ethernet via PC Card (general)

ethernet via wireless PC Card

Wired & wireless ethernet and modem compatibility list

ethernet via IR

Internet via a desktop computer

What about sharing folders with Windows?

Connecting to the internet using a mobile phone

ethernet via PC Card

It is possible to set up an ethernet connection using the original netBook OS (build 156) plus the alpa-release ethernet drivers, or better, upgrade your netBook to the latest OS (build 450), which includes final release versions of the ethernet drivers.

To set up an ethernet config, use the 'Ethernet' control panel icon. First of all the, you must select the correct 'Device' when creating an Ethernet control panel entry. Refer to the (W)LAN compatibility list to see which driver to select (the chipset column).

There are two ways to configure TCP/IP addressing information; either manually or via DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol). If you are using only a hub to connect your LAN together, you will have to use manual configuration; if you have a 'cleverer' box, such as a router or gateway, then the chances are it will have a DHCP server built-in, and can supply all the addressing information your netBook will need.

• DHCP. If a DHCP server is available (a server that hands out IP addresses and other network config info to machines on the LAN), all you will need to do is select 'DHCP' as the Configuration method.
• manual. The minimum information you will need is an IP address for your machine and the subnet mask to use. If the LAN is further connected to the broader internet, you will also need the address of the default gateway (the piece of equipment that actually connects to the internet, which could be a PC or a router), and at least one DNS address (DNS - domain name servers - are the servers that convert a web site address into a TCP/IP address). The remaining config items are optional. Go here if you need a quick refresher about private LAN IP addressing.

Once you have entered the configuration information, you will need to perform a low-level test of your connection. To do this, download FLFinger. This program can perform a 'ping', which is the simplest form of contact you can make to another computer on a LAN. Choose the IP address or domain name of a different machine on your LAN, start a Ping, and the 'Connect to Internet' dialog should appear. Select the ethernet configuration that you set up in Control Panel, and wait for the results (N.B. You should now see the lights on the connector 'dongle' working - the Link light should be on, and the Data light should flicker). If you get a string of OKs, you know that you have successfully made a TCP/IP connection; any further problems you experience beyond this will be to do with the configuration of the software you are using that uses the TCP/IP connection you have made. If your ping does not work, then you have a problem. If the lights on the dongle do not illuminate, then a serious problem with support for your card is suggested - I can only suggest contacting Psion support to see if your card is supported. If you do get lights on the dongle, then re-check your configuration information (or enter manual config instead of DHCP).

For those who like to know what goes where, the IP information obtained via DHCP is stored in C:\System\Temp\DHCPLease.txt. Also, it is possible to set up a 'hosts' file (C:\System\Data\hosts for the format do a search on your PC for a file called 'hosts') , to map domain names to the IP addresses of local machines, and thus prevent your internet connection dialling up needlessly.

ethernet via wireless PC Card

(thanks to _JJ_ at the PDAStreet forums for some of this info)

As a starter, the list of compatible PC cards listed in my (W)LAN compatibility list will tell you the first line in what card to get for the Psion - this is the biggest limitation, since the current OS supports only two wireless chipsets. The other part of the equation is a wireless access point - the other end of your wireless network link. This will plug into the ADSL or cable modem so as to connect your wireless LAN to the broader internet.

In theory, any wireless access point that supports 802.11b WiFi should work with any netBook-supported PC Card. There are several types of wireless access point, however. In the situation where you have no wired networking kit at present, the simplest type to get is a 'home gateway'. This will share the broadband internet connection amongst all computers within range of its aerials. If you already have a wired ethernet LAN, then 'wireless bridge' devices are available that you can plug into your existing wired ethernet hub.

I have divided this howto guide into three sections:

How to configure my PC Card?

Initial Tests

Security Issues

How to configure my PC Card?

I have only used Lucent-type cards. These use the '802_11 Lucent' setting in the ethernet control panel. I suggest that you 'copy' this setting, so as to make your own based on its defaults, name your new copy and hit the 'Edit' button. The wireless-specific settings are on the 'Service' tab and within the 'Options' button on that page. Here is what I have learnt about what the settings mean and what you should set them to:

• Name - simply the name for this set of settings. It will appear in the 'Connect to Internet' dialog.
• Configuration method - either DHCP or manual. See the section above about ethernet in general to choose which to use.
• Hostname - not compulsory. You might want to set it to 'netBook' so as to identify it when configuring the wireless access point.
• Device - refer to the (W)LAN compatibility list to see which driver to use for your card.

Tap the 'Options' button. If you're using the Cisco driver, the only option you'll get is SSID, which must match the value you've set on your access point. The Lucent driver has a ton more options, to whit:

• WaveLAN network name - This is equivalent to 'SSID'. This parameter is the name of your wireless network. I have discovered that it is not compulsory, since the netBook will simply pick up whatever wireless network it can find. That said, some access points can be configured to only accept connections from wireless clients that already know the SSID.
• Peer to Peer mode - this is dead handy. It allows you to connect two wireless client devices directly to eachother, with no need for an access point. When using this mode, both devices must have the same WaveLAN network name. It is known not to work at all with some chipsets.
• AP density - I'm not certain, but I think this refers to the number of access points you have in the vicinity, and consequently the power threshold to use when searching for an access point. For us lowly home users, having only one access point, this is best set to 'low', although I'm guessing more power will be used, so perhaps worth experimenting with.
• Transmit rate - allows you to choose the base transmit rate the wireless connection will use. Works fine with Lucent cards, but with Intersil the best transmit rate I've actually achieved (whatever this is set to) is 4Mbps.
• Fixed - this sets whether the transmit rate is fixed to whatever you set it to or is allowed to ramp to meet the network conditions (i.e. a slower rate if the signal is poor). With an Intersil card, unchecked I get 2Mbps, checked I get 4Mbps. Go figure..
• Medium reservation - this sets the RTS/CTS frame length, i.e. the number of octets in a message above which a handshake will occur, in a range 0 to 2347. The default is 2347 which equates to disabling RTS/CTS.
• Card power management - checking this will lower your bandwidth noticeably, but will save battery power. Wireless cards use a fair amount of juice, so this might be worth using.
• Receive all multicasts - setting this option will make the card wake up when multicasts (packets sent to all nodes on the network) are sent. I'm not sure when these are important, but this option only comes into play if you start using power management so have a play and see..
• Maximum sleep duration - once again, raising the value in this box will save power, but may begin to make your connection a little flaky.
• Enable Encryption - this page is where you set up WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). What it does is encrypt the data being sent between the card and the access point, so as (in theory) to make a wireless connection 'equivalently as private' as a wired ethernet connection. In truth, WEP is easy to defeat with the appropriate software, and so should not be relied upon if security is paramount. Worse, it degrades the performance of your connection by anything up to 50%, and simply does not work with some chipsets!

Right! Now you're ready for some...

Initial Tests

Once you have configured the card, attempt a Ping as described in the last paragraph of my general ethernet guide. The first sign that things are working is that the light(s) on your wireless card will start to flicker (if they do not, then you have chosen the wrong driver or your card is simply not supported by your machine). Once you've initiated the ping, open NetstatRF, which you'll find on your extras bar. This will show you raw radio information about your wireless connection, and will at least tell you if the radio part is working, even if you fail to get a ping.

If you ping successfully, all is well and good, move onto the next section. If you do not get a ping, either your TCP/IP configuration is wrong at the netBook or access point end (go here for my quick TCP/IP refresher guide). If this is all correctly set up, all I can suggest is restarting your access point, or perhaps selecting channel 1 on the access point; one of these is what got it going for me.

Once you've made a connection, browsed your first web page, and grinned at how massively cool wireless ethernet really is, you're ready to improve your security.

If you've now got yourself a wireless ethernet network, and perhaps you've connected this to the broader internet via some sort of broadband connection, then I'm afraid you have opened up your computer systems to new forms of security risk. Virus protection alone will not protect your computers here on in!

The security issues relate to the broadband connection and to the wireless ethernet; I'll discuss them in turn.

Wireless Side

Now that you've got a wireless access point, you must keep in mind that you LAN is now accessible to all computers within range, not just those inside your house! If you do not want strangers either using your internet connection, or potentially spying on the data you send via your wireless connection, then you must take steps to protect your LAN.

MAC Filtering.
The very first and best thing you can do, if your wireless access point supports it, is to filter connections by MAC address. All network cards have a totally unique ID number called the MAC (Media Access Control) address. Somewhere in the config of your access point may well be the option to only allow connections from a editable list of MAC addresses. You are strongly advised to enable this feature, and add the MAC addresses of all your wireless ethernet cards. The address of the card will either be printed on the card itself, or can be obtained from the DHCP table elsewhere in your access point's configuration screens.

SSID restriction.
The second thing you can do to protect your network, once again only if your access point supports it, is to only accept connections from clients that have the same SSID as is set on the access point. This is not as good a security feature as MAC address filtering, but its better than nothing.

WEP.
Okay, so your network is now protected from being used by unauthorised clients. Your connection however remains open to 'sniffing'. In order to prevent a client within range from 'listening in' on the data you transmit to and from your access point, you must encryt that data in some way.

Wireless LANs have a feature built-in to support this, called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). This is easy to set up, but has a number of pitfalls:

• it uses a poor encryption algorithm, that is easily broken using appropriate software (AirSnort).
• it is poorly implemented in many wireless network cards, and can cause a degradation in speed of anything up to 50%.
• the netBook driver only supports WEP for cards that use the Lucent Hermes chipset. If you enable WEP when using a cards that has the (much more common) Intersil Prism II chipset, your connection will simply not work at all!
• 64 bit (AKA 40 bit) WEP is the only format guaranteed to work between kit from different manufacturers (i.e. PC card from one manufacturer, access point from another). I have used alphanumeric keys successfully with this level of WEP.

Broadband Side

When you move from a telephone line to a broadband connection, you no longer dial up when you wish to access the internet; your computer connects up as soon as it is switched on and boots up. This means that the computer connected to the ADSL or cable modem tends to keep the same IP address for much longer periods of time, and consequently the machine becomes a target for a new class of 'viruses' - so-called 'worms'. These pieces of code do not subvert the use of your computer away from you at all, their aim is not to damage your computer but simply to 'borrow' some of your computer's processing time to do their master's bidding. This could include being an unwitting participant in directed denial of sevice (DDOS) attacks (ping or ICMP floods). Other more recent types of intrusion include unexpected Windows Messaging pop-ups, and other tracking software that keeps an eye on your browsing behaviour, and then targets you with advertising for products that it considers might be of interest to you. Whether you want this to happen is a judgement call, but personally I consider the installation of software on my computer without my permission to be a brazen invasion of my privacy.

The solution is a so-called 'firewall', separating your local network of computers (your LAN), from the broader internet. The better class of home gateway tends to have a firewall built in. For the more technically-minded (and for those desirous of higher security and lower costs!), an alternative is a cheap old PC (even a 486 or Pentium I) with only 32Mb RAM or so, upon which you can install a GPL- licensed (and therefore free!) firewall product such as Smoothwall. I have this configuration and can vouch for its simplicity and solidity :o)

(W)LAN card compatibility matrix

First of all, here are the proven results of testing by netBook/7Book users. Please read the notes and text following the table; many more cards are supported than this list might suggest, conversely some cards are available in multiple configurations, not all of which are supported!

For MalayBook refer to the netBook column, and for 7Books (Series 7 modified with a netBook personality module) the OS number refers to the OS revision the machine was originally supplied with - this gives a rough guide to the amount of current the PCMCIA slot can supply.

Notes:

1 - early cards need hardware patch to stop occasional triple-beep reset.
2 - the aerial on these cards obscures the stylus hole.
3 - two chipsets used; only the older card works (picture here), using Intersil Prism II chipset. Newer chipset is Atmel ('Prism 2.5') and card will be marked 'V2'.
4 - check here and  here for more on power consumption.
5 - need to change modem setting 'Wait For Dialtone' to 'on' from the default of 'off'. Sometimes setting 'Modem Type' to 'fixed line' helps too.
6 - the Dacom modem is intermittent with the 751 release.
7 - WEP does not work with the Intersil Prism chipset; it only works with the reference Lucent Hermes chipset.
8 - NetGear MA401 must be an older model (check the FCC ID). Newer models use the unsupported Prism 2.5 chipset (FCC ID: PD5LMWP200).
9 - if your modem will not connect, try reducing the Speed in the control panel entry for this card to 57600.
10 - only the V.1 has the Intersil chipset and is supported. V.2 has Atmel chipset, its FCCID is different (K7SF5D6021) and is not supported.
11 - the 751 vintage 7Book is only just capable of supplying enough power; concurrent CF card access may cause a triple-beep reset.

Beyond the list above, here is information gathered from a variety of sources, that should help you to work out if a card not listed above will work or not. First of all, check this URL (http://www.bawia.org/cards.html). It provides the most concise explanation I've found of the chipsets out there that our machines support.

Another method (thanks be to Fladda from Psionplace forums) is to use the FCC's searchable database to find out more info about a given card via is FCC ID. Go to this address: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/oet/forms/reports/Search_Form.hts?form=Generic_Search, and (to quote Fladda's post), "Use the 'grantee code' search option. First three digits of the FCC ID number are the grantee code. So for the PD5LMWP100 the grantee code is PD5, this is a Chinese company called Delta who are the OEM for Netgear."

The Lucent chipset has been rebranded multiple times over the past couple of years, so the following list of card/chipset brands should also work:

• Orinoco
• Agere
• Proxim
• Avaya

The following list of cards was found by Fladda at this URL (http://resin.csoft.net/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=4&topic=wi). All use either Lucent's original chipset (Hermes) or Intersil's copy of the reference design (Prism II), and should therefore work. One thing lacking from this list is knowledge of whether each card is a PCCard (16-bit, supported by netBook/7Book) or CardBus (32-bit, not supported), so make sure you buy on a sale or return basis :

• Addtron AWP-100 Prism-II
• Agere Orinoco Hermes
• Cabletron RoamAbout Hermes
• Contec FLEXLAN/FX-DS110-PCC
• Corega PCC-11 Prism-II
• Corega PCCA-11 Prism-II
• Corega PCCB-11 Prism-II
• ELSA XI300 Prism-II
• EMTAC A2424i Prism-II
• I-O DATA WN-B11/PCM Prism-II
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 Prism-II
• Intersil Prism II Prism-II
• NANOSPEED ROOT-RZ2000 Prism-II
• NEC CMZ-RT-WP Prism-II
• NTT-ME 11Mbps Wireless LAN Prism-II
• Proxim RangeLAN-DS Prism-II
• Samsung MagicLAN SWL-2000N Prism-II
• TDK LAK-CD011WL Prism-II

I've also found this URL (http://consume.andylaurence.co.uk/cards.shtml) - this guy is compiling a similar list to mine, but is not Psion-specific. He does however list the chipset used, which is what we need to know; Hermes, Prism or Prism 2 are the ones that work for us. Same story as above though, the list does not differentiate between PC Card and CardBus, so proceed with caution.

Finally, there is the Linux Wireless LAN HowTo (http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/). As per the previous link, this is not Psion-specific (obviously!), but it does contain some excellent information about the various chipsets used on WiFi cards.

ethernet via IR

Claranet and Compex make IR-to-ethernet bridge devices. EPOC PDAs can talk ethernet via their IR port in one of two ways:

• netBook/Series 7 -In the 'Ethernet' control panel, select IrLAN as the 'device', and configure TCP/IP as described here. 
• all others (will also work for netBook/Series 7) - set up a modem with these settings (connect via IR, no INIT strings, no flow control, modem type fixed line) and a dummy ISP entry with these settings (direct connection, enable PPP extensions). Many thanks to Craig Chambers for filling me in with this information. See also his comments here at Eric Lindsay's EPOC site.

Internet via a desktop computer

Yes, it is possible to connect your EPOC PDA to your PC, and 'pass through' its connection to the internet (modem, broadband etc.). This requires installation of some (free) software on your PC, and some configuration of your Psion. There are several piece of software that support this, as follows (thanks to Michael Kintzios for some of these links) :

• MochaPPP - complete instructions can be found here. There is one known problem with this setup - for some reason Opera will not automatically open the connection to the PC. The workaround is either to open Email first, or install a program such as John McAleely's The Dialler, with which to explicitly open and close the connection yourself.
• Passthru32 - this is for dialup connection only, since it takes over the PC's modem.
• DS Link

Michael Kintzios has also supplied me with this link of his own for the PC RAS setup.

What about sharing folders with Windows?

Windows uses its own proprietary protocol for sharing access to files and folders, called CIFS (Common Internet File System. As if!) or more commonly, Microsoft Networking. AFAIK, nobody has yet written an MS Networking client for EPOC, so this form of file sharing is not possible.

An alternative that offers greater security, if slightly less utility, is to use FTPeither with the server on your PC and a client on the netBook, or vice versa:

• server on PC. Use one of the great freeware or shareware FTP server products that are out there (GuildFTPd, CesarFTP, Serv-U) and use an FTP client on the PDA - if you've got a netBook with the latest OS you'll find nFTP is preinstalled. If you go for this setup, you will need to use manual TCP/IP configuration for the PC, so as to be able to 'find' your PC on your LAN.
• server on PDA. There is a freeware FTP server for EPOC ER5, available here. Once installed and configured, you will need to set your PDA up to use manual TCP/IP addressing, for the same reason given above. Lastly, you'll need to obtain an FTP client for your PC.

Connecting to the internet using a mobile phone

This is a very big subject area - so big it deserves a FAQ all to itself. Fortunately there is one! Check out Mike McConnell's site for the best in EPOC mobile phone connectivity, plus much more besides.

As a starting point though, I will suggest these basic requirements:

• your phone must have a modem inside - not all do.
• your phone must have an IR port, or alternatively a serial data cable.
• your mobile account must be 'data enabled' - check with your provider about this.

Page last updated: February 27, 2005