Wet 11 Ad Hoc

Bought several of these for a community wireless project. They are reputed to work as peer to peer devices within an ad hoc network but we have been totally unable to get them to work in this way. One will "see" the other but the mac address reported is both spurious and random so there is no way to connect the two - the wlan light stays stubbornly off. Have spent almost two hours and a considerable sum of money on the Linksys help line to no avail.

Should have mentioned that the units are version 2 with the latest firmware.

Has anybody persuaded these units to work in ad hoc (peer to peer) mode or have I been sold a pup (pups).

TIA

Thanks for your reply :-

Each was set to a different IP in the same sub net. Each retained the default SSID i.e linksys Each ad hoc. Each on channel 6 (have tried 3 and 11 too) Tried with MAC cloning on and off.

The host machines were also in the same subnet but with different IPs.

Still no response. Should also mention that I have tried several different units and combinations of units.

Any more ideas?

TIA

Not true. The IP is used for configuration purposes only. They can all be the same, or all be in seperate subnets. WLAN will work regardles.

/Jan

This is true, but not a good network design, and I dont encourage it so I preach it

Sadly WLAN will not work at all

Tough luck.

How about the LAN-connection? Are the WETs properly connected? Is the green LAN-light on? How about personal firewalls on the PCs

/Jan

Agree with what both of you say, but as I mentioned in my first post the wet11s seem to be either broadcasting or picking up spurious MAC addresses so its hard to see how the can work in ad hoc mode. Or am I missing something?

Lan connection is ok. Personal firewalls deactivated. Don't think it can be a lan problem as they will work perfectly well in infrastructure mode using a Buffalo AirSytion as an AP. BTW the Buffalo was switched off during the tests in ad hoc mode.

Colin

Can you explain the spuriious Macs. Are they valid macs? What do you have these wet11s connected to?

The Macs above are actually BSSIDs, In infrastructure mode the BSSID is the MAC of the AP, In AD HOC it is a random generated value. So this is normal. It is a station looking for someone to connect to. Im not sure on all the details of how AD HOC works but at least you know this is normal and can go on to step X.

How many of these are you tryng to get to talk to each other> In AD HOC mode I beleive the max is 9.

Have you tried simplifying it to just a couple devices on a bench?

Are the ethernet adapters configed for half duplex? duplex? 10mbs or

They are certainly not in the range assigned to cisco/linksys nor any traceable manufacturer. They seem to vary with each site survey.

Examples are : 02:00:F7:A0:C7:86 02:00:F4:A5:01:89

etc.

The real Macs are in the Linksys range i.e. 00:0F:66:xx:xx:xx

Currently attaching them directly to the host m/cs. Have also tried attaching to hubs/switches.

Thanks for your input.

Airhead - just come in after an evening out. Will answer your questions tomorrow when I may be able to say something sensible. BSSID? new one on me - what is this exactly?

Thanks again for your help.

You are using straight thru cable right, not crossover, also the switch on the bridge is set for straight thru.

Jot down the exact config of each of the 2 WETs and post them... Something is screwy........ What operating systems are on the PCs? Do they have Firewalls?

Hi,

Brain roughly in gear again now.

I'm simply trying to connect two for the moment.

Where do I check the ethernet settings. I'm using bog standard NICs and would assume they are on auto detect

When I said my brain was in gear I'd still forgotten to engage it. I've now tried in 10 full 10 half and auto but no change.

Config as follows -

Firmware 2.08 March 03 2004

Mac 00:0F:66:C9:93:E8 00:0F:66:C9:93:E5 Device name WET11 WET111 Static IP 192.168.1.225 192.168.1.226 Sub Net 255.255.255.0 255.255.255.0 Gateway 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 (also tried IP of other WET and default settings) SSID linksys linksys Network Ad Hoc Ad Hoc Channel 6 6 (also tried 1, 3, 11 etc) WEP Disabled Disabled (also tried Enabled) Transmission Auto Auto (also tried 1) Authentication Open system Open system Cloning Disabled Disabled (also tried on)

Operating systems tried XP, Hp Home and W2K

Firewalls disabled on both m/cs

Thanks again for your input

More info - and its weird. Dug out two Buffalo WLI-USB-G54 (wireless clients) and set them up in ad hoc mode. Works perfectly. Add in a WET11 and do a site survey, I can see the Buffalos but not connect. Leave the WET11 in ad hoc mode and power up a Buffalo G54 access point with a completely different SSID. Guess what the linksys works. I've tried 3 differnt Linksys boxes and they all behave the same way.

Conclusion - these products are crap. I don't believe they operate in ad hoc mode at all.

See the "Jeff Lieberman Hey" thread.........

Got a partial solution from another forum. To make it work you need to use the "clone" mode but use the "spurious" mac address reported from site survey rather than the physical mac address. This enables you to connect two (and only two) of these boxes in ad hoc mode. Clearly they do not perform to spec. and creating an ad-hoc network of more than two pcs is NOT possible. These units were originally purchased for a community wireless solution. They have now been replaced with Osbridge XLs using the linksys kit purely as clients. We will not be purchasing Linksys gear again.

Thank you airhead for all your efforts