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Connecting Buffalo NAS wirelessly

I've just got a 'Buffalo LinkStation' and a 'Belkin F5D7132 Wireless G Universal Range Extender' to add to my network.

The existing network consists of a '3Com OfficeConnect ADSL Wireless 11g Firewall Router 3CRWE754G72-A' which connects to my Windows computer using Cat 5 and to my laptop and PDA using the wireless connection. This basic network, with MAC address filtering and 64-bit WEP encryption, works fine over both the Cat 5 and wireless.

I have got the LinkStation plugged into the Belkin with the supplied Cat

5 cable and have got the Belkin set up as a what Belkin describe as a 'Wireless Range Extender'. I've given both the Buffalo and the Belkin fixed IP addresses (192.168.1.12 and 192.168.1.15). Set up like this I can connect to the Buffalo wirelessly and transfer files. I have added MAC address filtering to the Belkin and the 3Com and, again, can transfer files wirelessly.

However, once I add 64-bit WEP encryption (only 64-bit WEP as my PDA has nothing stronger) to the 3Com and Belkin they fail to connect and the Belkin's red 'Searching' LED flashes continuously.

After all that, can anyone explain (in nice easy words please) what I need to do to add 64-bit WEP encryption back into the network please?

TIA

Reply to
F
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Just in case it's relevant, that should have been 'Windows Vista Home Premium computer' and 'Windows XP Home laptop'

Reply to
F

Try using the hex value for the key (my pda converts ascii different than my laptop, so I just use the hex representation now), and for now, turn off the mac address filter (you didn't say if you added the pda's mac adress too, just the belkin and 3com)

Reply to
Peter Pan

Done that but access still fails.

I've entered the MAC address of anything and everything I've got into both the Belkin and 3Com, but I can try turning it off when I get back to it later.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Reply to
F

Just out of curiosity, have you tried turning off the range extender? as long as you are doing the wep turn off, can you try that too? (PS does the PDA access the original wap's ssid or the range extenders? (some range extenders work sort of funny, for debugging I just play george jetson and turn everything off, and then turn things back on one by one till they fail)

Another oddity, while I have the stuff set for a longer wep phrase (6 ascii characters in the wap/router), mine only looks like it only actually takes 5 characters/10 Hex Charcters... On my wap/router i put in 6 characters for a wep key, but on the PDA I only have 5 (10 as hex stuff) Maybe the PDA in actuality only supports 40 bit? (my ipaq and dell only did that)... As an aside, I forget which pda you said you had, but there are programs ut there that support WPA (I used to do that until I added Tivo's that only support WEP, so I had to dial it back)

Reply to
Peter Pan

Turned the Belkin off and set the encryption on the 3Com. Plugged a Cat

5 cable into the Belkin and turned it on. Set the encryption and my PDA will connect through it. Remove the Cat 5 cable and the connection is lost. It looks like the PDA will connect wirelessly to the Belkin and then onto the 3Com through the cable. Remove the cable and it seems that the Belkin and 3Com won't connect using wireless. So it would appear that the encryption between 3Com and Belkin fails, although PDA to 3Com and PDA to Belkin works using the same 64-bit WEP hex.

The laptop, on the other hand, will connect to the Belkin with encryption enabled (well it says 'Connected' the 'Choose a wireless network' screen) but there's no connection through the 3Com router to the rest of the network with or without the Cat 5 cable connected to the Belkin.

I think my mention of the PDA might have introduced some confusion here. It's the connection between the 3Com router and the Belkin range extender that fails when I set up the encryption. However, the PDA does connect wirelessly through the Belkin as long as the 64-bit WEP is off.

Thanks, I'll have a look at that once I get the 3Com/Belkin connection sorted. The hex that I have used to try to connect the 3Com router and Belkin is 10 characters long and works between the 3Com, the laptop and the PDA. The Belkin setup screen also needs 10 characters so I suspect the problem isn't there.

I thought 'they' had made wireless setup easy!

Reply to
F

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