Finished setting up a wireless network recently, and I must say the best way to describe the process would be "pleasantly taxing". Not being a computer guy myself, a lot of the instructions are written in Greek, but I somehow managed to fight my way through it and come out with a wireless network that can have all the basic security goodies turned on while still being able to share a printer and files. Here is our setup; if any of you happen to have the same one (or are thinking about the same one) and have questions, just let me know and I'll tell you what I learned from the process:
1) SBC/AT&T DSL with a Siemens SpeedStream 4100 modem
2) Laptop running Vista (Home Premium), wireless connection to the router
3) Desktop running XP (Home) wired to printer and router
4) Norton Internet Security 2007
5) Linksys WRT54GL wireless router
6) Something I'm forgetting that voids or at best complicates all the rest of this in some immeasurable manner
One of the most hilarious things was the fact that the Linksys router comes with a giant neon sign that instructs you to put the installation CD in your computer before you even so much as think about hooking up the router. There is even a sticker pasted over the ports on the back of the router that says this. In hindsight, of course, this is exactly what I shouldn't have done (I always seem to fall through the cracks with this kind of thing). Basically, I would consistently get a message that said: "error not message receiver!!" when trying to go through the PPPoE setup thing on the installation CD. In my understanding, the router was trying to store my name and password for me when all it needed to do was just handle everything automatically as the modem already contained that information (some explanations that make sense to me). What worked perfect for me (with the setup I have) is to have PPPoE on the modem (you set this on the modem configuration page... this is the default setting) and set the router to "Automatic Configuration – DHCP" (you set this on the router configuration page... this is the default setting). Basically, after I did a hard reset of the router (back to in-the-box configuration) and I got my computer connected to the internet through the usual method (wall---->modem---->computer) all I needed to do was plug the router in between the modem and computer and everything just miraculously worked. What took an entire day basically should have taken 30 seconds. I would feel bad about this, except tech support was absolutely no help (kept telling me to "power cycle" everything) and even the even the Linksys FAQ describes... in detail... the completely wrong procedure (for me). I followed this and all tech support advice to the letter and I have concluded that their instructions are completely and utterly incorrect... for me.
The only thing I changed on either of the configuration pages was to change the time zone on the router and connection type on the modem (I set it to "always attempt to connect"). Everything else was completely default. I was really steamed. They kept telling me it was my software firewall. My software firewall can run at full blast and everything internet-related works great. How do they explain that? Madness.
Anyway, after I got the desktop (wired) and laptop (wireless) connected to the internet, the next task was to get them to share a printer on the desktop. If you have my setup, this can be harder than it sounds. After I configured the firewall correctly and tweaked all the regular windows-related goodies (user account name and passwords on both computers seem to have a lot to do with this in my situation), it ended up that I still could not connect the laptop to my printer, even though we can share files and I could see the printer on the other computer. I kept getting a "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied" message. The solution, of course, is to do the complete opposite of what you would think is reasonable and not pick "add a network, wireless, or Bluetooth printer" but rather pick "add a local printer" when configuring the (Vista) laptop. Makes perfect sense doesn't it?
Oh, and one other thing I found out was that while the (XP) desktop (wired to the printer) has to be on for the (Vista) laptop to print (no big deal, expected), it takes 15 minutes (more like 10 for me) for the (Vista) laptop to recognize the (XP) desktop is turned on, and if you try and print before that time you will get an error message. Not a big deal in the end I suppose, but when you're troubleshooting everything initially and restarting both computers all the time, that piece of information would have been nice to know. It's actually contained in two sentences below figure 10: "If the shared folder is on a computer running Windows Vista that has network discovery enabled, it should appear in the Network window quickly. If the computer containing the shared folder is on a computer running Windows XP, it might take up to 15 minutes for the computer to appear in the Network window."
Blah. Enough of this junk. I’m just glad it finally works.
1) SBC/AT&T DSL with a Siemens SpeedStream 4100 modem
2) Laptop running Vista (Home Premium), wireless connection to the router
3) Desktop running XP (Home) wired to printer and router
4) Norton Internet Security 2007
5) Linksys WRT54GL wireless router
6) Something I'm forgetting that voids or at best complicates all the rest of this in some immeasurable manner
One of the most hilarious things was the fact that the Linksys router comes with a giant neon sign that instructs you to put the installation CD in your computer before you even so much as think about hooking up the router. There is even a sticker pasted over the ports on the back of the router that says this. In hindsight, of course, this is exactly what I shouldn't have done (I always seem to fall through the cracks with this kind of thing). Basically, I would consistently get a message that said: "error not message receiver!!" when trying to go through the PPPoE setup thing on the installation CD. In my understanding, the router was trying to store my name and password for me when all it needed to do was just handle everything automatically as the modem already contained that information (some explanations that make sense to me). What worked perfect for me (with the setup I have) is to have PPPoE on the modem (you set this on the modem configuration page... this is the default setting) and set the router to "Automatic Configuration – DHCP" (you set this on the router configuration page... this is the default setting). Basically, after I did a hard reset of the router (back to in-the-box configuration) and I got my computer connected to the internet through the usual method (wall---->modem---->computer) all I needed to do was plug the router in between the modem and computer and everything just miraculously worked. What took an entire day basically should have taken 30 seconds. I would feel bad about this, except tech support was absolutely no help (kept telling me to "power cycle" everything) and even the even the Linksys FAQ describes... in detail... the completely wrong procedure (for me). I followed this and all tech support advice to the letter and I have concluded that their instructions are completely and utterly incorrect... for me.
The only thing I changed on either of the configuration pages was to change the time zone on the router and connection type on the modem (I set it to "always attempt to connect"). Everything else was completely default. I was really steamed. They kept telling me it was my software firewall. My software firewall can run at full blast and everything internet-related works great. How do they explain that? Madness.
Anyway, after I got the desktop (wired) and laptop (wireless) connected to the internet, the next task was to get them to share a printer on the desktop. If you have my setup, this can be harder than it sounds. After I configured the firewall correctly and tweaked all the regular windows-related goodies (user account name and passwords on both computers seem to have a lot to do with this in my situation), it ended up that I still could not connect the laptop to my printer, even though we can share files and I could see the printer on the other computer. I kept getting a "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied" message. The solution, of course, is to do the complete opposite of what you would think is reasonable and not pick "add a network, wireless, or Bluetooth printer" but rather pick "add a local printer" when configuring the (Vista) laptop. Makes perfect sense doesn't it?
Oh, and one other thing I found out was that while the (XP) desktop (wired to the printer) has to be on for the (Vista) laptop to print (no big deal, expected), it takes 15 minutes (more like 10 for me) for the (Vista) laptop to recognize the (XP) desktop is turned on, and if you try and print before that time you will get an error message. Not a big deal in the end I suppose, but when you're troubleshooting everything initially and restarting both computers all the time, that piece of information would have been nice to know. It's actually contained in two sentences below figure 10: "If the shared folder is on a computer running Windows Vista that has network discovery enabled, it should appear in the Network window quickly. If the computer containing the shared folder is on a computer running Windows XP, it might take up to 15 minutes for the computer to appear in the Network window."
Blah. Enough of this junk. I’m just glad it finally works.
