[Solved] HP Pavilion DV9202 and Mepis.....anyone?

Hi,

No need to respond anymore, since I bought the HP Pavillion DV9055ea laptop.

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

Nice machine, Ko....

Do all peripherals work OK?

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Hi carlops,

Yes........in Windows XP-MCE......

I have not really tried it very much in Mepis:
beta5 installed, but for some reason did NOT have a proper root-password.
Installed beta5 twice. Will try beta5.1 later. beta4 installed fine).

FIRST I need to resolve another problem.
And that is changing my hardware layout.
Currently I have my router (wireless) on the first floor near my 2 PC's.
These are physically connected to the router).
These PC's work OK in that configuration.
However, my DV9055ea laptop DOWNSTAIRS does not pick up
the wireless signals from my wireless router upstairs.
It does pick them up allright on the first floor.
Apparently my 35 cm thick concrete floor effectively blocks any signal getting to ground level.
Of course, I would like to be able to use the wireless in my laptop downstairs.
And in the garden (enjoying a few beers sitting in the sun - in a couple of months..... )

So my first thought was to move the wireless router downstairs.
Then pull another utp cable to the first floor through the existing (plastic) hose.
That did not work; somewhere near the first floor outlet the utp-cable (plug has been cut off) gets completely stuck.
I tried Top-down and Bottom-up to get the cabling through.
No luck, there must be someting in the plastic pipe that blocks pulling another cable.

Now I am thinking of using 2 routers.
Use the wireless one (Netgear Rangemax) at groundlevel so I can use the laptop.
Then connect a simple E-tech router to it on the first floor.
Then I can connect my 2 PC's to the E-tech router.

I am not sure this setup could work at all as I will have to clone the mac address in the E-tech
(to reflect the mac of the Netgear router.
I used the Netgear to register with my provider UPC-Chello).

Any bright ideas on how to set up the Etech-router (basically 2 routers in series)?

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

I would not buy a second router but a wireless access point (preferably 54 Mbps since the signal is stronger).

The router upstairs would have to be configured as a bridge for the AP downstairs. No worries about MAC addresses, the whole setup would be one broadcast domain, and the router would take care of routing the different traffic streams.

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, but wouldn't I have the same problem with 'insufficient signal' downstairs then, just like I have now?
My Netgear Rangemax VPN824v2 is a Mimo device (108 Mbps). It already has 7 internal antennae...
I don't need to buy the Etech as I already have it.
It is a 10/100 cable/adsl router with 4 LAN-ports) which I have had for over a year now. Never got around to actually use it.
So this 'second router' is already covered, but a Netgear Rangemax WAP costs something like 150 Euros now.
I really would like to be sure that such a WAP will work OK before I shell out the additional Euro 150. (= won't have the same problem with the thick concrete floor...)

Just go easy on me here. I'm a complete noob regarding setting up a network, wireless or otherwise....

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

Yeah, the range could be an issue. I would think that if the wireless device was immediately below the access point (or router) that the signal would be strong enough. Have you tried using the laptop in different spots?

If it does not work wherever you put it, chances are slim that an AP will pick up the signal.

I am not sure if you can use the wireless router. It should either be able to route a different subnet via wireless, or it should be able to act as a repeater for the main router.

If it can route a different subnet, the upstairs router also should be able to do that. I very much doubt if these devices can do that, but you need to check the manual. The main problem is that most SOHO devices will probably be able to route between wireless and fixed, but not between wireless-wireless.

Easiest thing to do would probably be to have a UTP cable

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

Sure it is. I got plenty of those....! But I have not given up on adding a utp-cable 'through the pipe' yet.

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros

I found out that relocating my wireless router a bit higher on a bookshelf,
instead of on top of the casing of a desktop PC) AND following up on the advice from Netgear to:
let the router stand up straight (as opposed to being flat on its back) when in the neighbourhood of metallic surfaces,
actually gave some signal from the router downstairs.

I set up wireless on Mepis and updated the Mepis32 6.x beta4 on it using the wireless connection.
Everything worked out OK (except that signal strength is still rather poor).

One happy customer......

Regards, Ko

Ko Bros