1

I have a very old (2003) equipment that has Aironet/Cisco 350 network adapter on board (no WPA/WPA2, only open/WEP authentication). I need to connect it with PC (Win 7/8/8.1) without external access point device (NO wi-fi router!). I did humongeous task to find a solution over the Web, and come to this situation:

  1. I know that Win7+ has hostednetwork "features", but that crap allows only WPA2 network security
  2. My wifi interface is TPLink WN-725N, so I downloaded TP-Link WiFi-Utility, it supports SoftAP mode, but only with WPA2/PSK.
  3. I've created ad-hoc profile without network security (open auth ) with tp-link utility, network is "connected", PC's interface got IP (192.168.23.1 - set by me), DHCP (e.g. tftpd64) server is up and running on this interface, Aironet350 is receiving signal - (full signal quality), but there is no transmittion - DHCP server is getting no requests - WHY ?

Please, give me some clues... Is it really impossible to create such connection in Win7+ Hardware is OK for sure - i've tested this connection in virtualized WinXP without any problems...

Thanks in advance.

Improve this question
4
  • Just connect the machine with Ethernet. Or pull the hard drive out of the antique and stick it in an old IDE-USB adapter. It's not like you're actually going to be using it for anything.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Feb 22, 2015 at 23:41
  • The "machine" is a data collector with barcode scanner. It is still useful, and there is no options like "connect to Ethernet" or pull anything out of it... It has to be on wi-fi, and communicating...
    – Gobol
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 5:29
  • No, it clearly is no longer useful. It does not work with modern wireless networks, for instance.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 11:54
  • It depends on which part of the world you're living in... For instance, there are areas of this planet, where such devices are very useful, because of its price... Anyway, the question was about posibilities, not about "usefullness"...
    – Gobol
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 15:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

Well, because no one knows (I seriously doubt that...) or would like to help me in this topic, I'd like to answer my own question (it takes only few hours of exercising window$ network)

Just to recall - target was to connect old WiFi device (without WPA/WPA2 caps) to Windows 7/8/8.1 host without router device.

Few statements:

  1. Obviously, you can't use Windows Hosted Networking feature - it supports only WPA2/AES encryption.
  2. Windows is a nasty environment for non-standard solutions. If something doesn't work at first glance, reboot... then reboot again... then shut down firewall, turn it again on, reboot again, reinstall wifi drivers... (if you did that and still not works - then yes, probably it wouldn't work... )
  3. Forget about infrastructure network mode - see 1), the only option left is ad-hoc network
  4. Apparently Windows 7+ allows you to use "artificial" network encryption modes like "OPEN" and "WEP"...

How to configure?

Open Network and Sharing Center, hit Set up new connection or network, choose Manual setup and then enter your desired profile name, SSID (network id seen by other clients), choose encryption level - here you can set Open or WEP encryption, set password/no password, enable persistent connection mode - even if there is no signal - connect to network, and close the wizard.

Problem is, that Windows7+ won't show you your freshly created profile in any list - if your adhoc network is not connected right now, you can try to use WiFi's manufacturer utility to enforce connection - this step is highly device-dependent, so you have to solve it on your own... (I'm using TP-Link wn725n usb-wifi adapters, and need to Connect manually to adhoc network in TP-Link Wireless Configuration Utility)

Remeber that you've to set static IP to this WiFi interface, because it has to be static :) (DHCP servers doesn't like to listen on dynamic interfaces, at all...) Now you can set up DHCP server (like OpenDHCPServer or TFTPD or anything you like - google for it), or you can omit this step and set all interfaces in your adhoc network to static IPs.

Now, you should be able to ping each other interface in the network. If you don't, then go to step 2, restart all devices connected to network, don't lose hope right now :)

It is really annoying that someone thinks behind us, what we SHOULD or COULD do with "Operating System"...

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .