Author Topic: WifiState.exe  (Read 39224 times)

Doug Bissett

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #60 on: July 11, 2020, 09:10:27 am »
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my main system, windows 10, wifi connected it shows an ip address of 10.0.0.232 for the router, am I missing something here?

The router can use any address that it wants. You should look in the router settings, to see what it really is (it may be 10.0.0.232. If it is, you cannot use that same address on any other box on the network). Your PING is definitely recognized by the WiFi adapter, not the router. What fixed address did you assign? If it was the same as the router, you need to make it unique on the network.

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #61 on: July 11, 2020, 04:57:31 pm »
Here's what was happening, I was pinging my other laptop, my Windows 10 machine. If I read the results of ifconfig from that machine correctly, the ip of my wifi router is 10.0.0.1, the Default Gateway, is this correct??? The ip of the windows box is 10.0.0.232, so I was actually pinging it instead of the router. My mistake.

But it does show that my ancient wifi card is working no?

So, Doug and Andi, you were right,  you must be connected to the wifi system to ping the router.

I have learned something here anyway, even with a mistake.

My apologies to Doug and Andi, you were right and I was wrong because when I try to ping 10.0.0.1 it fails.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2020, 04:59:05 pm by Carl Miller »

Dave Yeo

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #62 on: July 11, 2020, 05:52:05 pm »
Hi Carl, the results of your running netstat -a imply that somehow you have also set your laptops adapter to use 10.0.0.232, which of course will result in all kinds of problems having 2 machines on the net with the same address.
Need to start over.
Does your laptop have a led or such that lights up when the radio is turned on? My T42 has one above the keyboard.
You should look at the scripts that Neil posted earlier. They're written in Rexx, OS/2's (and most IBM OSes) native scripting language, saved with a cmd suffix. They should turn the radio on and off. Guess you'd have to type them in, use e.exe for an editor.

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #63 on: July 11, 2020, 06:06:17 pm »
Hi Carl, the results of your running netstat -a imply that somehow you have also set your laptops adapter to use 10.0.0.232, which of course will result in all kinds of problems having 2 machines on the net with the same address.
Need to start over.
Does your laptop have a led or such that lights up when the radio is turned on? My T42 has one above the keyboard.
You should look at the scripts that Neil posted earlier. They're written in Rexx, OS/2's (and most IBM OSes) native scripting language, saved with a cmd suffix. They should turn the radio on and off. Guess you'd have to type them in, use e.exe for an editor.

That's possible Dave, not being very familiar with how the wifi set up works.

My wifi card has a little green led that comes on after the driver is loaded on boot up. It is generally always on when the laptop is on, usually just to test wifi settings and try to learn about the os.

I saw Neil's scripts, but wasn't very familiar with how they should be used, thanks for clearing that up for me.

I will boot it up and clear out the settings today, thanks for the advice.

ivan

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #64 on: July 11, 2020, 07:15:51 pm »
Hi Carl,

Now I know you are using win 10 may I recommend that you download the Netscan utility from https://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/ it runs on win 10 and is free but will only display up to 10 devices (the old version was totally free no matter how many devices on the network).  You will need to know the IP your network is on but you should be able to get that from your router manual.

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #65 on: July 15, 2020, 08:32:32 pm »
Hi All,

I've decided to take the recommendation from many of you and go with the travel router. However, I will need an ethernet pcmcia card since my ancient laptop does not have an ethernet port.

Would someone recommend a card to me (preferably one that's still available, on eBay possibly) along with the driver, and where I can download said driver?

Please keep in mind that my laptop is 1998 vintage and I am running OS/2 4.52, cards and drivers for eCS or ArcaOS may or may not work, y'all would know more about that than me.

I will probably need advice on how to set TCP/IP / NetBIOS etc. for ethernet in OS/2. 

I want to thank everyone who chimed in to help with the wifi card and set up. I have learned a lot and I appreciate everyone's help with that. I now realize that my old card will never connect with a modern, WPA2 encrypted wifi system and I am not willing to reset my wifi security just to get on the net every now and then with an outdated system.

Doug Bissett

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #66 on: July 15, 2020, 10:31:34 pm »
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I've decided to take the recommendation from many of you and go with the travel router. However, I will need an ethernet pcmcia card since my ancient laptop does not have an ethernet port.

Would someone recommend a card to me (preferably one that's still available, on eBay possibly) along with the driver, and where I can download said driver?

Please keep in mind that my laptop is 1998 vintage and I am running OS/2 4.52, cards and drivers for eCS or ArcaOS may or may not work, y'all would know more about that than me.

It would probably be easier, and possibly even cheaper, to find a newer computer. Look for an IBM ThinkPad T42, or T43. Ask your friends, a lot of people have something stored somewhere, taking up room, that they would like to get rid of. Chances are, that it would have a WiFi built in, as well as an ethernet port. Watch prices, a lot of used computers do not have disk drives.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #67 on: July 16, 2020, 04:23:11 am »
It was a long time ago, but I think the 3com PCMCIA had OS/2 drivers. I'm sorry I can't remember the model number.
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Dave Yeo

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #68 on: July 16, 2020, 05:51:49 am »
Seems to me that most network cards had OS/2 drivers back in '98. Also eCS and ArcaOS are both built on 4.52 and basically compatible. At that Arca Noae supports their drivers on Warp v4+fp15 (4.5) and newer excepting things like the kernel due to licensing. OS/2 hasn't changed much since Warp V4 + all free updates.
I'll add that I've been quite happy with my T42, wireless works fine even though not supporting the highest speeds and Firefox, once it starts (takes a while to load), runs fine.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 05:54:08 am by Dave Yeo »

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #69 on: July 16, 2020, 06:58:55 am »

It would probably be easier, and possibly even cheaper, to find a newer computer. Look for an IBM ThinkPad T42, or T43. Ask your friends, a lot of people have something stored somewhere, taking up room, that they would like to get rid of. Chances are, that it would have a WiFi built in, as well as an ethernet port. Watch prices, a lot of used computers do not have disk drives.

Thank you Doug, but I am quite happy with my Dell, I find it quite adequate for what I want to do in spite of it's age, even though it doesn't measure up to post 1998 standards. If I never get it to even sniff an internet connection I think I'll hold on to it, if for nothing else then for nostalgia's sake, even though the 90's are probably not anyone's idea of a nostalgic time. At least not for me.

Apologies to anyone who long wistfully for the age of the 90's.

You see, I came of age in the 80's, I graduated high school in '83, I served in the Marine Corps in the 80's, I was married in '87. If I had came of age a decade later, then my old Dell would be the holy grail of computers. But in my time, It was Commodore 64's and TI 99/4a's, really not of much use now, even though I have a TI99/4a set up of my own.

Anyone want to buy a TI99/4A set up?

 ;D

« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 07:13:27 am by Carl Miller »

Doug Bissett

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #70 on: July 16, 2020, 08:18:12 pm »
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Thank you Doug, but I am quite happy with my Dell, I find it quite adequate for what I want to do in spite of it's age, even though it doesn't measure up to post 1998 standards. If I never get it to even sniff an internet connection I think I'll hold on to it, if for nothing else then for nostalgia's sake, even though the 90's are probably not anyone's idea of a nostalgic time. At least not for me.

Obviously, it is not adequate for what you want to do, or you wouldn't have the problem of trying to make it do something that it is probably not capable of doing. I have a similar vintage IBM ThinkPad A22e. It works. I have installed ArcaOS on it, but it is not usable any more. It is a museum piece, nothing more. Nostalgia has nothing to do with it. I replaced it with the IBM ThinkPad T43, which is still usable, but I wouldn't want to use it all of the time. I now use a Lenovo ThinkPad T410, and a Lenovo ThinkPad L530, in addition to a few desktop machines.

I also still have an original IBM Personal Computer (the one with 16K memory chips on the motherboard, 64K memory chips came later). It still worked, about 15 years ago, but it isn't even worth the power to turn it on. It is just a museum piece.

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It was a long time ago, but I think the 3com PCMCIA had OS/2 drivers. I'm sorry I can't remember the model number.

It has been a few years since I tried to get a PCMCIA network card to work. I did get a 3Com OfficeConnect 10/100 model 3CXSH572BT (with X-Jack) to work, but the T43 has a better (1Gb) built in network adapter, that does a much better job. The A22e also has PCMCIA, but it has a better Intel NIC too. I do remember that getting the card to be recognized by the PCMCIA driver, wasn't much of a problem. Finding a driver was difficult. There may be something at: https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/?path=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fsystem%2Fdrivers%2Fnetwork. Then the biggest problem was trying to get a cable to stay connected to the X-Jack. Any movement, at all, would break the connection. I also got a 3Com Megahertz model CCFE575BT to load a driver (no idea which one), but I have no cable for it, so I don't know if it actually worked.

So, as suggested, 3Com is probably your best bet, but finding one could be difficult (you may find one in somebodies junk drawer, but cables tend to wander off, never to be seen again). Then, there is no guarantee that you will actually find a driver that will work.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #71 on: July 17, 2020, 05:41:14 am »
I looked in my list of old OS/2 drivers. It looks like I was using a 3cxe589et PCCard network interface. I used it for a second interface while using a Thinkpad T21 and Injoy Firewall. It ought to work.
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