Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Odd Wireless LAN problem

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Ashburner" <hantslug@???>
To: "Hampshire LUG Discussion List" <hampshire@???>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Odd Wireless LAN problem


> Rob Malpass wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Will Davies" <wmd04r@???>
>> To: "Hampshire LUG Discussion List" <hampshire@???>
>> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 10:40 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Odd Wireless LAN problem
>>
>>
>>> >
>>>> Forgive me replying to my own post, but there is no switch to mixed
>>>> mode on the AP or on the used laptop. Does this mean that:
>>>>
>>>> * My wife's laptop (bought last month) can revert back to 802.11b
>>> No, brand new laptops would come with 802.11g the newer, faster standard
>>> so I would guess this is what your wife's is. It is possible that out of
>>> the box your home access point defaults to just 802.11g.
>>>> * My older laptop (at least 2 years older but bought yesterday) can't
>>>> connect to 802.11b but (presumably) can connect to 802.11g (if that's
>>>> what they had in my office).
>>> No, the corporate WLANs you see will probably be configured to accept
>>> connections using either standard this is "mixed mode". From poking your
>>> laptop into google it looks very much like your wireless card is 802.11b
>>> unless it has been upgraded at some stage.
>>>
>>>
>>> 802.11b is the older wireless protocol that supports 11 Mbit/s
>>> 802.11g is the newer wireless protocol that supports 54 Mbit/s
>>>
>>> I would be very surprised if it was not possible to set the *access
>>> point* to allow connections using both protocols. At this point it might
>>> be helpful for you to tell us what the model of your access point is,
>>> maybe someone else here has one.
>>>
>>
>> It's a Belkin F5D6130. According to the sticker on the bottom of it,
>> it's 802.11b only.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Rob
>>
>>
>
> Is the laptop picking it up at all? Are you restricting access by MAC
> address in the access point?
>
> James
>

The laptop won't pick it up at all - no wireless network to connect to.
I'm not filtering by MAC address.
I've just borrowed a USB WLAN thingy off a mate and that's picking it up
fine in the same laptop. All things would point to it being the laptop's
onboard WLAN - if it hadn't picked up some WLANs at work yesterday.

Cheers
Rob