I spent many hours trying to connect my new E60 to my WEP-protected (128 bits) WIFI home network based on an Airport Extreme Base Station and 2 Airport Express range extenders.
After many hours, it works very well for web access and email. The configuration of the Access Point is made in Menu> Tools> Settings> Connection> Access Points>, and the key issues to not are:
- Data bearer: Wireless LAN
- Network status: Public (my network broadcasts its name)
- WLAN netw. mode: Infrastructure
- WLAN security mode: WEP
- WLAN security sett.:
- WEP key in use: #1
- Authentication type: Open
- WEP key settings:
- WEP encryption: 128 bits
- WEP key format: hexadecimal (IT DOES NOT WORK WITH ASCII)
- WEP key: the 13 character hexadecimal equivalent of the ASCII WEP key established for the base station. You find it by opening the AirPort Admin Utility, opening the Base Station and looking under the Base Station menu item "Equivalent Network Password".
And it simply works well!
Hope this helps other people.
Jose
I have an Airport Express card inside my iMac. Internet sharing is configured to allow the Ethernet connection to be shared by wireless. Works fine for my Palm and PowerBook but the E61 won't connect.
I see no way of finding the 'hex' version of the password from Internet Sharing. Can you suggest another way?
marky
markrich wrote:I have an Airport Express card inside my iMac. Internet sharing is configured to allow the Ethernet connection to be shared by wireless. Works fine for my Palm and PowerBook but the E61 won't connect.I see no way of finding the 'hex' version of the password from Internet Sharing. Can you suggest another way?
marky
Take a look at this thread on macosxhints.com. It should answer your question. Basically, follow the first part ('Mac settings'😉 and use the password you generated using those steps on the E61. This will generate a hex-encoded password for you.
I can't test it as my phone hasn't arrived yet but it should work in theory.
Bear in mind that WEP encryption of any kind is very weak - if you have any way of sourcing a proper WiFi AP (such as an AirPort Express) or a Linux or Windows box which will re-share its connection using WPA2 or suchlike, do so.
Hope this helps.
Yes I tried this. And no it doesn't work. 😞
What has Nokia done to this WiFi connecton? Grrrr....
Out of curiosity I tried it without a password. This didn't work either. No firewall, no password and yet it still fails to connect. Any other wireless box is fine. This is definetly wrong. As an IT Consultant I have more experience here than most and yet this is driving me crazy 😞
Mark,
When you activate Internet Sharing, you must define in that control panel the sharing way by Airport, by opening the button "Airport Options..." and configuring the WEP or whatever protection level you decide to use. You must then create a new access point in your E61 corresponding to that wireless access granted by your computer. Then you fire up the browser in the E61 and you should have an internet connection.
Jose
Hi Jose!
I think the problem is in the WiFi stack in the E61 phone.
I have had a working wireless WEP setup with my iMac for 2 years now. 128bit (13 character password - ascii) I have a SUSE Linux machine from Dell connected from the living room, an older G3 iMac connected as a file-server, a PowerBook connected from the garden, a Sony CLIE and a Palm Lifedrive connected and my friend is happy connecting his Dell AXIM when he arrives in order to drag down his email. All works fine. I know my way around the Internet Sharing function.
The problem seems to be with the way the phone connects. It finds the network and then times out trying to connect. I have never known anything so foolish before.
However at a local Internet cafe with wireless hubs I am able to connect. The cafe also uses Macs but with Airport Base Stations.
Something is missing, either on the phone or on the way Internet Sharing is offered. I have tried with a 5 character password and 40 bit but the phone only has 64bit or 128bit so I have to use the later option for WEP access. Tried without a password, as I mention, and still no joy. That is the craziest situation of it all. If the password is the cause removing it should identify this but the connection is still not made. I have tried using the ASCII to HEX convertor and applying a password with '$' at the start but one cannot get 13 character passwords with this method and all the variations so far tried fail too.
Perhaps I am missing something bloody obvious somewhere?
Marky
Hi Mark,
From my experience: always use (1) either an open wifi connection, without any protection, or (2) a 128 bit WEP wifi protected network but entering the password in hex format AND WITHOUT any $ in front, to be sure you have the right 13 characters.
I will try internet sharing as soon as I get an Ethernet-based internet access... since I cannot try it when my internet access is airport-based, as it is now.
Made it work! Yes!
One thing you said made me think about the hex password. A 13 character ASCII password will always be a 26 character Hex one. So I changed my Internet Sharing password to be $<26 characters> and the OS accepted this.
Then I edited the Access Point on the phone.
- Data bearer: Wireless LAN
- Network status: Public
- WLAN netw. mode: Infrastructure
- WLAN security mode: WEP
- WLAN security sett.:
- WEP key in use: #1
- Authentication type: Shared
- WEP key settings:
- WEP encryption: 128 bits
- WEP key format: Hexadecimal
- WEP key: <26 character hex password>
I tried to connect with this but the phone just reported 'connecting' and got nowhere. So I decided to edit the IP settings and enter a fixed address by pressing OPTIONS and ADVANCED SETTINGS. Select the IPV4 SETTINGS option and entered the following to match that provided by the Internet Sharing.
- Phone IP address: 10.0.2.5
- Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
- Default gateway: 10.0.2.1
I left the DNS address on automatic and tried to connect but this did not work. While a connection was made to the Internet and email could be downloaded I found I could not get to any web addresses therefore redited this section and entered
- Primary DNS address: 10.0.2.1
- Secondary DNS address: 194.117.157.4 (being one of the DNS servers of my ISP).
Tried again and it worked. Web browser works. Email works. Handy Weather works, Widsets works.
I am very much on a high now. Struggled for more than a week to do this. I have to say Nokia didn't make this easy. Wireless access points seem to be fine but reshared Internet made me think. The lack of support for ASCII passwords didn't help nor the absence of 40bit encryption to fall back on and try.
Hope this is helpful for others. If anyone knows how to make the thing work with DHCP rather than fixed IP address then would be greatful to know, but at least I have it working now.
Incidently unless you are very trusting I would not leave your Internet connection open for anyone to use in the UK. Remember any dodgy sites accessed and flagged on the police computers will be traced to your public IP address. Better to be safe than sorry.
I am happy that you made it to work. I had noticed that something funny was going on with the hex passwords, as I could onle make it work reliably in that way.
Now have great fun!
Best,
Jose
PS: I have not been able to get reliable VOIP service with the E61, although I managed it to register ok with the voiptalk.org service. Any inputs from other people using voip over wifi with the E61 would be appreciated. Thanks.
The hex problem may be Apple's fault rather than Nokia/Symbian's. It's a 50%-50% problem between them afterall.
Going to try with Gizmo or SIPgate for that a little later. Will let you know how I get on.
Marky
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