LG Phenom Express / Compaq WL100 woes

Greetings from the North!
Have been trying quite a while to get my beloved Phenom networked...
The compaq card works fine in a laptop, the 2.11 driver installs OK in the Phenom, the LED lights, then blinks and finally complains of no Dynamic IP obtained.
Using the WX utilities confirms the same problem.
I'm not using a router or other access point, just the laptop offering internet sharing. This sharing works OK for a Ipaq 3975 PPC, and a second laptop.
I tried installing Pocket Hosts - no joy.
I tried resets, and re-inserts, re-boots, re-installations galore.



I wonder what I might be missing. Sure would appreciate any hints!

Dagfinn

Have you set the card's driver to Ad-Hoc mode?

(EDIT: unofficial 3900th post)

Edited by CE Geek 2007-03-28 1:47 AM

try another prism driver (iirc this is a prism card).

Thanks CEGeek and cmonex!

Yes the card is in Ad-Hoc mode. Interestingly, when I put it in "pseudo-adhoc"(?) the connection ikon does turn green, but I'm still unable to Ping the machine doing the internet sharing at 192.168.0.1 (A windoze xp sp2 laptop with a D-link wireless card) Incidentally, under the "Name Servers" tab, should I specify DNS and WINS? Should I set NETBIOS and WINS on 192.168.0.1?

If it was not for the fact that the Phenom is such a useful machine I would have given up long ago, and the prospect of being able to connect wirelessly both to synch and to surf would make things even better.

@cmonex: Could you please helpe me get your point? The card in the Phenom is a Compaq WL100, and the drivers I'm using are the ones recommended here for WinCE core 2.11. I also have SP1 installed by the way. I'll Google for alternative "prism" drivers and give it a shot.

Another hypothesis- I have fuddled some in the past with networking, and under installed Adapters I still see "NE2000Compatible Ethernet Driver" and "Proxim Ethernet Driver" along with my "Compaq WL100 11Mps Wireless Lan Pc Card" Should I try Pocket RedEdit to get rid of some of these? Might there be other fuddlements still lurking in the Registry that could keep the connection from happening?

I wonder- has anyone else here had success with my kind of constellation, and if so, what alternative wireless card would be most likely to work in the Phenom?

Would if help, possibly, if I set up a "real" DNS and DHCP instead of "Internet Sharing"? I gave WinGate a shot, but it did not appear to make a difference, although I admit some of the features it offers, in terms of control and security, are quite impressive. Maybe later, after the Phenom is online.

Also, I don't see any way to specify a "Workgroup" in the Phenom. Is there maybe a hack for this?

Enough speculation already! I feel like I'm shooting in the dark, and any further hints are much appreciated!

dagfinn




Edited by vnomad 2007-03-28 10:25 AM

yes you should try specifying an IP and DNS thats how i got a jornada 720 going with adhoc. no need to set WINS.. where did you see netbios on a hpc?!

and yes adhoc is harder to get working than normal mode with DHCP (no DNS needs to be set then).

surfing isnt going to be great.

prism: get them from the CESD on this site (support section)
driver name is usually prismnds

hope i remember right and it is not agere but thats also in support.

Edited by cmonex 2007-03-28 10:25 AM

Yo, cmonex, that was FAST! I'll go looking for alternative drivers then.

I have tried manually setting the IP on the Phenom to the one given in HOSTS on the PC (192.168.0.4). No joy. I noticed a utility to set "hosts" on a HPC, I tried to install it, but it refused to run on my Phenom.

I'm a bit confused about setting the IPs manually since WinXP running internet sharing (in my case only on the wired lan adapter connected to my ADSL) does dynamically assign IP's in the 192.168.0.X range to the two other machines using the shared inet connection. But the Phenom, in contrast, does not obtain an IP dynamically. Would there not be a conflict now when I do specify the IP manyally on the Phenom? Should I, then, disable internet sharing on the "routing" laptop's wired lan? I assume the wireless card on the laptop should NOT have internet sharing enabled?

One thing at least is very clear: I'm confused

. . . but willing to listen and learn . . .

TIA,
Dagfinn

Edited by vnomad 2007-03-28 10:45 AM

well if ICS doesnt allow for giving a fixed range for IP's assigned by DHCP to avoid conflicts (just like a router allows it) then you will have to give a static ip to all the machines to ensure there will never be a conflict. but i guess you can avoid it like this: the pc's usually get, say, x.2 and x.3 IP's and you give x.20 to the phenom

what laptop has a wireless card vs wired card there? i didn't understand that part.

My recollection is the same as yours - WL100 is Prism, WL110 is Agere.

Apologies in advance if I'm getting too longwinded, but I'd like to try to explain what I find puzzling in this networking configuration. At this point it looks like one CAN OF WORMS, and I'm afraid everything I do just adds to the mess . . .

I have cut back to just the laptop and the Phenom. The laptop is connected to the Net with RJ45 (ie wired) through a ADSL modem. This is configured to get everything automagically by DHCP from my ISP. This is the adapter that is configured with internet sharing checked, and that, in turn, effectuates "private" DHCP being run under WinXP. As other machines join ad hoc a semaphore file, HOSTS.ICS, is written in the same directory where HOSTS and LMHOSTS also reside, in my case: D:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. This file seems to be refreshed each time a new client joins the workgroup. Right now it looks like this:

# This file has been automatically generated for use by Microsoft Internet
# Connection Sharing. It contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names
# for the home network. Please do not make changes to the HOSTS.ICS file.
# Any changes may result in a loss of connectivity between machines on the
# local network.
#

192.168.0.152 EVO.mshome.net # 2007 4 3 4 3 17 0 676
192.168.0.155 iNomad.mshome.net # 2007 4 2 3 14 56 14 525
192.168.0.1 RMA10.mshome.net # 2012 3 1 26 14 23 26 497

The machine RMA10 is the "server", and requires a static IP for its wireless card which HAS to be 192.168.0.1
The clients are dynamicly given IP's in the 192.168.0.XXX range.

The other relevant files, HOSTS, and LMHOST look like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.1 RMA10
192.168.0.2 EVO
192.168.0.3 iNomad
192.168.0.4 phenom

So there appears to be a conflict here, and I'm not allowed to manually enter a IP for my Phenom into the HOSTS.ICM - possibly there is a hack?

Since the Compaq adapter works in the second laptop I doubt that's the issue. The iPaq is connecting through a SanDisk SD card - no problems. Both receive their IPs dynamically from the "server" laptop, i.e. they are both configured to use DHCP, and it does indeed work. But NOT with the Phenom, for some reason.

Possibly it's a driver issue- so far I have not found a viable alternative, but will keep looking. Any URLs suggested?

I anticipate most future usage will be Ad Hoc- that's one reason I'm resisting doing it through a conventional wireless router.

In the olden days of DOS I recall spying on RS232 handshaking protocols, sniffing out the problems that way. I imagine there is some sort of wireless sniffer utility that would display the (interpreted) raw broadcasts going on? This way I might at least be able to see if the cards are communicating at all.

Hmmm I have a second "virgin" Phenom Express somewhere. Maybe I should give things a try with that one, to eliminate the hypothesis of RegistryWorms in the one I'm using (which has TONS of nifty programs installed).

The Icy Seas are only a few feet from my window here. I wonder if the crabs would like a Phenom

By the way, you have an interesting site, cmonex! Are not the Jornada and the Phenom sort of in the same family? Both SH3, or am I wrong again?

Thanks again for enduring my misadventures!

Dagfinn




Edited by vnomad 2007-03-28 1:01 PM

You can take a stab at looking through the old achives of Pocketpccity.com

I will look for the Phenom manual as it is around here and see what it say.

I will try to remember anything also since I sold mine in 2002.

S/F,
CEYA!

***Crabs don't like Phenoms Express.
***Jornada 720,728 is Arm but I think 6XX is SH4.


Edited by Ceya 2007-03-28 1:37 PM

http://www.eskimo.com/~webguy/service/activesync.html

look at this to see if it can give you some help. It covers wired and Win 98 but something may help.

S/F,
CEYA!

Slight typo - it's SH3.

well i dont think you need to edit any ics files. just give a static ip in the network config applet on the phenom itself.

i dont see a conflict right now..

it is probably a driver issue or maybe the phenom needs a hard reset. don't throw it to the crabs please! send it to me?

url: well i told you they are in the support section on this site. go to support and look for prism reference drivers. look around please.

@cmonex: ajajajajaj, I totally misread you, sorry! I have uninstalled the Compaq driver, downloaded the prism and unCABbed the driver for 10003 build, and now things look A LITTLE more promising. The "server" appears to connect monentarily, but still the Phenom gets no IP through DHCP. After this installation I see TWO new adapters under Network Configuration: Intersil Prism 11 Mpbs Wireless LAN PC Card, and Intersil Prism Wireless Lan PC Card. Hmmm. I did specify "prismnds" when prompted after inserting the card.

I am overwhelmed by the friendly help offered around here! I'll be checking everything out. Excellent learning experience.

So tantalizing to be so close, yet denied Networking Nirvana. OK, then, the crabs shall have to wait a while yet.

Maybe I'll have to try bypassing the shaky DHCP on the "server" - it seems a bit flaky serving the other puters as well, I often have to reinsert the card a couple of times before it "takes".

I'll keep fiddling and report back later.

dagfinn


Edited by vnomad 2007-03-28 2:50 PM

Oh fiddlesticks

With the Prism drivers it appears that the server pc "hears" the phenom - it affirms a good signal - but the Phenom still does not get an IP, and while both machines can be seen transmitting, none receives from the other.

Did a hard reset, and reinstalled, to no avail.

Anybody else with wireless luck on a Phenom doing ad hoc? I'd be curious to learn what card/drivers actually work- and at which speed.

Solong, time to regroup.

Dagfinn