MA701 & WiFi Scanners

Im using an Abocom MA-1000 CE 3.0 based web tablet, same design and hardware as the Viewsonic Viewpad and Airpanel 100. Im also using a Netgear MA701 WiFi card. It works fine as does the limited AP scanner, but I want a more robust scanner like the ones I can use on my Ipaq 5455. On my old MP 900, I was able to the a SanDisk WiFi +128MB and scanners like ministumbler with no problem. Not so with the web tablet.

Heres one of the problems; finding out definitively if the MA701 works with ministumbler. Ive been all over the FAQs and ministumbler forums and find that the FAQs state that the chipset is supported and some users claim that it does work . Users having any problems with the MA701 that have posted questions have gotten rather rude, dismissive and contrary responses from users like Asshole Emeritus and board admins claiming that the card is not supported due to the fact it has a Prism chipset. Evidently, the programmers and support for ministumbler cannot make up their minds.

I have tried Airscanner, Pocketwarrior, PocketWinc. Getting the programs to work is not problem using the standard HPC dll hack if necessary, but none see the MA701 card.

So my question is should I just go buy another Sandisk WiFi + 128MB CF (sold the old one with the MP 900) and try again or just give up on getting a scanner to work?

Is there an established combination that does work reliably?

As always, thanks for any help.

are you using a standard prism driver for the netgear thingie?

ministumbler DOES support prism. (and pocketwarrior and pocketwinc )

I'm using the Prism drives that came with the MA701 card.

I know these programs are supposed to support the Prism chipset (contrary to the admins and supports confusion) but I am unable to get a response from anything other than the program that came with the card.

Since this is not your standard HPC, but a tablet, I have encountered some additional problems.

Just and FYI for anyone looking into the NETA 980, Viewpad 100 or Airpanel 100, one main pain was the USB flash/drive support.

These tablet do not turn off, but only go into a suspend mode. While they will recognize any USB flash, you must hard rest in order to unplug them.

I'll double check the drivers and re-run the tests.

Just another FYI. To make sure, I installed the Prism drivers via the installation executable and by specific CAB file for my Tablet (PRISM.2577.CAB for the SARM 1110). I even went so far as to uninstall the MA701 drivers and application that came with the card.

Long and short of it No joy. Ministunbler still states no wireless adaptor present. This is using both the ministumbler from the netstumbler site and the one from HPCFactor.

This could be just another quirk related to this specific device.

how do you mean you need to hard reset if you want to unplug a usb drive???

no HPC ever turns off, the cause of the problem can't be this.


as for the netgear

so, you're using the intersil prism drivers now?

Once mounted, the only way to demount a USB drive is to hard reset the tablet. Inserting a USB drive will cause the tablet to mount the drive, but if you physically disconnect the drive, the tablet will freeze up. Only a hard reset will allow you to dismount the USB flash drive.

I have tried the prism drivers hosted here and the drivers supplied with the Netgear card. Like I said before, the native scanning program works and I can attach to any detected network, but no other scanner program will see the card.

I know there have been quirks reported with the drivers for this card. Considering the ease with which the SanDisk card worked, I figured the problem with this card was just with this card or a combination of this tablet and this card.

this neta is pretty buggy then it isn't the normal behaviour!

strange, this netgear--- well if it already has a scanning app natively then why do you need another?

With the hardware specs, I almost expected the Tablet to act just like an HPC without the keyboard. There have been a few other applications and utilities that worked on the MP900/900C that either dont work or dont work well this tablet.

As I explained earlier, the configuration program that came with the card only has a limited AP scanner. The rest of the configuration application is actually quite good and detailed. Ive also gotten used to being able to record the APs I come across and to see them in more detail.

Between the CE Image upgrade issue and the other quirks, it may just be something with the 3.0 version of this tablet. I may still try a SanDisk WiFi +128 like I hade before. I had no issue getting that card to work with either my PDA or MP900/900C. Using the 128MB portion of the card may also address the image upgrade issue.

Thanks for replies by the way.