Author Topic: WifiState.exe  (Read 39209 times)

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #30 on: July 08, 2020, 01:55:13 am »
Quote
My card doesn't support WPA2. So, I guess xwlan isn't going to help in this instance right?

Wrong. XWLAN is the program that connects WiFi to the hot spot, whether it is an open hot spot (no security), or using one of the, so called, secure connections (WEM, WPA, or WPA2). The security level, that you need, depends on how the hot spot (your router) is configured, and capable of.  The suggestion that WPA2 may not work is valid (WPA may not work either), and that can happen even if the device does support WPA or WPA2. You probably don't want to actually use the device, if it won't connect at one of those two levels. This "security" has nothing, at all, to do with buying things on the internet. It is to prevent people from logging into your router, and using it (possibly to send SPAM, or PORN, to the world). Even WEP is so easy to bypass, that any high school kid can o it in about a minute.

We need to know, exactly, what the hardware is, to make intelligent suggestions. See my previous post. Please tell us what driver you are trying to use. Without all of that information, we can only guess at what you are trying to do, and there are a lot of possibilities.

Also, seriously consider getting, and using, an external WiFi adapter (that plugs into the wired LAN connector) for security reasons, as well as connection speed, unless you are doing this just for laughs. They are not very expensive, and will work a whole lot better than some antique PCMCIA card ever could. If you are doing this for laughs, READ every word in the documentation, at least three times, then ask questions about what you don't understand. There is no easy way to figure this out, and the solution may be completely different, for different hardware, and driver, combinations. It is also very likely that your hardware simply has no driver.

Ok, let me state again, I am using a Dell Inspiron 3200 laptop roughly 1998 vintage. I am using a PCMCIA wifi card, a Compaq WL 100. The driver I am using for it is genprism.2.0rc4. The card is active and recognized by the system. Using DHCP does not work, however, if I use manual mode with a static IP the card will successfully ping my Wifi router. It WILL NOT ping external URLs such as Google etc. This card is old, it does not support WPA/WPA2 which is what is used by my wifi router (Xfinity/Comcast).

For the PCMCIA bus driver I am using the dell.exe driver which I downloaded from the OS2Site repository. Sorry, I don't have any further info on the Card bus driver. It is equivalent roughly to the IBM PlayatWill driver.

Let me also state that I am not doing this for shits and giggles. I use the OS/2 system with my amateur radio set up and I take it seriously. I wanted a reliable os that I could depend on and that had DOS capability. I'm not doing this to pass the time or just to play around. Having internet access would be helpful for logging, QSLing etc. instead of having to transfer data over to my main system on a CD to log or to QSL from.

This laptop does NOT have a LAN or ethernet port, I suppose this could be remedied with a PCMCIA NIC card and then I could add the adapter you mentioned.

So, will XWLAN work or not? If not then I guess I need to start searching for the NIC pc card and the wifi adapter you mentioned.

Tell me directly what you want to know, or see, and I will do my best to get it for you. I'm not asking anybody to figure this out for me, I just need guidance and information, it's all I'm asking for. I know you didn't start out with something different from day one and know all the answers did you?


ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #31 on: July 08, 2020, 02:08:29 am »
Hi Carl,

Let us go back to basics.

1) do you have the disk that came with your Compaq PCMCIA card and if so does it have an OS/2 driver on it?
2) have you installed an OS/2 driver for that card?
3) if no driver for the card is installed then you have less chance of it working than a snowball has of surviving on the streets of hell.
4) to emphasise item 3) NO WORKING DRIVER = NO WORKING WiFI no matter what you try.
5) wireless cards of any type MUST have a working driver installed before they can work.
6) all the various programs others have mentioned work through the card driver - again no driver = no wireless.

That being said IF you have an OS/2 driver and it is installed then we can try and help you.  I have 15 PCMCIA wireless cards in my junk box because they are useless to me without OS/2 drivers even though I have a couple of antique notebooks that they fit (they did work with the version of windows that was on them because there were drivers for windows)

If you want to connect to your WiFi network then use a travel router as I suggested earlier and Doug reiterated.

Please read my previous posts and my reply to Doug. I have a driver, the card works, kinda, my problem is, I guess from what has been posted previously, the card does not support the encryption method used by my wifi router. Thus, it will not connect to the internet. I can ping the router, but I cannot ping external URLs such as Google etc.

All I was wanting to know is will installing XWLAN solve this problem? I have determined, basically and indirectly, that it will NOT.

And, I have asked this question on at least two posts, where does one enter their wifi password? there's nowhere to enter it in the TCP/IP set up. Is there a configuration file where this would be entered? Wouldn't this be necessary to connect to my router even if it's encryption method is not supported by my wifi card? No one has given me a direct answer to this question.

Doug Bissett

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #32 on: July 08, 2020, 02:51:33 am »
Quote
Did eCS use LCSS during installation?

No. It is a stand alone program. I have offered it to Arca Noae, but I think they want to avoid using any Config.sys sorter. Or, it may be that it cannot (in it's current form) be translated to other languages. I have started to look at that, but I am not sure how to approach the problem, yet. It is REXX, so the source is the program, if anybody wants to make suggestions.

ivan

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #33 on: July 08, 2020, 03:12:53 am »
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And, I have asked this question on at least two posts, where does one enter their wifi password? there's nowhere to enter it in the TCP/IP set up. Is there a configuration file where this would be entered? Wouldn't this be necessary to connect to my router even if it's encryption method is not supported by my wifi card? No one has given me a direct answer to this question.

Going back over my archives for the time when I was trying out PCMCIA cards the disks supplied with them had the driver and controller software.  It was the controller software that setup the parameters used by the card.  Since you don't appear to have that controller software you will either have to try and find it out on the net (Compaq used to have almost all of their equipment software available on an FTP server) since that is where you enter such things as passwords and other network information.

Sorry if I appeared rather hard in my last comment but I had just had a day of people complaining that their computer 'just stopped working' while not saying what they did (I've been retired for the last 5 years)

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #34 on: July 08, 2020, 03:21:39 am »
Quote
And, I have asked this question on at least two posts, where does one enter their wifi password? there's nowhere to enter it in the TCP/IP set up. Is there a configuration file where this would be entered? Wouldn't this be necessary to connect to my router even if it's encryption method is not supported by my wifi card? No one has given me a direct answer to this question.

Going back over my archives for the time when I was trying out PCMCIA cards the disks supplied with them had the driver and controller software.  It was the controller software that setup the parameters used by the card.  Since you don't appear to have that controller software you will either have to try and find it out on the net (Compaq used to have almost all of their equipment software available on an FTP server) since that is where you enter such things as passwords and other network information.

Sorry if I appeared rather hard in my last comment but I had just had a day of people complaining that their computer 'just stopped working' while not saying what they did (I've been retired for the last 5 years)

No worries Ivan, I understand where you're coming from.

As far as the software that goes with the card, I can look online for it, but I'm thinking that it probably didn't support OS/2, but being new to this who knows, I might get lucky.

Thank you for your help,

Carl

Dave Yeo

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #35 on: July 08, 2020, 04:17:36 am »
I think that XWLAN should allow you to connect with an unencyrpted WiFi connection as it will handle the DHCP and such.
Now whether it is a good idea to use unencrypted WiFi is your decision. I did it for a while but I live in the middle of nowhere and only had dial up, so so slow that no one would want to use it.

Doug Bissett

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #36 on: July 08, 2020, 04:28:02 am »
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Ok, let me state again, I am using a Dell Inspiron 3200 laptop roughly 1998 vintage. I am using a PCMCIA wifi card, a Compaq WL 100. The driver I am using for it is Ok, let me state again, I am using a Dell Inspiron 3200 laptop roughly 1998 vintage. I am using a PCMCIA wifi card, a Compaq WL 100. The driver I am using for it is genprism.2.0rc4. The card is active and recognized by the system. Using DHCP does not work, however, if I use manual mode with a static IP the card will successfully ping my Wifi router. It WILL NOT ping external URLs such as Google etc. This card is old, it does not support WPA/WPA2 which is what is used by my wifi router (Xfinity/Comcast).
. The card is active and recognized by the system. Using DHCP does not work, however, if I use manual mode with a static IP the card will successfully ping my Wifi router. It WILL NOT ping external URLs such as Google etc. This card is old, it does not support WPA/WPA2 which is what is used by my wifi router (Xfinity/Comcast).

Okay, now we are getting some information (still don't know, for sure, exactly what the device is). "genprism.2.0rc4" indicates that it is probably the only WiFi PCMCIA card that will work with OS/2, and that would be the (ancient) driver for it. I don't know if you would need XWLAN with it, or not (probably not, since that thing existed before XWLAN did). You will need to carefully read all of the information that is available, to see if it tells you how to actually use it. I will guarantee that it won't work with a router that is configured to use WPA, or WPA2. In fact, it may not even know about WEP, which means you would need to  set your router as an open access point (VERY risky). I would start there anyway, for a short period, because it will probably work. Don't leave it open, or somebody will eventually find it, and you never know what they might do.

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Using DHCP does not work, however, if I use manual mode with a static IP the card will successfully ping my Wifi router.

DHCP not working is no surprise. You probably need a fixed address, so it will exist before the driver is totally initialized. I am still surprised that you can ping your router, but that indicates that the card, and the driver, are working. Now, the problem is, that the router needs to be configured to accept the connection from the device. As I said above, set the router as an open access point (no security, if the router will actually allow that), and see if it works. If that works, try WEM security level. It might work, if you can figure out how to insert the SSID and password for it (see below). You DO NOT want to leave your router set at anything less than WPA (which that card will never use).

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This laptop does NOT have a LAN or ethernet port, I suppose this could be remedied with a PCMCIA NIC card and then I could add the adapter you mentioned.

Okay, that complicates things. To be honest, I doubt if a PCMCIA NIC card would work any better (and you need to make sure that you get one that is supported). It does remove the requirement for WiFi security, which should make it easier, and safer, to use (not to mention a lot faster).

FWIW, I have 3 PCMCIA NIC cards (actually CardBus cards), but the one that has a cable (3COM Meghertz 10/100 CardBus) doesn't work (I think it was fried at one time). The 3COM OfficeConnect 10/100 device does work, but the XJack connector is so flaky that it isn't usable (NOT a good design). The other one is an IBM 10/100 EtherJet. It loads a driver, but I have no way to connect it to the network (no cable), so I don't know if it actually works, or not. Any card that has a driver (and the hardware is still good) should work with a LAN cable, or a portable router setup.

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So, will XWLAN work or not?

I doubt it, but I could be wrong. XWLAN was originally meant to operate WiFi, using the GENMAC driver (probably newer than what you have). You need to find out how to enter the SSID and password that the driver needs to connect (you may have done that already, if PING actually works). It may be done as a parameter to the driver. If so it would likely (and I am guessing) be in the Network Protocol setup, or directly inserted into C:\IBMCOM\PROTOCOL.INI (if you can find out what the parameters are, it should be in the docs <which I don't have> somewhere, PROTOCOL.INI is a TEXT file). Even then, it will only work if the router is set to a security level that the device, and the driver, know about, and that would be a huge security risk (not to mention that other WiFi devices would need to use the same security level).

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And, I have asked this question on at least two posts, where does one enter their wifi password? there's nowhere to enter it in the TCP/IP set up. Is there a configuration file where this would be entered? Wouldn't this be necessary to connect to my router even if it's encryption method is not supported by my wifi card? No one has given me a direct answer to this question.

The problem is, that it is probably at least 30 years since anybody even looked at that kind of setup. As I mentioned above, it is probably in PROTOCOL.INI, which is configured by the MPTS (AKA Adapters and Protocols) program. If you are using ArcaOS, that has been replaced by the NAPS (Network Adapters and Protocols) program. I no longer have the older program, but in NAPS, you select the device, and click on the Parameters button. If that is the right place, it will probably be obvious. You may also find a file C:\IBMCOM\MACS\genprism.NIF (or something like that). DO NOT change that file, but it should contain some useful information about the driver setup.

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #37 on: July 08, 2020, 05:19:16 am »
I used to use that driver with an Ambicom 802.11b card. XWLAN ought to work.

Before XWLAN, I used to REXX scripts. I tried to attach them, but OS/2 World does not accept REXX scripts as attachments.

Code: [Select]
/* turn on the radio
 * This command activates the 802.11b interface
 *
 * The wireless NIC should be inserted in the PC Card slot
 */
wifiProg = "e:\programs\ambicom\wifistat.exe"
say "Activating the wireless network card"
'@ net stop messenger /y'
'@ net stop req /y'
'@ dhcpmon -t'
'@ ifconfig lan0 down'
'@ ifconfig lan0 delete'
'@ route -fh'
'@ arp -f'
'@ dhcpstrt -i lan1 -d 0'
'@ start' wifiProg
'@ start dhcpmon'
say "Wireless networking enabled"
return


Code: [Select]
/* turn off the radio
* This command deactivates the 802.11b interface
*/
say "Deactivating the wireless network card"
'@ go -k wifistat.exe'
'@ go -k dhcpmon.exe'
'@ dhcpmon -t'
'@ ifconfig lan1 down'
'@ ifconfig lan1 delete'
'@ route -fh'
'@ arp -f'
'@ dhcpstrt -i lan0 -d 10'
say "Cable networking enabled"
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ivan

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #38 on: July 08, 2020, 08:03:47 am »
Another thought I had this morning.  Do you know the IP address of the card?  If you do try using firefox with that address (eg. http://192.168.xxx.yyy , with xxx and yyy being specific to the card) in the address bar.  IF it allows you to connect to the card it might also allow you to get at the settings.

As Doug says it has been a long time since any of us have done much with PCMCIA cards.  For me it was 1992/1993 when I used a modem/fax card to connect to the outside world.

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #39 on: July 08, 2020, 07:48:16 pm »
Another thought I had this morning.  Do you know the IP address of the card?  If you do try using firefox with that address (eg. http://192.168.xxx.yyy , with xxx and yyy being specific to the card) in the address bar.  IF it allows you to connect to the card it might also allow you to get at the settings.

As Doug says it has been a long time since any of us have done much with PCMCIA cards.  For me it was 1992/1993 when I used a modem/fax card to connect to the outside world.

Thanks Ivan, I will give this a shot.

Dumb question though, the IP of the card would be listed under "localhost", is this correct? Or does the card have it's own hardwired IP address?

Sorry for the continuous dumb questions, but I guess this is how you learn.

Thanks,

Carl

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #40 on: July 08, 2020, 07:55:38 pm »
Okay, now we are getting some information (still don't know, for sure, exactly what the device is).

Hi Doug,

The card itself is a Compaq WL 100 PCMCIA  802.11b Wifi card. Probably dates from the late '90s.

« Last Edit: July 08, 2020, 07:57:26 pm by Carl Miller »

Tom

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #41 on: July 08, 2020, 11:58:22 pm »
Dumb question though, the IP of the card would be listed under "localhost", is this correct? Or does the card have it's own hardwired IP address?

Sorry for the continuous dumb questions, but I guess this is how you learn.

Thanks,

Carl

You can use ifconfig lan0 to see which IP-address was assigned to the card (and no: an IP-address is not hardwired into a card).

Have you already tried to use the setup.cmd I suggested to you?

ceemill

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #42 on: July 09, 2020, 01:06:23 am »
Dumb question though, the IP of the card would be listed under "localhost", is this correct? Or does the card have it's own hardwired IP address?

Sorry for the continuous dumb questions, but I guess this is how you learn.

Thanks,

Carl

You can use ifconfig lan0 to see which IP-address was assigned to the card (and no: an IP-address is not hardwired into a card).

Have you already tried to use the setup.cmd I suggested to you?

Hi Tom,

Sorry for the delay, got caught up trying other things. But, when I followed your instructions as far as setup.cmd, on boot up I got the standard DHCPSTRT could not get any information, paraphrasing here, will try in the background, Press Enter to Continue. It gives the fail dialog box after bootup and the desktop has loaded. DHCPMON does not get any server information no DDNS host name, no IP Address, no Lease. DHCPMON just sits there with the messages:

17:56:13 Sending DISCOVER message.
17:56:13 Number of options requested = 6.

and those repeat continuously.

Let me know if there's anything else to try, but I really think this is probably a lost cause. Even if it did have some success, without my wifi password it wouldn't get very far anyway.

Just wish there was a configuration file where this could be entered, like in Linux or BSD. If I recall correctly they use a file called wpa_supplicant.conf where that info is entered. Anything like that in OS/2?

Thanks again for your help and time,

Carl
« Last Edit: July 09, 2020, 01:08:05 am by Carl Miller »

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #43 on: July 09, 2020, 04:00:36 am »
The WPA_SUPPLICANT is part of XWLAN. And your card won't do WPA, so it won't work under Linux or Windows, either. I don't remember any PCCard with OS/2 drivers that will do WPA.

Maybe use a travel router with the built in ethernet?
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Doug Bissett

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Re: WifiState.exe
« Reply #44 on: July 09, 2020, 06:37:06 am »
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The card itself is a Compaq WL 100 PCMCIA  802.11b Wifi card. Probably dates from the late '90s.

That doesn't tell us, exactly, what it is. You need to quote the PCI ID (something like 1234:5678), which you can get by running the PCI.EXE program. It probably won't help, in this case, though.

Quote
Sorry for the delay, got caught up trying other things. But, when I followed your instructions as far as setup.cmd, on boot up I got the standard DHCPSTRT could not get any information, paraphrasing here, will try in the background, Press Enter to Continue. It gives the fail dialog box after bootup and the desktop has loaded. DHCPMON does not get any server information no DDNS host name, no IP Address, no Lease. DHCPMON just sits there with the messages:

I would suggest abandoning DHCP (don't use any part of it), and set a fixed address. You can't do both, or you will get weird messages. You do need to connect to the WiFi, before DHCP can get an address, and I doubt if you are connecting (I doubt if PING works either).

Quote
Maybe use a travel router with the built in ethernet?

That would be the easiest, and best answer, except he said there is no built in ethernet to attach it to.

Quote
Let me know if there's anything else to try, but I really think this is probably a lost cause. Even if it did have some success, without my wifi password it wouldn't get very far anyway.

Even if you do get it to connect (it may need an open access point, which would be extremely unsafe), it would also be very slow at "b" speed (11 Mbs, at best). Neil is probably giving you the best advice, because he had one, years ago. Unfortunately, it was a long time ago, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge.

It seems that you are trying to attach an unsecured device to a secured access point. That is strictly not allowed. If you open the WiFi security on your router, you should be able to connect, but you certainly do not want to leave it that way.

Did you look in the *.NIF file? it likely has something that may be useful.

Quote
17:56:13 Sending DISCOVER message.
17:56:13 Number of options requested = 6.

and those repeat continuously.

That is what happens when you try to get an IP address, and you haven't connected. You need to connect the WiFi before that stuff will work. You are effectively trying to get an address, but you haven't plugged in the cable.