What about Wireless Ethernet?

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What about Wireless Ethernet?
Christopher Brooks, 11 Dec 2000
Last updated: 21 Nov 2005

The UC Berkeley EECS Department is using Lucent Wavelan II Gold PCMCIA cards to provide 11Mb wireless ethernet in Cory Hall.

Links

ISDG Wireless ethernet policy

IDSG Wireless ethernet procedure page

Orinoco Website

Wavelan Orinoco RG-1000 Residential Gateway (~$379)

The basic idea is that for $360, you get the use of a PCMCIA ethernet card. The connection is encrypted, the department must type in a password to enable your card.

Wireless Procedure

Get approval for the cost and get an account fund number
Fill out the form at http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/idsg/forms/activate-wireless.html
Affiliation
The group name you are associated with, for example the login of your PI (eal etc.)
Technical Point of contact
The email address of your technical person, either yourself or CUSG if you have a CUSG contract.
System Serial Number (or UC Property Number)
The UC Property number is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop
System Operating System Type(s) (include version)
Windows 2000
SystemName
Use your NetBIOS machine name, which is returned by running ipconfig /all at a bash prompt and reading the Host Name value, for example:
```
bash-2.05$ ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : EDALAP03
        Primary DNS Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : eecs.berkeley.edu
```
Use Host Name, which in this case is EDALAP03
Follow the instructions at \ IDSG Wireless ethernet procedure page which includes the steps below:
Download the drivers by copying
\\ntsww.cs.berkeley.edu\sww\wireless\Win2k to a temporary directory on your local machine and run setup. The reason to copy the driver directory is that IDSG will use that directory to update the firmware.
OR
Download the software from the manufacturer:
1. Goto http://www.orinocowireless.com and select Software
2. Under Select a Product, select Client Products
3. Under Select an Operating System, select Win2000
4. Hit the Search button
5. Download the Client software. As of 8/01, this was called Client Software - ORiNOCO Rel 7.2 for Windows 2000 - Fall 2001 release. - 9/8/2001 and was 8.2Mb in size
6. Optionally, you can update the firmware on the card by downloading the Firmware Update
Goto 395/399 Cory or 321/331 Soda and get the card and have it enabled.
If necessary, change your outgoing email server to smtp.eecs.berkeley.edu. This address will work for any machine on a network inside the eecs (and maybe cs) domain(s).

Home wireless access points

D-Link 713P

In 9/01, we purchased several D-Link di713P wireless routers for about $220 each. It has NAT, DHCP, a firewall, a print server (Windows only), and 3 10/100baseT ports. The "P" is important. There's also a "DI-713" which is older and not as cool. (See also The GSRC DSL FAQ )

To configure the D-Link 713P, most users will go to http://192.168.0.1/
The password should be admin.
Some users may have their networks configured differently, so an alternative is http://10.0.0.1

Most users will have Dynamic Addresses, so they will be using "PPP over Ethernet"

Setup -> Renew IP Forever should be checked

If you have a printer on your local network, then you may want to assign the printer a fixed IP address so that you can easily connect to the printer at the same address.
To assign a fixed IP address, do DHCP -> Fixed Mapping

Enable MAC Address Control
Selection Connection Control
Add the MAC address of your printer and select the C Column

To set up wireless, go to the Wireless page and

Network ID(SSID): A short name, for example MYNET
Channel: The default is channel 1, you may want to pick another channel.
Security: Enable IEEE 128 bit Shared Key security WEP KeyEnableIDSetting
WEP Key: A hexadecimal key of your choosing.

Then reboot the router.

Under XP, you may need to enter the same WEP key into your laptop with Start -> Network Connections -> Wireless Network Connections -> Properties -> Wireless Networks. Then add the Network ID (SSID) you chose above.

Data Encryption (WEP enabled): checked
Network Authenticatoin (Shared mode): checked
Network Key: Enter the WEP Key from above
Key format: Hexadecimal digits
Key length: 104 bits (26 digits) - I don't know why this is 104 bits instead of 128 bits as above?
Key index (advanced): 0
The key is provided for me automatically: not checked

Then hit OK

3Com

Steve Neuendorffer writes:

I did a little bit more research. It looks like there is a consortium, WECA, that has implemented some 802.11b compatibility testing: http://www.wi-fi.org/
There is a list of certified manufacturers on the website. The wireless access points in the $200 range don't appear to be certified, but at around $250 (on buy.com) you can get the 3Com access point which is certified compatible.
For about $300, you can jump up to a broadband router/access point from 3Com that also does NAT, VPN, DHCP and firewall filtering and has a small ethernet hub in it: you can connect a broadband modem to the wired devices and wireless without any extra equipment. That's what I went for... I'll keep you guys informed of how it works.

Debugging Wireless Connectivity Issues

If you are having problems with connectivity from a specific location in Cory or Soda Hall, then send email to networks at eecs and dopsysadmin at eecs
In your email, be sure to state which wireless access point base station you are connecting to and the mac address of the wireless card you are using.

Using Windows XP to determine the access point you are connecting to

You can provide the MAC address of your local Access Point by going to the Control Panel and selecting High Rate Wireless LAN Settings. Copy the Associated MAC address from the State information line.

Using the ORiNOCO Client Manager to determine the Access Point you are connecting to

The ORiNOCO Client Manager has a couple of features that will help characterize wireless connectivity issues. To start the Client Manger, either right click on the bar graph in the right side of the start bar, or run Start-Programs-ORiNOCO-Client Manager.

Link Test-Test partner: In Cory Hall, the wireless access points are name corywirelessFloorNumberCompassDirection
so corewireless3sw is located on the 3rd floor in the south west corner of the building.
Link Test-Test Results: Usually the SNR should be at least 10dB
The number of packets received and sent and the speed (11, 5.5, 2, 1)will give you an idea of the quality of your connection.
Link Test-Test History: Changing the Type of display to Signal/Noise on a one minute time scale will show connectivity drops as broken lines. This also give you feedback about signal strength as you move around.

Things to try:

See if anyone else is having similar problems in the room.

Run the Client Mangager and try adjusting where and how you sit to maximize the signal.

Note things like packet speed: After running for a minute, what is the percentage distribution of packets between 11Mb, 5.5Mb, 2.2Mb and 1 Mb?

What access point are you connecting with? If you move to a different location in the building, is the connectivity better?

Try to get a different channel by noting the channel number, going to Advanced->Card Diagnostics->Test Card Now-> Cancel and then seeing if the channel changed.

See what other access points are in your vicinity by going to Advanced->Site Monitor

Follow the Download the software from the manufacturer instructions above and install new client software and update the firmware. It appears that it is not necessary to uninstall the drivers or client manager.

Mac wireless

The Orinoco cards have MacOS8 and 9 drivers.

The Dlink 713P will work with PC and Mac, though the printer software does not work under Mac, see: http://www.dlink.com/products/broadband/di713p/

The Apple AirPort card ($99) should work with other base stations. The D-link support web page seems to indicate that the Apple AirPort card will work with at least one of their products, see http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=435

The Apple AirPort Base is $279

Orinoco Gold card under MacOs 8.6

The Orinoco website has drivers for MacOS 8 and 9.

However, when we clicked on the installer, we got CfgOpenTpt--OTCfgEncrypt could not be found

The Descent game page says:

"cfgopentpt" error: Some users have been reporting that the demo will not run unless you have the "Network Setup Extension" installed on your computer. This extension seems to be part of MacOS 8.5 or higher, so if you have 8.1 or lower, you might want to wait on downloading the demo until a solution is found. We are currently investigating this issue and will post more results here later.

iBook-AirPort-MacFixIt has some notes about CfgOpenTpt

Installing and Configuring Wireless Networking for Mac OS says that the drivers for the Orinoco card are included in Mac OS 9.0.4.

The TSW Wireless page is a good source of info.

ftp://ftp.orinocowireless.com/pub/software/ORiNOCO/PC_Card/MacOS/ includes an older driver (MacOS_63.bin) that does at least installs under MacOS8.6 and runs without encryption.