Unable to connect to wifi network at work

From: Brian (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 10/14/04 

Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 17:43:28 -0700

The off-site IT assistant isn't able to help me without
my device having a hardware# (owned by the hospital). In
other words, because I own my PPC, they can't support it.
There is no on-site network administrator.

What I have discovered in the meantime, is that each of
the APs have an IP address and MAC code on a sticker on
the unit. Can either or both of these help me to
configure my handheld?

The wireless connection manager does say that I
am 'connected' to the AP and the wifi "button" is
intermittently green, but IE says that web page cannot be
found.

The ip address I am getting assigned is
fe80::211:85ff:fec4 in the wifi adapter settings but
127.0.0.1 when I run the wifi part of the self test
(which fails because it says there isn't an
AP "associated" with my device).

Thanks for your advice

Brian

>-----Original Message-----
>Your primary soruce of help on the hospital connections
is going to be
>the hospital network admin.
>
>If the systems are "open" you should be able to connect,
but since you
>cannot browse, they are probably protected by wep,
proxy, or other wifi
>security that prevents unauthorized connections to the
network... highly
>likely in a medical environment.
>
>One point is to look for your "ip address" after the
utility shows you
>connected... if it says "169..." you are not getting an
ip assigned by
>the network which is necessary to access the internet or
other resources.
>
>Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
>.
>

This is a bit long, so any replies can be to my email
address if you wish.

First off, I have no previous experience with wifi and do
not understand many of the settings that are available on
my device.

I have an iPAQ hx4700. I work in a hospital where there
are multiple wireless access points. When I turn on the
wireless feature on the handheld it detects several
access points.
These access points either say "Available", "Connected"
or "Unavailable". The "Connected" status switches from
one to another periodically.

I am unable to view any web pages, although a few times
some pages managed to load, but then I was stopped from
browsing by an error message that said something about
not having correct connection settings.

I have tried all of the different settings in
the "Configure Wireless Networks" settings dialogue and
the "Connections" settings dialogue(including proxy
settings). I don't undertsand the different
authentication settings but I tried them all.

I have tried all of these things right underneath the
wifi access point. One of them it doesn't ever
say "available".

I did have success the first time I tried the wifi
feature at a hotel. The only setting I needed to adjust
was to say that there was a proxy server - and I didn't
put a number in.

I know that wifi works at the hospital because I have
taken a laptop there and had instant success running
Windows XP with a Cisco systems wifi PCMCIA card
(hosptial's card, my laptop).

I haven't successfully contacted Information Systems at
work - they moved off site and after spending 10 miutes
on hold yesterday I found out that they were closed for
the day by the time I got through. I don't think that
they have had to help anyone configure wifi settings on a
handheld yet, but getting a service request from them is
a huge undertaking.

Does anyone have any suggestions for information I need
to request from the IS department if and when I get
through on the phone?

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

Brian

.

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