Connecting to a Home Wireless Router

[Upfront]

This is my first post...forgive me if I'm in the wrong place etc.

Problem: Need to understand "step-by-step" procedures for connecting to a home wireless router.

Conditions:
1. I have a Compaq 3955 (3900 Series) IPAQ with a Compaq wireless PC card; never connected to home router before.
2. Just got setup with Verizon's FIOS service...(router provider)
3. I have the numbers off the router required to connect.
4. Have general idea what I'm doing....no success over last day of trying.

Request:
1. Can someone call, email, respond to posting/thread and provide insight on how to get connected?
2. Oh yeah, I really want to get this done!

Thanks!

[dmapr]

Upfront,

welcome to WA!

This depends on too many variables to provide detailed instructions unless someone has done it with the same exact equipment as yours.

Generally, you need to perform the setup of the wireless portion of the router. Some routers include CD with a wizard program that does it automatically when you connect to the router with a regular network cable. If your router doesn't have those, check the documentation that came with it, the setup procedure should be described. I suggets that for initial connection you do not deploy any security (WEP/WPA) and just change the SSID from the default to something easily recognizable.

Likewise, check your Compaq documentation for the setup & connection procedure. Once you're able to connect, you can revisit the router and connection setup and enable the security (WPA is preferable if both support it, WEP otherwise). Then check the connection again.

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by Upfront

Problem: Need to understand "step-by-step" procedures for connecting to a home wireless router.

Conditions:
1. I have a Compaq 3955 (3900 Series) IPAQ with a Compaq wireless PC card; never connected to home router before.
2. Just got setup with Verizon's FIOS service...(router provider)
3. I have the numbers off the router required to connect.
4. Have general idea what I'm doing....no success over last day of trying.

dmapr has given some useful hints and I will add to them a bit. As far as I can tell this is an iPAQ from around 2002 running Microsoft Mobile Pocket PC 2002. Is that correct?

You may want to ask this question in the Smartphones/PocketPC part of this forum. There is a subforum on Windows Mobile, which is the successor to Pocket PC.

Originally Posted by dmapr

Generally, you need to perform the setup of the wireless portion of the router. Some routers include CD with a wizard program that does it automatically when you connect to the router with a regular network cable.

As dmapr suggests, if you have a PC handy, and even if you have done the automatic setup procedure, it will be useful to connect to your router with a standard Ethernet cable (assuming it has at least one Ethernet port). You want to at least review and verify the settings. The router itself has an (internal) IP address. This is usually 192.168.1.1 or 10.10.1.1 or something similar. If Verizon has not given you this router/gateway address, their tech support should be able to help you. If you put the IP address into your PC's browser, you should get the router's setup page.

Originally Posted by dmapr

I suggets that for initial connection you do not deploy any security (WEP/WPA) and just change the SSID from the default to something easily recognizable. Likewise, check your Compaq documentation for the setup & connection procedure. Once you're able to connect, you can revisit the router and connection setup and enable the security (WPA is preferable if both support it, WEP otherwise). Then check the connection again.

One thing you want to check is the security settings. We can't advise specifically here because we don't know how the automatic setup may have set security on the router and we don't know if your iPAQ supports the security that is configured. This could easily be your problem but it's impossible to diagnose without more information.

You definitely want to make sure that you have changed the following from their defaults to something that is yours and you can remember:

- SSID - this is the name that the router broadcasts to the world. You can turn this broadcast off, but that's an advanced topic. This does not need to be cryptic, because everyone can see it.

- Router administrator password - this should be something that's not in the dictionary and hard to guess, just like any other password. I wouldn't even tell it to Verizon tech support unless you have to, and if you do, I would change it afterward. Write this down if you can't remember it - it's the key to changing anything in the future.

Wireless routers can be set to advertise a range of possible addresses (through a mechanism called DHCP) or only use static addresses. I don't know if your iPAQ can request an IP address though DHCP, but it will be important to establish whether it can.

So the basic idea is to:
- verify that you can use the router administrator pages from a PC/wired connection
- verify the security and DHCP or static address settings.
- verify which security and address settings are compatible with your iPAQ.

Hope this is helpful.




SW

[Ddeere2]

dmpar and SteveW said is all what basic troubleshooting really anybody can help you with since it really depends on what brand of router you have. You really don't need to use the setup cd that came with the router. I didn't use the cd that came with my router, I went ahead and flashed it to and opensource firmware. I know for linksys routers the address to get into the router is 192.168.0.1 and there is no username and the password should be admin. You can call tech support and they should be able to help you since they will know what router you have and have the settings for general setup in front of them. They might not help you with the iPAQ. I really don't know much about IPAQs, but I know the new iPAQs have support for WPA2 wireless security. If you can give us a list of what settings you see when you log on and connect.

[Yugopro]

Forgive me for my impudence.

Shouldn't you just call the jokers at FIOS customer service?