Wireless network connectivity (5 posts)

Basty Posted 3 years, 4 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

I am trialling Virgin Home Broadband, and the Virgin 'agent' says that my Wireless Network is satisfactorily setup [on a desktop 'tower']. I want to connect my laptop wirelessly to this network - using a PCMCIA-WiFi card. That already works well at Unwired Hotspots where I routinely access the internet.

However for Virgin, the laptop's systray connection icon KEEPS showing a red cross through it for Virgin (but not for Unwired). The Virgin agent says that there must be a fault with the WiFi card if there is a red cross through the connection icon. How to solve?

The wireless modem connects only to a power source and then to PCs - whether by ethernet cable or wirelessly. There was no software (DC) supplied with the package.

Micky Bounader Posted 3 years, 3 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Wireless network connectivity

Hi Joseph,

I have tried to read you question 3 times and still not 100% clean on what you are trying to find the answer for.

Please explain... Your Virgin connection is a ADSL wire line connection into your home and then connected to a wireless access point or router?

The WiFi card you use at the hotspot will be for connection to a wireless AP or Router, not mobile broadband.

Unwired is a wireless broadband connection - therefore not the same as a wireless network connection.

The red cross you are referring to generally indicates that there is a connection issue - ie. signal problem, or incorrectly installed setup.

You may need to remove and uninstall all the Unwired drivers and settings as well as all the drivers and settings for the WiFi card, and start from scratch as there could be a conflict with the two setups.

Sorry I cant be any more help on this one, however am confused as to exactly what you are trying to do...

Hope this helps, Micky. www.mbinfotech.com.au

Basty Posted 3 years, 3 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Wireless network connectivity

Your Virgin connection is a ADSL wire line connection into your home and then connected to a wireless access point or router?

I have ONE item, called a modem, which MUST be connected by cable only to power. The modem can send wireless signals, but it also has an Ethernet socket for 'delivering' internet by cable.

I would like to be (more) certain about the difference between Virgin Home Broadband and Unwired (at the hotspot). I have found that the wifi card that allows me to access the hotspot internet will NOT access my Virgin Home Broadband, BUT a USB-WLAN stick will. So now my WinXP laptop CAN access the internet wirelessly both at the hotspot and at home, but through different receivers IN THE LAPTOP.

My ambition is to receive (Virgin) internet wirelessly by a desktop PC running WinXP, and to transfer that internet access by Ethernet cable to a desktop PC running WinMe (which Virgin says cannot receive Virgin's broadband.) Is that possible ?

Anonymous Posted 3 years, 1 month ago Joined: N/A

Do both of your net accounts require passwords? If so, you might not be entering the password correctly on one of the terminals (computers).

As for Internet on both computers, your best bet is to put the connection through a router, then accessing the net that way.

WinME uses a different core as an operating system to XP. Translated simply, this means that a lot of things that are compatible with XP are not compatible with WinME. You'll need to double-check that all the components work with the operating system you're running on that computer, otherwise you may need to upgrade your OS or change the hardware.

Lawrence Glynn Posted 2 years, 11 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

It is probably encryption

Lets see if we can clarify things. The Virgin Home Broadband uses mobile phone technology to make the Internet connection, so that part is wireless broadband. The device Virgin supply is, sensibly, also a router (a 3G modem/router)able to share that broadband connection over a local network (LAN) using wireless networking (WiFi) or an Ethernet cable. Your PCMCIA WiFi network adapter will connect to an Unwired hotspot but not to the Virgin router, whch probably means that the PCMCIA card does not support the encryption used by the Virgin router. The router probably uses WPA-PSK and the PCMCIA card probably only goes as far as WEP. The Unwired hotspot is, basically, unsecured so this is not an issue. You could change the router to WEP but this is not a good idea. You now have a USB WiFi network adapter which works with the router (and, presumably with the hotspot) so stick with that. Ditch the PCMCIA card. To allow the WinMe PC to join in the fun simply connect via a cable to the router's Ethernet port. If that is not feasible you are probably stuck. WinMe had patchy support for USB and I have not come across a USB WiFi adapter which will work on WinMe and support WPA-PSK. If the router supports WEP you could downgrade everything to WEP but I suspect you will find WinMe is still a reliability hazard running a USB WiFi adapter. Most modern USB WiFi adapters are USB 2.0 which WinMe will not support anyway, so you need to find an older USB 1.0 device. Technically you can use a PC as a bridge to route the Internet connection from a USB WiFi adapater to an Ethernet port (and hence to the WinMe PC) but this is going to require some additional software (which I have never seen) and some expertise which, because you asked the question, I presume you do not have. So I would recommend you do not try this. You can use a pair of Wireless Access points such as Linksys WAP54G, one plugged into the Virgin router and the other plugged into your WinMe PC, but this is getting a bit expensive and also a bit complicated.

Wireless network connectivity (5 posts)

Wireless network connectivity (5 posts)

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