""Ian."" <ian.freedomnet@spamwonderland.yuk> wrote in message
news:20070617.2142.25767snz@spamwonderland.yuk...
> SM> ""Ian."" <ian.freedomnet@spamwonderland.yuk> wrote in message
>
> SM> > I have a Toshiba P1 laptop here with Windows 95 and a Belkin PCMCIA
> SM> > Wifi NIC. Ive successfully connected to my home network including
> SM> > enabling it as and internet sharing client. The internet sharing
> SM> > host is a P11 desktop running Win98SE. I have Opera on the laptop
> SM> > but no IE.
> SM> >
>
> stuart_miller@shaw.ca "Stuart Miller" wrote:
>
> SM> Something does not make sense here.
> SM> wireless support is not built into win95 or early win98. According to
> all I
> SM> have read, you must upgrade to win98se in order to use wireless on the
> SM> client machine. I had to do this on my laptop, and it was quite a
> headache.
> SM> There are no pcmcia cards that I know of that list support for win95
> or
> SM> early win98. Just about all list win98se and newer versions, but some
> are
> SM> xp/vista only
>
> Hello Stuart, thanks for your reply. The wifi card Im using is a Belkin
> F506020G. It installed ok on Win95 and thats the first version of Win95.
> Its just a plain PCMCIA card not a CARDBUS type. CARDBUS cards dont fit
> in my laptop so I dont know about them but Id guess you'd be hard pressed
> to find one of those that worked with Win95. Theres confusing information
> knocking about but I think you need win98se at least as the machine
> connected to the internet that shares its connection with other machines
> but win95 or win98 is ok as a client. Thats what I have here.
> Presumably, youve been successful at connecting your win98se wifi laptop
> to your home network but have you got it working with a hotspot?
>

I used the laptop ( compaq presario 1245, purchased in early 2000 ) only at
home with the wireless router. The battery would not hold a charge, and I
could not see buying a new one. Before I could take the machine somewhere
that had a plug in, the monitor cable quit working. I purchased a new
machine right away, as there were so many problems with vista that I decided
to get a unit with XP on it. So, quick answer is, never tried.


> SM> what exactly is your home network condiguration?
>
> Well, thats a big question ;) Which bit ?
> I have a wireless access point connected to an ethernet hub and I
> administer that from the Win98se machine. Theres an ordinary NIC in
> the machine wired to the hub. Theres also another three machines
> wired in. I can access the files on any of these machines from
> the wifi laptop and vice-versa. 802.11B BTW not G.
>
> SM> how does you host machine access the internet?
> SM> can you connect at home using a wireless router? this is certainly
> preferred
> SM> over using windoze connection sharing
>
> Yup, everything I read suggests that you're right about the router but
> at the moment Im accessing the internet via dialup. Theres a modem
> connected to the Win98SE machine. Not fast and inefficent when accessed
> via the client Laptop, but usable. I dont have broadband yet.
>
> SM> > I now want to use it to access the Wifi connection at my local
> SM> > library but Im hitting a problem. The NIC appears to be linking
> SM> > OK to the library access point using the SSID supplied by the staff
> SM> > there. Im pretty sure I had a good connection. Trouble is, thats
> SM> > as far as I could get. The library staff were no further help,
> SM> > they only know about Win2000 and XP.
> SM>
> SM> what is your signal strength at the library?
>
> good; about 80%
>
> SM> what ip address/gateway is assigned by the library?
> SM> what happens when you ping the gateway assigned above?
>
> Good point. I should try to find this out from the library staff
> if I can find someone who understands what a gateway is.
>

You don't need them. Just look up your connection details. XP and 98 do it
differently, as I recall you right click on 'network neighborhood' and look
around, or do /start/run/winipcfg
try it from home first



> SM> what happens when you ping an established site like yahoo.com?
>
> pinging ftp.demon.co.uk has worked for me before but I will try
> another next time and also try pinging a raw ip address, just in
> case, DNS is a problem.

good idea. Ping the sites from home and record the ip addresses, then try
them from the library
you can manually enter a dns server, e-mail me and I can give you a list of
some.
remember that many servers are set not to respond to ping
>
> SM> are you using windoze or the card utilities to manage connections?
>
> Theres only one card utility, the Belkin configuration program. Thats
> what I use. Its where one enters the SSID, see the signal strength,
> switches off WEP etc.
>
> SM> > My understanding is that I should see some sort of login screen
> SM> > when I start up my browser, Opera. I think this is supposed to
> SM> > replace the "Home page" of the browser. I dont understand the
> SM> > mechanism involved in this and its not happening. Opera just
> SM> > times out looking. Ive tried pinging ftp.demon.co.uk, just to
> SM> > test the connection but its not recogised. I dont know whether
> SM> > this is a Win95 problem, an Opera problem or what.
> SM>
> SM> sometimes ftp sites do not respond to ping
> SM>
> SM> >
> SM> > Any advise on solving this would be appreciated. Ive be looking
> SM> > around on the web for leads but so far have found none.
> SM>
> SM> good luck - I gave up on this and upgraded.
>
> The Laptop couldnt handle 98SE.
that's what they told me - but it was just a matter of finding the drivers
for the video and the touchpad.
My copy of 98se was oem, so it would not upgrade, but it did a clean install
just fine

> The thing I really dont understand
> is how the hotspot login page comes to be seen in the browser. Is
> it some sort of pop up?
>

Last week I was travelling, and tried a few wireless hotspots. The hotel
across the street advertised wireless, and their signal was recognized. I
could connect to it just fine. When I opened IE or firefox it brought up a
hotel page which asked me for the access code, which of course I did not
have. It was working as a 'redirect' , it took me to the wireless service
providers page for the login, and I could look around at the providers
advertising, but could not get 'out' without the code.

I don't know how the public, open hotspots do that - I have never tried one

Stuart