It’s been a mad month for messing about with wifi links. The Vaio conking out was a nuisance not least because it had the configuration software for my home router – a US Robotics 9109. The problem is that when you turn it on or, say, it restarts after a power cut, the wireless functions don’t work. In the past I’ve simply used the software on the Vaio to go to the appropriate menu selection and switch on the wifi.
Why not run the software from the USB hard drive taken out of the Vaio ? Tried that but it won’t run – probably looking for registry entries that no longer exist – yet another argument against the Windows registry, one of the daftest ideas ever. Configuration files in a folder local to that application always were much more flexible.
Why not use the configuration software built into the router ? You access that through your normal web browser simply typing in the IP address, logging in as “admin” and entering the password. Well I would except that, most strangely, it has no features whatsoever for handling the wireless functions even though it’s a wireless router. It looks almost exactly like the PC based program but the wifi bits are simply not there. Hmmmmm.
Why not install the software on the Tosh ? Well I would if I could find the bloody CD. I’ve been through and through the mountains of CDs that one accumulates and there’s no sign of it. Well what about downloading a version from the US Robotics website ? As the Tosh has a regular RJ45 ethernet connection and the router has 4 wired ports that was no trouble. The big problem is the downloaded software won’t install. You start up the SETUP program and it loads all the software then starts a search for the router – which it can’t find. Which is odd because that was the router used to download the software in the first place. And the install routine says that because it can’t find the router it’s going to abort. So you go round & round in circles.
I sent an email to USR support explaining the problem. Three days later I got back a standard reply (via the supposedly non-existent router) that simply reiterated the whole router setup procedure outlined in the manual (and on the website help documents) which included the really helpful “Step 3. Install EasyConfigurator”. Don’t these people actually read the description of the problem ?
I rather suspect that the problem lies with the IP address. You can change the router’s IP address to be anything you like. Out of the box it comes with 192.168.1.1 and I’ve changed it to be 10.0.9.1 – perfectly legal and, for a variety of reasons fits a numbering system that makes sense within the networks we use. And the router (obviously) works well enough set up that way. My hypothesis is that the install routine just looks for 192.168.1.1 without taking into account the actual IP address of the computer/network it’s sitting on or the fact that you may be using one different from the default. If that’s true then the answer would be to change the router back to 192.168.1.1 and force the Tosh, temporarily, to use 192.168.1.2 then change it back afterwards. But with the holiday departure date rushing relentlessly towards me I didn’t have time to experiment.
Arriving in Bormes at the holiday site (see www.campdudomaine.com )I found they had a wifi service this year. This was nice because it saved me the daily trudge over to the marina to get in range of the point there. At least it was nice while it worked .
I’d collected email every day having purchased three hours worth of connect time for eighteen euros and, after two weeks still had half the pre-paid logon time left. Then we had a several days away from the site paying a visit to Les Gorges de Verdon staying in a nice hotel in Villecroze. I’m trekking up to Everest Base Camp in October and have a new pair of walking boots that needed breaking in so some walks in the mountains seemed like a good idea..
Why not run the software from the USB hard drive taken out of the Vaio ? Tried that but it won’t run – probably looking for registry entries that no longer exist – yet another argument against the Windows registry, one of the daftest ideas ever. Configuration files in a folder local to that application always were much more flexible.
Why not use the configuration software built into the router ? You access that through your normal web browser simply typing in the IP address, logging in as “admin” and entering the password. Well I would except that, most strangely, it has no features whatsoever for handling the wireless functions even though it’s a wireless router. It looks almost exactly like the PC based program but the wifi bits are simply not there. Hmmmmm.
Why not install the software on the Tosh ? Well I would if I could find the bloody CD. I’ve been through and through the mountains of CDs that one accumulates and there’s no sign of it. Well what about downloading a version from the US Robotics website ? As the Tosh has a regular RJ45 ethernet connection and the router has 4 wired ports that was no trouble. The big problem is the downloaded software won’t install. You start up the SETUP program and it loads all the software then starts a search for the router – which it can’t find. Which is odd because that was the router used to download the software in the first place. And the install routine says that because it can’t find the router it’s going to abort. So you go round & round in circles.
I sent an email to USR support explaining the problem. Three days later I got back a standard reply (via the supposedly non-
I rather suspect that the problem lies with the IP address. You can change the router’s IP address to be anything you like. Out of the box it comes with 192.168.1.1 and I’ve changed it to be 10.0.9.1 – perfectly legal and, for a variety of reasons fits a numbering system that makes sense within the networks we use. And the router (obviously) works well enough set up that way. My hypothesis is that the install routine just looks for 192.168.1.1 without taking into account the actual IP address of the computer/network it’s sitting on or the fact that you may be using one different from the default. If that’s true then the answer would be to change the router back to 192.168.1.1 and force the Tosh, temporarily, to use 192.168.1.2 then change it back afterwards. But with the holiday departure date rushing relentlessly towards me I didn’t have time to experiment.
Arriving in Bormes at the holiday site (see www.campdudomaine.com )I found they had a wifi service this year. This was nice because it saved me the daily trudge over to the marina to get in range of the point there. At least it was nice while it worked .
I’d collected email every day having purchased three hours worth of connect time for eighteen euros and, after two weeks still had half the pre-
Anyway, I digress. On returning to Bormes I couldn’t get the Tosh to connect at all. Normally you fire up FireFox and, whatever you try to connect to you always get the WIFI France logon screen first. Except I didn’t. Running ipconfig confirmed that I had connected to the local router so the wifi was working but net browsing or making a VPN connection was impossible.
Up till then the Tosh wifi had worked perfectly and you could get a nice strong signal anywhere within 100 metres of the kids play park and Tennis Bar which was where the antenna was located. I had toyed with the idea of experimenting with an external high gain aerial to try and increase the range but, like most laptops, it has no provision for connecting one and the cost of a PCMCIA card with such a connector is quite prohibitive. And the choice of cards is pretty narrow. And, as there’s a bloody great hill between our place and the Tennis Bar the experiment looked unlikely to bear fruit so I didn’t bother
A visit to the camp office was ineffectual. “Voir Bar du Tennis” was the not too hopeful advice. Not hopeful because the only person there was a bird behind the bar with big boobs, a belly-button full of bling and a matching pair of age and IQ. She looks about 18. Now, my French is not too bad – I can order food, drinks and have animated conversations punctuated with sign language with my mate Hubert (pronounced Hew-Bear) from Strasbourg but explaining to Miss Brain of France that her DHCP service was working OK but external routing wasn’t promised to be a tall order.
Still, I tried. And was met with blank look and a shrug. “Qu’est ce que c’est – WIFI ?” she asked. “L’Internet par radio” I ventured. Another blank look, another shrug. At this point Dave Five Bellies walked past. He’s 50 this year, still flogging drinks on the beach and still determinedly pursuing his career as a prospective rock star. See www.kwenzini.com for pictures, mp3 downloads and some video. His band had a gig at the tennis bar that night and he was lugging a not inconsiderable amount of kit around to a small stage beside the bar. All the lugging plus the fact that he’s stopped drinking alcohol (strange for a rock star) means the name’s no longer appropriate and he’s down to just three bellies ! Having lived in France for 30 years his French is just a bit better than mine, albeit still with a strong Mancunian accent, so he intercedes. Now, in all languages very subtle changes can make a lot of difference to the meaning you get as amply demonstrated by the English undercover gendarme in ‘Allo ‘Allo who was always “pissing by the door”. My pronunciation, it seems, is causing the confusion.
“Ahhhhh – le weeefeee” she responded and opened a door revealing a room that looked like a mini internet café where a row of dead PC’s have signs saying “En Panne” sellotaped across the screens. “Fry Tag” she says.
“Fry Tag ?????” “The tag got fried ? What tag ?” I ask Dave. “No you wally” Dave says “It’ll be fixed on Friday – you’re accent’s that good she thinks you’re a *&%£ing kraut”
Up till then the Tosh wifi had worked perfectly and you could get a nice strong signal anywhere within 100 metres of the kids play park and Tennis Bar which was where the antenna was located. I had toyed with the idea of experimenting with an external high gain aerial to try and increase the range but, like most laptops, it has no provision for connecting one and the cost of a PCMCIA card with such a connector is quite prohibitive. And the choice of cards is pretty narrow. And, as there’s a bloody great hill between our place and the Tennis Bar the experiment looked unlikely to bear fruit so I didn’t bother
A visit to the camp office was ineffectual. “Voir Bar du Tennis” was the not too hopeful advice. Not hopeful because the only person there was a bird behind the bar with big boobs, a belly-
Still, I tried. And was met with blank look and a shrug. “Qu’est ce que c’est – WIFI ?” she asked. “L’Internet par radio” I ventured. Another blank look, another shrug. At this point Dave Five Bellies walked past. He’s 50 this year, still flogging drinks on the beach and still determinedly pursuing his career as a prospective rock star. See www.kwenzini.com for pictures, mp3 downloads and some video. His band had a gig at the tennis bar that night and he was lugging a not inconsiderable amount of kit around to a small stage beside the bar. All the lugging plus the fact that he’s stopped drinking alcohol (strange for a rock star) means the name’s no longer appropriate and he’s down to just three bellies ! Having lived in France for 30 years his French is just a bit better than mine, albeit still with a strong Mancunian accent, so he intercedes. Now, in all languages very subtle changes can make a lot of difference to the meaning you get as amply demonstrated by the English undercover gendarme in ‘Allo ‘Allo who was always “pissing by the door”. My pronunciation, it seems, is causing the confusion.
“Ahhhhh – le weeefeee” she responded and opened a door revealing a room that looked like a mini internet café where a row of dead PC’s have signs saying “En Panne” sellotaped across the screens. “Fry Tag” she says.
“Fry Tag ?????” “The tag got fried ? What tag ?” I ask Dave. “No you wally” Dave says “It’ll be fixed on Friday – you’re accent’s that good she thinks you’re a *&%£ing kraut”
Under Development from Issue 238 of Computer Shopper Magazine