I have for some time had a small ad hoc (peer to peer) 802.11b
wireless network connecting my main PC and my laptop (both Win running
98SE).  I now have a new WinXP laptop, with an internal wireless card,
and I'd like to link that in too.  I know very little about XP, so I'd
appreciate some hand-holding.  The main PC will remain the point of
access to the Internet (via an ADSL connection), and I'd like to be
able share that access between the main PC and the new laptop (I don't
need Internet access on the old laptop).

The current situation is that the new laptop can see the existence of
the current network ('signal strength is excellent'), but that no
files can be seen in either direction, in spite of the relevant
folders being set up as shared.

To make things simple for the moment, I have WEP switched off.

What do I need to do now to complete the setup?  I'm happy to do this
step by step, with feedback, if need be.

---

Request for Question Clarification by seizer-ga on 15 Jan 2003 12:09 PST

Hi there michael - a few questions which should help us here.

Have you upgraded the main PC to Windows XP too, or is it still
running 98se?

Which utility are you running on the laptop to show you the signal
strength of the wireless network? What about on the 98se machine?

Have you run any software or wizards yet, on the XP machine, to try
and install the ad-hoc network?

What wireless cards do you have (in the main PC and the laptop)?

Those answers will aid us in answering your question!

All the best,

--seizer-ga

---

Clarification of Question by michael2-ga on 15 Jan 2003 14:38 PST

Hi Seizer, good to hear from you.  Some more details:

1.  The main PC is still running Windows 98SE

2.  The signal strength on the Laptop is shown on a taskbar icon that
came pre-installed by Dell. Sorry I don't know what is actually
running.  Let me know how to find out if you need this info.  Clicking
on the icon brings up a window entitled 'Wireless network connection
status'.  Status is 'connected'.  Avtivity - packets sent 82, received
0.

3. The main PC runs a utility that came with the card, called
'Wireless LAN configuration status'.  It's called 'US Robotics,
Wireless Access 802.11b, version 1.25'.  This shows link info
'Associated' on channel 12, Tx rate
11MBits/s, Tx throughput 0 bytes/s, Rx around 400 (this last figure
varies second by second). Both link quality and signal strength are
given as 'Not Applicable', but I think that's what it always shows,
even when working OK with the old laptop. Mode is 802.11 AdHoc, SSID
MNetwork, Tx Rate auto, ps [powersaving] mode enabled, WEP disabled.

4.  I have run the XP network setup wizard on the laptop, using the
same workgroup name as before.  I have also, as instructed in the
documentation, run the setup wizard from the XP CD on the main
machine.

I have not touched any authentication settings.  Could these be wrong?

5. The XP card is a Dell TrueMobile 1150 Series LAN mini PCI card.
The main PC card is US Robotics Wireless Access 802.11b PCI adapter
5V.

Anything else you need?

Michael

---

Clarification of Question by michael2-ga on 16 Jan 2003 02:24 PST

I thought this one would be quite easy, but perhaps not!  I've
increased the price to $20 to allow researchers to spend more time on
it.

---

Clarification of Question by michael2-ga on 16 Jan 2003 09:48 PST

sparky4ca-ga 

Thanks for your comment.  On your point 2, shouldn't I just set up
everything to run using TCP/IP?  After all, wireless networking is
pretty insecure anyway (even, as I understand it, when WEP is
enabled).  Are there any real problems running using TCP/IP?

You will likely need to do the following:

1) The XP system can see the wireless network. That's good. The
wireless settings for channel, mode, SSID, and WEP need to be
identical on it as to the other two computers. You may be able to do
this by double clicking the meter on your taskbar. Dell may have their
own utility or they may be using the Windows XP utility. I'm afraid I
don't recall how to load the XP utility if there isn't a Dell one.

2) There's also a good chance that you are already networked to the
other systems. In addition to having the conenction, and the shared
folders, you need to have the proper network protocals setup. You're
probably using NetBeui as your local protocal on your network, with
TCP/IP installed for internet access. Microsoft wants you to use
TCP/IP for all your networks, so NetBeui is not officially supported
in XP. It is, however, included on the Windows XP CD, as Microsoft
realizes that not all the computers will be using XP, and using TCP/IP
for local file sharing in 95/98/ME isn't very secure. If your system
didn't come with an actual XP CD, then Dell support should be able to
help you locate the proper fils on your hard drive to install the
NetBeui protocol. If the files aren't there, thenm you'll need to
borrow somebody else's XP disc. the files are in a subfolder, I think
it's called "bonus" or "valueadd".

3) To share internet access, you'll need to run something called
"Internet Connection Sharing" or ICS. It may already be installed in
your Win 98SE system. If it is, you'll find it somewhere on your start
menu. Run it and follow the on screen instructions. If not, then it
can be installed through the control panel, ad remove programs,
windows components section. Once the main system is setup as the host
computer, Windows XP might auto sense and configure the connection. If
it doesn't then do what your win98 system told you to to setup the ICS
on the XP laptop. Or the researcher that posts the answer to your
question may be able to describe the process. I've only done it the
other way, so I don't want to give you the wrong info.

I hope this will help point another researcher to the exact solution
for you.

Sharing internet access through this setup should not be too difficult
as it sounds that the xp laptop has correctly found and associated
itself with your win98se computer. File sharing will be much trickier,
since windows nt/2000/xp use a different method to do this than
windows 95/98/me. Unless the operating systems of all the computers
are in one group or the other, you will have problems getting file
sharing working correctly (though I've heard it is possible, I don't
have the experience of getting this running properly).

As for using the internet, I would like to ask what method of sharing
you were using previously? Was it microsoft's internet connection
sharing? If so, I might be able to find the specific settings you need
to set your xp machine up for to make this work. If you can't use the
internet right now (despite everything being set up fairly well from
what it sounds like), it's most likely a problem with either proxy
settings or the assigned ip address on your windows xp machine.
Perhaps the windows internet access connection wizard (Which normally
loads the first time you try running internet explorer on a computer)
can help with this.

I was not previously doing any sharing of internet access before, only
file sharing.  But with the new laptop I want to do both.

sparky4ca-ga  
 
Thanks for your comment.  On your point 2, shouldn't I just set up
everything to run using TCP/IP?  After all, wireless networking is
pretty insecure anyway (even, as I understand it, when WEP is
enabled).  Are there any real problems running using TCP/IP?