PB 1400 no connection

[MacUp72]

at the moment I'm trying to get my 1400 somehow connected to the internet under OS 9.1 but no success. I have three WLAN cards just for getting any connection, a Cisco Aironet 350, a Enterasys RoamAbout DS CSIBD-AA-128 and a iWavePort WL11A. The RoamAbout is actually a rebranded Orinoco, it shows up as 3rd party gold Card.. the WL11A is also listed here as compatible, it is also Orinoco based.
I had success with the Cisco in a wallstreet without any problems and could connect, but didnt work in the 1400, so from now on only the two Orinoco based cards:

I tried many Orinoco drivers that are available and used MacTCPWatcher to ping and test any network activity. I use an older Airport Express router LAN wired to my actual O2 DSL router. as a reference, I used this exact setup 6 months ago with another 1400 I had at the time together with an original Orinoco Gold I had at the time (from memory I just set it up manually and then it worked).

The WL11 card also lights up, I also can see a strong signal in the Orinoco control field ( when I start it from apple control fields, but when I click on the Orinoco control strip symbol the system freezes.

the setup now:
I setup the Airport Express as a new network with WEP password ( did work with the old setup), I can see the Pv4 adress and router adress, router modus off ( bridge modus), it is LAN hardwired to the O2 router. I rechecked it in the actual O2 router with the browser and I correctly can see LAn or WLAN connections. The Airport Express is shown there as LAN, to test this I connect with my MacBook Pro to it via WLAN and it works ( I can switch between my WAP2 and the new WAP (W)LAN).

I then use only the RoamAbout card as this seems the most stable, I installed the latest Orinoco driver 7.2. as this gets me the most results up to now.
I also used the only available RoamAbout driver but it didnt show up correctly ( just as Ethernet, not WLAN ) and I didnt get any network scanning.

with the Orinoco 7.2 driver the RoamAbout card shows a steady green light ( the led next to me) after boot, it shows up on the desktop as Orinoco, and Orinoco shows up under TCP/IP, no freezes on the control strip. on Orinoco setup, I can see not open networks : Current network-scanning-, no signal strength

TCPWatcher reports it has no DNS ( host name does not exist)
Maybe it really is still just a wrong TCP/IP setting that prevents it from working

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

I did this many years ago with my PB1400cs under 7.6. I haven’t taken it online in many years, but the machine still has the WaveLAN control panel (version 6.00.4) and extensions installed on it. Extensions Manager says the package is “WaveLAN Wireless Network Card” if that helps.

As I recall, WEP was the way to go, as the newer WPA or WPA2 are not supported.

I might have the original software installer I used backed up somewhere, but I’d have to dig to find it.

I wish I could remember more, but it was so long ago.

 

[greystash]

The Aironet is great but it won't work, the drivers don't support pre-G3 systems. I have a guide I wrote somewhere about setting up WiFi for the 1400 but don't have it handy at the moment. Here are some things I remember:

• Try adding '0x' at the beginning of the wifi password (if you get to that point)
• Make sure your card is on the same subnet mask as your router
• TCP/IP can be weird on classic Mac OS, unless the access point is available at boot time you often need to perform a network request to trigger assignment of an IP address/a connection being made. This can be done by trying to load a page within a web browser.
• Make sure the Apple Talk and TCP/IP control panels are both using the wifi network adapter
• Try setting up TCP/IP manually with the router IP address, subnet mask etc. and you could try setting up a static IP for your machine
• If you're running OS9 you could try the Airport control strip/panel as I'm pretty sure the Airport cards are very similar to the Orinoco golds. I think there may have also been an installer for OS8?

I've never had any issues with the Orinoco Silver/Gold cards so have stuck with them. I'll try find the guide I wrote when I get time.

 

[MacUp72]

Jedi,
been there, tried all those under OS 9.1 and the WaveLan ones under 8.6 ..

Greystash,
when I tried the Aironet 350 with my PDQ, it was recognized immediately after install and first reboot. It recognized all networks.
I tried all your 6 points, none of my three cards now is detecting any networks at all, with MacTCPWatcher I dont get a DNS.
I guess they just are not fully compatible.
Yesterday I tried to get a pc-to-pc connection to my PB 12" G4 via WLAN but no. I thought that the RoamAbout card was the sure shot, but even with its original drivers, no network detection, not even a green light ( just with the latest Orinoco 7.1 I get a steady green light, but still no network is detected). I only had success with an orinoco gold with the 1400. case closed..

thanks guys, lesson learned.

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

Jedi,
been there, tried all those under OS 9.1 and the WaveLan ones under 8.6 ..

Been too long since I had that fully set up, but figured I would offer whatever info I could. At the least, my info would tell you that it worked for someone else under an earlier OS.

I remember reading how it was picky about which laptop cards would work, but I lucked out and happened to have one that worked fine. I’ve unfortunately since mixed it back into the pile of other laptop Wi-Fi cards, so I can’t give specifics of the card beyond it being somewhere in that pile!

I knew certain desktop wireless cards would work with Airport drivers, but wasn’t sure if that also applied to laptop cards, or in what versions of the OS.

I’ll have to find the card that worked in the PB1400 (and label it as such), then try the rest in my PDQ PowerBook (once I get that pesky power port fixed up) to see if I can find one that works in OS9 or 10.2 with Airport drivers (and label that one as well).

More for the growing list of things I’ll hopefully get to one of these days!

 

[MacUp72]

.. At the least, my info would tell you that it worked for someone else under an earlier OS.
..
I knew certain desktop wireless cards would work with Airport drivers, but wasn’t sure if that also applied to laptop cards, or in what versions of the OS.
..
I’ll have to find the card that worked in the PB1400 (and label it as such), then try the rest in my PDQ PowerBook (once I get that pesky power port fixed up) to see if I can find one that works in OS9 or 10.2 with Airport drivers (and label that one as well).

well I was referring specifically to the three WIFI cards I have now with my 1400cs, the Cisco Aironet 350, a Enterasys RoamAbout DS CSIBD-AA-128 and the iWavePort WL11A. I didn´t try an original Airport card or an original Orinoco gold I had some months ago.

There is a reason why the Orinoco Gold works without any problems with the 1400's hardware.
Maybe the fact that my 1400 doesnt have a serial number any more is causing the DNS/ IP/ TCP problems.

On Macintoshgarden I read the Enterasys RoamAbout works well under 8 and 9.. It again depends on what machine.

for your PDQ, I know that the Cisco with encryption ( good software) works, because I installed it in my PDQ and that under Os9 AND OsX Tiger!
(A common Siemens Gigaset Pc Card 54 ( cheap on ebay) also work well under Os X as Airport Extreme out of the box.)
These machines just are a little more modern, for mSata SSD, WIFI, PC Cards, RAM etc.