it will work on 6.0, though.