SpeedTouch 780WL Wireless Showing Red Light

[jimbokb]

I have only had Broadband for 2 days so its all very new to me.
I Have SpeedTouch 780WL Wireless Router which is showing a Red Light a Red Light at the WLAN, I feel sure this red light is showing a problem but I don't know what the problem is

There are two computers running of the router one from the Router & one from a Wireless Usb adaptor.

Both computers are connecting to the Internet but the wireless Usb one seems to be quicker than the one connected directly to the router via a Usb 2 port connection, my connection is showing as 12 Mbps is this good or bad.

Window XP Pro 2 Gig Ram Geforce 6600 pci

[Snurfen]

Welcome to CTH jim
According to the manual, a solid red at the WLAN shows no wireless activity and a blinking one shows wireless activity - no encryption.
Which is yours doing? Blinking or solid?

[jimbokb]

Is Showing Solid at this time, the other computer is off at the moment.
Are you saying this red light is no showing a problem ?

I did try and look in that manual but its all over the place.

[Snurfen]

Well it could be telling you that either you don't have the correct setting on your router or one or both of your pc's aren't connecting.

Have you gone through the setup on the router again? it may well be worth resetting to factory defaults and starting from scratch, seeing as you've only been up and running on it for a few days.

[jimbokb]

To be honest I'm scared to touch the dam thing, the other computer is running Windows 98 First Edition (My Flat mates) & it was a real pig to get it to find the router in the first place, I'm not even sure how I did it.

Don't get me wrong, both computers are connecting to the net I am just concerned that they should have a higher connection speed.

I do thank you for your help though

[Snurfen]

OK, well as both of them are running ok, it must be the security it is bleating about.

First off, loook at section 1.2.1 (page 15 of 132). This is telling you how to get access to the menu via the hardwired pc.

The next thing to get your head around, is first, you want to control what pc's can connect to your wireless router, and secondly, if you want to encrypt the data flying betwen the USB stick and the router, so it doesn't get sniffed.

Next look at sect 2.3.3 (p 33 onwards).

1. Personalise your setting - give the SSID name as something a neighbour or casual observer wouldnt guess (Like JimFlat6 for example!).
2. Also "clear BROADCAST NETWORK NAME" as suggested.
3. In the ACL section, I'd suggest "Allowed (via registration)" - the follow up sections supply the correct steps on how to do it.
4. For the encryption, I prefer the WPA-PSK method.

Thank heavens the Wi98 machine is the directly connected one, as you don't need to go through all the jiggery-pokery of allowing access and encryption, cos it's hard wired to the router.

Give it a bash and let us know how you get on. Read the manual sections I've listed above, and throw some questions up here so you get it straight in your head. May take a few reads for it to make sense!

[jimbokb]

Many thanks for you help, It was a security problem with the router & the wireless unit. Somehow I managed to disable the security on both. I have sorted that out now & used WPA-PS encryption as you suggested.

All green lights now.


Just as a matter of interest when I was searching for my other wireless connection I found 4 other connections which I assume belong to my neighbours, which ones I don't know, does this mean their security is off ?

Still don't understand why XP Machine is showing 12 Mbps & Win 98 Machine is Showing 54 Mbps

Cheers

[Snurfen]

Glad your going ok!

Not necessarily accesible, just they haven't chosen to hide their SSID - some crappy wireless cards won't work if you hide your own (for example, Medion laptops are often a problem).

Is the USB stick a proper 802.11G as opposed to .11B ? The directly connected 98 machine is going to show full speed, seeing as it's going via copper as opposed to over the wireless link.
Could be a prob with the actual ariel on the router, but to be honest, USB wireless adaptors are usually the least effective method of connecting to a router - internal cards or PCMCIA cards are usually much better.