Configuring Wireless Linking for Windows XP
Click here for Windows Vista instructions.
Wireless linking is more complicated to install than serial cable
linking, but once set up is more convenient to use due to the lack of
wires. TypeWell automatically detects and uses a wireless link
when it's set up correctly. So the time you spend setting up the wireless correctly will pay off
in trouble-free operation later where time is short, when you need to transcribe.
Important! The TypeWell settings for wireless "take over" the wireless cards.
Once set up for TypeWell, you won't be able to use the wireless to connect to other computers, and even if your site provides wireless access to the Internet, you won't be able to access the Internet from a TypeWell computer.
The list below includes a link about how to use about use both the Internet and TypeWell wireless from the same computer.
Here are the sections in this document:
Here are relevant links in other documents:
How to access the Internet and TypeWell wireless at the same time.
How to have two or more Reader computers linked to a Transcriber.
Setting Up TypeWell Wireless
Follow these steps to set up your wireless for TypeWell.
| 1. | |
[TypeWell on both machines] Start with two Windows computers, each with a wireless-link-capable version
of TypeWell. Check whether your copy of TypeWell is wireless-capable by
pulling down the Link menu (or the Options menu if you don't have a Link menu).
If the menu has a Wireless entry, even if it's greyed out, and
even if it says it's disabled or not available, it means your software is
wireless-capable and you can continue. If your TypeWell software
does not have any kind of Wireless entry on this menu,
contact us for a solution.
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| 2. | |
[Find wireless hardware]
Make sure you can get to the wireless hardware settings on both machines. Find this by looking at the
Control Panel's Network Connections window. Under the LAN or High-Speed Internet section,
see if a wireless connection is listed. Look for a connection with the words wireless or Wi-Fi
or 802.11 in its title. You'll be using this again in step 6. For now, once you find it, go on to step 3.
- [Not plugged in?]
If your wireless is provided by a separate card that plugs into the
computer, make sure you plug that in now. The wireless entry
won't show up in the Network Connections window until you plug the card
in. Once you plug the card in you may need to close and re-open
the Network Connections window to see the change.
- [Turned off?]
If you don't have wireless listed, but you think the computer is
supposed to have wireless built-in, it may be that it's not turned
on. Look at the ports and switches around the base of the
computer, on the front under the keyboard, and the special little
buttons between the screen and the keyboard, to see if there's one
marked with a symbol that looks like a radio antenna or that has
concentric sound-wave sorts of cartoon lines emanating from it.
If you find it, make sure the accompanying switch is in the On
position.
- [No such hardware?]
If your computer does not have wireless hardware, then you need to
purchase some. For most computers you can do this by buying
either an 802.11b or an 802.11b/g wireless card that plugs into the
computer's card slot. Install the card according to the
manufacturer's directions, which can differ for every type of
card. Then go back to the start of step 2 to make sure you can
now see the wireless hardware.
Any
802.11b or 802.11b/g card will theoretically work; however, some
off-brand cards have reliability problems. Two name brand cards
are the Dell TrueMobile, and NetGear. These are reliable cards
that cost as little as $40 (check cnet.com). There are many other
fine choices; your tech would no doubt be delighted to recommend a
brand to you.
- [No Bluetooth]
These instructions are designed to help you get the most common type of
wireless working. This type is called 802.11b or 802.11g, also
know as Wi-Fi. Your computer may have a different type of
wireless called Bluetooth. The main thing to know about Bluetooth
is that it is incompatible with Wi-Fi. That means one computer
using Bluetooth cannot talk to another that's using Wi-Fi. We
recommend you get Wi-Fi on both. It's ok to have Bluetooth as
well, just don't use it for TypeWell.
A few
TypeWell sites do use Bluetooth successfully, but we don't recommend it
because the range of Bluetooth connections is so short that it may not
even be able to reach across a full classroom. Also, we have not
performed reliability tests with Bluetooth as we have with Wi-Fi, so we
can't help if you run into reliability problems.
|
| 3. | |
[Enable wireless]
Make sure the wireless hardware is enabled. Check this by looking
at the wireless entry in the Control Panel's Network Connections
window. Below the title of the connection it'll give the
status. If it says Connected, you're fine.
- [Disabled?] If the wireless entry in the Network Connections window says Disabled, then right-click on that entry, and choose Enable from the menu that pops up.
- [Not connected?] If the wireless entry in the Network Connections window says Disconnected or Not connected,
then make sure the antenna is turned on. Look at the ports and
switches around the base of the computer, on the front under the
keyboard, and the special little buttons between the screen and the
keyboard, to see if there's one marked with a symbol that looks like a
radio antenna or that has sound-wave sorts of lines emanating from
it. Make sure the switch is in the On position. Not every
computer has a switch like this.
Note: some computers (such as some Toshibas) have both this a dedicated wireless button somewhere on the case, and
an Fn- key for controlling wireless. On such computers you must
make sure the front-edge button is on. The Fn- key alone isn't
enough to connect the wireless.
If you can't find the switch, or if you find it and the connection remains Not connected after you turn it on, that's ok. Continue with the next step.
Once you change the setting of this switch, on some computers (such as
some Compaqs), you may need to restart Windows to make the computer
notice the change.
|
| 4. | |
[Manufacturer connection (optional)] This step is not necessary in setting up your TypeWell wireless,
but is valuable if you're having a lot of trouble getting wireless to
work, because it can prove whether the problem is that your wireless hardware is broken, or that it's
a settings problem. A good approach is to skip this step the first time, and come back to this only if
you can't get wireless working.
To do this step, you must have an internet wireless access point
available at your location. If other people near you are able to
access the internet wirelessly from their computers, that means there
is such an access point. Your goal is to connect both of your
computers to the internet just as they are doing. To make
this connection to the internet, follow the directions that came with
your wireless hardware. If other computers are able to wirelessly
connect to the Internet at your location but yours will not, call the
tech support department of the manufacturer of your wireless
hardware. They get hundreds of calls from users setting up their
specific brand of wireless hardware, and they are usually very good at
helping you past any problems with the basic card configuration.
|
| 5. | |
[Half way!]
At this point, you're half-way to having your TypeWell wireless configured.
The next few steps are all aspects of the Network
that your wireless will be connecting to. You may have
successfully connected to the Internet if you performed optional step 4
above. Now, you're going to connect your wireless to a special
TypeWell-only network. Once you do this, you will no longer be
able to use the wireless card to connect your computer to the
Internet. If you want to use both the Internet and TypeWell wireless from the same computer, read about sharing wireless.
|
| 6. | |
[Find where to set up a special Network]
6a.
To set up a special network, start by going to Network Connections in the Control Panel.
Look on the right, under the heading LAN or High-Speed Internet.
Find the entry for your wireless, which should have a title containing ether wireless or Wi-Fi or 802.11.
Right-click on it, and choose Properties from the menu.
This will bring up the Properties window for your wireless hardware.
6b.
The first tab across the top will be General.
If the second tab is Wireless Networks, and when you click that if the top checkbox is checked for Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings, then this is the place where you will set up your special network.
Proceed to step 7.
6c.
If you don't have a Wireless Networks tab in step 6b above, or if the Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings checkbox in the Wireless Networks tab is unchecked, first verify that your wireless is enabled (step 3).
If it is enabled, then some special software provided by your computer manufacturer has taken control of your wireless from Windows.
The next step is to give control back to Windows.
To do this, locate the manufacturer-specific software that has taken control of your wireless.
The first place to look is in the row of tiny icons in the system tray, next to the clock at the bottom right of the screen.
Look for an icon that looks like an antenna, or that has radio waves coming out of it, or that says the name of your wireless hardware when you position the cursor over it.
On Dell computers this icon at the bottom right looks like a pipe organ.
You are not looking here for the the standard Windows wireless icon, which looks like a computer screen with sound waves coming out of it.
Click the circled left arrow to see all the icons in the system tray.
If you can't find the icon, call the technical service department of the manufacturer of your computer.
Get the manufacturer to tell you how to turn off the manufacturer-specific wireless configuration program so that you can use the standard Windows wireless configuration windows.
6d.
Once you find the proper icon, double-click it or right-click it, to open up the window for it.
Now look for a checkbox or a control that says something like Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings.
Change the setting on this checkbox so that you can use Windows to configure your wireless.
Then close the window and go back to step 6b, in which you you should now have a Wireless Networks tab.
|
| 7. | |
[Only ad-hoc networks]
Configure your wireless hardware to accept only ad-hoc connections.
In the Windows-standard Wireless Networks window you found in step 6, look at the bottom of the window, above the Cancel button, for the Advanced button.
Not the Advanced tab at the top!
Click the Advanced button.
Then:
7a. Click Computer-to-computer (ad hoc) networks only.
7b. Make sure the checkbox Automatically connect to non-preferred networks is not checked.
7c. Click Close.
This step 7 is half of the secret to making your wireless connection
work reliably day in and day out. It tells your wireless hardware
to ignore connection attempts from Internet access points, so that the
connection will focus entirely on your TypeWell connection.
You'll learn the second half of the secret when we get to step
11.
|
| 8. | |
[Ad-hoc mode]
Set up a new Network for use by TypeWell, in ad hoc mode. In the
Wireless Networks window, click on the Add button near the bottom
of the window. The Wireless network properties window should
appear. Click on the Association tab at the top if it's not
already selected. Now, look for the the checkbox at the very
bottom This is a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network; wireless
access ports are not used. It's ok if it's grey, but it must be checked; if it
is not, go back to step 7. If you were unable to do step 7, your
connection reliability may suffer in the future (as discussed in step 7), but you can
proceed anyway as long as you check this checkbox.
Don't close this Wireless network properties window yet. You'll be using it for the next two steps.
|
| 9. | |
[SSID/Network name]
This step is the most important for making sure your two computers can
wirelessly communicate -- they must be using the same network
name. At the top of the Wireless network properties window that
you went to in step 8, on the Association tab, fill in the Network name
(SSID). Make up a name for the private network these two machines
will be using to communicate. Both machines in a pair must use
the same Network name; but if you are setting up more than one pair of
TypeWell computers, give each pair a separate Network name so that they
won't crosstalk and interfere with each other. For instance, one
pair might use the network TypeWellA and another pair might use the
network TypeWellB. Use the same capitalization for the network
name on both computers; in older Windows systems (pre-2000) you might
have better results by using all capital letters.
Don't close this Wireless network properties window yet. You'll be using it for the next step.
|
| 10. | |
[Encryption off] The final thing to set up in the Wireless network properties window
(after steps 8 and 9 above) is to turn off encryption. You can turn this on later if you desire,
but it's much easier to get everything working at first with encryption disabled.
To do this, in the Wireless network key large section in the
middle of the Wireless network properties window's Association tab,
set the Network Authentication field to Open, and the Data encryption field is set to Disabled.
Over the last 3 steps you've set up your TypeWell network. Now click OK at the bottom of the Wireless
network properties window. Now you should see your chosen Network name from step 9 listed in the Preferred
networks list.
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| 11. | |
[Remove other Networks]
Look at the Preferred networks list (remember, you got here by going to
Control Panel, then Network Connections, then clicking the Wireless
Networks tab). You just added your TypeWell network to this
list. Your goal now is to remove all the other Networks from the
list, so that only your TypeWell network remains. Click a name in
the list (other than the TypeWell one you just added), then click the
Remove button. Repeat until all the names except your TypeWell
network are gone. Cleaning
out this list is the other half of the secret to making your wireless
connection work reliably day in and day out. In combination with
step 7, this prevents Windows from attempting connections to other
networks and thereby losing the TypeWell connection.
|
| 12. | |
[IP addresses 192.168.247.1 and .2] To set the wireless IP address to the valid TypeWell values, follow these steps:
- Click on the General tab at the top of the window you've been working with in steps 7-11. If you don't have
that window open, go to Network Connections in Control Panel, right-click on your wireless connection and
click Properties. It should open a window with the General tab already selected.
- There's a scrollable box below the label This connection uses the following items. Scroll down to the bottom
of this list and look for an entry called Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). If there is more than one such entry,
pick the one that mentions your wireless device. Click on this Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item.
- Click on the Properties button just below the scrollable box. This brings up the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties window. The General tab should already be selected.
- Click on the second radio button Use the following IP addresses.
- In
the IP address field, type 192.168.247.1 on one of your
computers. Type 192.168.247.2 in this field on the other
computer. If you had a third computer in the same network as
these first two, you'd use 192.168.247.3 for it. TypeWell can
never use IP addresses higher than 192.168.247.4.
- Press the Tab key on the keyboard. This will cause the Subnet mask field to fill in with the value 255.255.255.0.
- Press Enter. This will close this window.
- Click the Close button at the bottom of the remaining window. This will activate all your changes.
- If
a message appears about an IP Address Conflict, you've accidentally
used the same IP address on both computers. They must each have a
different IP address. Set one of them to 192.168.247.1, and the
other to 192.168.247.2.
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| 13. | |
[Turn on TypeWell]
You've finished setting up wireless! Now, we'll test that it's
working. Start TypeWell on both computers. Click on the
Link menu on each computer. If the Wireless option is greyed on
one of the computers, see the "still grey?" instructions, below.
|
| 14. | |
[Turn on TypeWell wireless option]
Open the Link menu and look for the Wireless item.
- If it says Wireless is off -- click to turn on, then click it.
If a window comes up that says something like TypeWell is trying to access the network,
make sure you choose the option that lets TypeWell do so! Such a window
would be your firewall program trying overeagerly to protect you.
- If it says Wireless is on -- click to turn off, then don't click it. Just in case you weren't reading the menu item carefully.
- Once you've turned the Wireless menu item on on both computers, they should show Seaching wireless
for a moment in the status line at the bottom right of TypeWell's
window. Then they both should switch within a few seconds to
saying Linked on Wireless in that bottom corner on both computers. If one or both stays at Searching wireless, see Still searching wireless? below.
- Once you see this Linked on wireless message on both computers, anything typed on one TypeWell will be transmitted to the other. It works!
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| 15. | |
[Test a power-up]
Sometimes you'll get wireless working once, but it won't work correctly
when the machines turn on the next day. Test that by shutting off
both computers, and then turning them back on and trying step 13
again. If they won't link, the problem is likely that you didn't
perform the secrets in step 7 or 11, so you're not getting a reliable
connection on the TypeWell network. Re-check steps 7 and
11.
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| 16. | |
[Add Security afterwards]
If you have any trouble getting your TypeWell connection to work the first time, make sure that you are not
using any kind of encryption. Turn if off on both computers until you get TypeWell linked.
Once linking is working through step 15,
you can go back and make the connection secure. The directions
above set you up with a connection that will allow any stranger to
connect with your computers. They can't necessarily DO anything to your computer,
but to reduce the chances of someone accessing your private
files, or messing up something on your computer, you should
take these steps.
There are two ways to increase security. You can do either or
both. The first and easiest is to prevent sharing of your files with others.
To do this, go to Network Connections, right-click on your
wireless network icon, click Properties, the look in the
scrollable list for the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft
Networks item. This item allows other computers to wirelessly
connect to your computer. Un-check the box next to it if you
don't want to permit this. Note that you'll still be able to
connect to someone else's printer on their computer -- this just
prevents them from connecting to your files or printer, if you
have one.
The second security measure you can take is to use encryption over the
wireless connection. This can be pretty frustrating to get right,
and many people use TypeWell with only the first security step above to
prevent outside access to their files. But if you are a techie
and understand what WEP is, and you want to go the extra mile, go to
the Wireless Networks tab in this same window, click on your TypeWell
network in the Preferred networks list, and click Properties. Set
the Data encryption to WEP (or to one of the other choices for even
higher security, such as TKIP). Make sure the The key is
provided for me automatically checkbox is not checked. Fill in
the Network key with the password you choose. Make sure that you
type the exact same password on both computers, or they won't be
able to communicate with each other.
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Still Grey?
If you followed the above instructions but the Wireless menu item on
TypeWell's Link menu was still grey in step 13, something went wrong in
steps 7-12. Make sure to do these steps on both computers. If you think you got them right, here is a test you can perform.
Run the ipconfig program to see how the wireless is set up. Do
this by going to the Start menu, clicking on the Run. . . item, typing cmd, and pressing Enter. A black window will come up. Now type ipconfig and press Enter. It'll print out information about your different network connections. Look for the one named wireless or Wi-Fi or 802.11.
If it says "Media disconnected", it means that:
- your wireless card is disabled (see step 3), or
- your antenna is switched off (see step 3), or
- your wireless is not able to find a matching Network (check steps 8-10 on both computers), or
- possible hardware problem (go back to step 4 to get some kind of connection working).
If it lists an IP Address for the wireless connection, but it's not 192.168.247.1 or 192.168.247.2, it means that:
- You didn't set the wireless IP address correctly (see step 12). Make sure you're correctly choosing the wireless
icon in the Control Panel's Network Connections window -- if you chose
the wrong icon, you were accidentally setting the IP address for some
other network device on your computer.
Still Searching Wireless?
If you followed the above instructions but the TypeWell still says searching wireless at the bottom right on one or both of the computers, here are some tests to perform.
-
If one computer says Searching wireless but the other says Linked on wireless,
it's likely a firewall problem. Either
the Windows standard firewall program, or some added firewall
program like Symantec or McAfee, is blocking TypeWell's use of
the network. Locate all of your firewall programs, and either
disable them entirely, or make sure they allow TypeWell to use
the network.
The Windows XP firewall can be accessed by going to Control
Panel's Network Connections, the clicking the sidebar Change
Windows Firewall settings. Click the Exceptions tab and make
sure there is an entry for TypeWell and that it is checked.
Added firewalls like Symantec or McAfee can be accessed by
looking on the Start menu's Programs list, and looking for
anything that says Symantec, McAfee, or firewall.
-
If both computers say Searching wireless,
see if they are on the same network by going to Control Panel's Network
Connections window and clicking on the wireless connection icon.
This shows the wireless status; the first line Status should show Connected, and the second line Network
shows the name of the network connected to. Make sure that both
computers are connected, and to the same Network.
If a
machine is not connected to the Network you named in step 9, go back
and look at steps 7-11 again. Be sure to Close the windows to
save your changes if you adjust anything. If the
machines are Connected and have the same Network name, it's a firewall
problem on both machines. Read the instructions regarding
firewalls in the bullet item above.
Connects, but Unreliably
If you have TypeWell linking some of the time, but it loses the
connection frequently or intermittently, here are some things to try:
- Check that you performed the reliability steps 7a, 7b, and 11 in the set up instructions.
This sort of unreliability is exactly what these steps prevent.
If you can't perform steps 7a, 7b, and 11 because you are using a manufacturer-specific wireless configuration program, contact the wireless hardware manufacturer to ask how to turn off that program so that you can do steps 7a, 7b, and 11 using Windows standard configuration methods.
- Get the newest driver for your wireless card from the manufacturer's web site.
Many cards have a problem with the drivers when first released; often a driver update will fix a problem.
- If you use Windows XP with 3Com or Intel cards,
there is a known problem with links dropping with some of them. First check that
this is your problem, by seeing if the problem persists when you
turn off Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC). To test this, first
power up the computers and link them in TypeWell. Then go to the
Start menu, Run. . ., and type net stop wzcsvc, and press
Enter. A command prompt (black window) will appear for a moment as it shuts
down wzc. Do the same on the other computer. Now the link
should work without disconnection, until you power-off one of the
computers.
If that temporarily fixes the disconnects, and you've already applied steps 7 and 11,
then the very best permanent fix is to get a different brand of wireless card, as
discussed below. If that's not an option, you can try fixing this by disabling the
wzc service permanently, and then uninstalling and reinstalling your wireless cards using Windows
2000 versions of the drivers. To disable wzc permanently, go to
Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, find Wireless Zero
Configuration near the bottom of the list, and change its
properties to Disabled. But be aware this may or may not fix the problem,
which is a fundamental issue with these wireless cards.
In the meantime, restore you computer's normal operation by
going to Start menu, Run . . . and typing net start wzcsvc and
pressing Enter. You need to leave your computer this way or it won't be able to form
network connections when turned on.
- These connection problems can occur with certain brands of wireless hardware.
A fix that's likely to work, is to get Orinoco, NetGear or Dell TrueMobile cards instead
of whatever you're using. Many sites use these successfully.
- The Intel or Centrino wireless card has known problems, see
this.
-
On the Dell TrueMobile and the Orinoco, be sure to set the
Network names on both computers to the same, all-uppercase
value.
Networks names that have lowercase letters can cause the
connection to fail on certain pre-XP versions of Windows.
You can set the Network name using the
card's Client Manager software, using the Action menu, then the
Add/Edit Configuration Profile item. After changing the Network
name, reboot the computer, even though it may not seem to require
it.
- Turn off 802.1x authentication in the properties for your
wireless card. This authentication is unnecessary and is rumored to cause
a disconnection problem.
- Turn off the power-saver option for the wireless card
configuration. It is rumored to cause a disconnection.
Can't Get Linking To Work
If you can't make the instructions above work for you, try step 4 --
contact the manufacturer of your wireless hardware. They can work
with you to see if you have a hardware problem.
One way to check whether you're getting at least a partial connection between the computers, is to use the ping program. To do this, go to the Start menu and choose Run. . .. Type cmd and press Enter so that a black Command Prompt window appears. Type ipconfig
and make sure the IP address for one of the computers is 192.168.247.1,
and for the other computer is 192.168.247.2. Then on the computer
that has the .1 IP address, type ping 192.168.247.2. This will attempt to contact the second computer over your wireless. If it works you'll see Reply from. . . lines. Otherwise it'll give errors or say no response. If you don't have a connection, see the section above still searching wireless.
Standby, Hibernation, and Linking on Some Brands
Some brands of computers become confused when TypeWell is linked
while the computer is put into standby, suspend, or hibernation
mode.
When such computers are resumed, TypeWell can freeze. If you
experience such a freeze-on-resume while TypeWell is linked, be sure
to unlink TypeWell on one or both of your computers before suspending
them. The easiest way to do this is to close TypeWell just before
suspending.
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Overview 