Ok, my Wireless network consists of most Netgear products. I've found that it gives the best performance without the use of external antenna's. I even found a little hack to boost the db output of the Access point greatly increasing it's performance.

With that little FYI aside.... I purchased another Netgear AP, just to give the other side of my house a little better performance (the AP on the other side is pointed away from my house to give my friend 2 houses down access). Eventually I WILL be getting a Linksys AP for the car to plug into the rio as a few people have done here. I would like to be able to test this setup with my 2nd Netgear AP, but the only way to put it into client mode is to upgrade the firmware. IN reading the release notes, it states

5. Known Limitations
=================
a. The subset mask setting is disabled in this release. ME102 will use
255.255.255.0 instead.

Has anyone done this upgrade and if so, does this mean you simply cannot change the subnet at all? My network of course does not run on this subnet and upgrading would render my AP useless to me.
Any info would be helpful

ok, I got impatient and went ahead and upgraded the firmware anyway.

It's much better. Many more features. Also, the upgraded version of the SNMP util they use for it does NOT allow you to change the subnet mask. BUT, it keeps the last one you set, AND, the little hack I was talking about was another snmp manager that DOES allow you to change the subnet ( and db output among other things), so i'm all good.

Now to test client mode with the empeg

Where is this hack you talked about ? (I did Google for it with no sucess)

http://www.wi2600.org/mediawhore/nf0/wireless/docs/802.11/WAP11/

that's the txt on the info. There's the link for the Atmel snmp manager used to boost the db. If the links don't work or anything, I have all this saved and can send them to you.

btw .. got the AP working in client mode and it's working great!

got the AP and the empeg both set with static ip's and can access it with a laptop also with a wireless card or anywhere on my network. Trying to figure out of there's a way to put the AP in both client and AP mode. but I guess if i'm out somewhere with my car and want to access anything via wireless, i'll have to put it into AP mode or something. Maybe it'll be easier with a Linksys.

Thanks. Now, if I can just remember what SNMP community name I used for my ME102...

Ok, I picked up an ME102 today and have been trying to get the client mode to work ever since ... So far I am unsuccessfull. I'm attempting to connect it (wirelessly) to a Linksys 4 port wireless router which in turn goes to my firewall.

ssids are the same on both.
channels are the same.
encryption keys are the same (default key is the same too)
I told the ME102 to work as a client, telling it the MAC of the wireless port of my linksys router.
I told my router to allow wireless packets from the mac of the ME102.
The ssid is set not to broadcast.

Looking at the active MACs on the router, the ME102 is NOT listed.

I wish there was a logging mechanism for the ME102. I'd like to see what the friggin problem is.

Can you lend a hand in this mess?

Greg

Have you tried disabling the WEP for a short period of time to see if that helps? I remember hearing early on about some configs not being compatible. Just a thought...

-Zeke

Yup, I turned off WEP, turned on broadcasting the ssid, turned off MAC filtering and still got nothing.

I've heard conflicting reports that in access point client mode the ssid's shouldn't be the same, but the Channel should. In either case it didn't help.

Greg

Well after talking to Linksys and Netgear tech support, I've figured out they know less about their own products than I do. I'm returning the ME102 today and buying a Linksys WET11 ... too bad I didn't just order it yesterday ... I'd have it today. Sadly no one carries the WET11 locally.

Greg

Perhaps your other AP has issues with acting as a bridge? My AP cannot both serve clients and act as a bridge.

-Zeke

I didn't have any problems setting up the ME102 AP as client mode talking to another ME102 AP. I did as you did, set it to client mode, set the mac address for the AP I would be connecting to, I also manually set ip's for both the AP and my laptop connected to it instead of dhcp. I don't think there was anything else needed to get it to work. Think I might test it out again tonight when I get home just to be sure.

Sorry to hear you gave up on it. As i've said before the Netgear products have a MUCH greater distance capability than the linksys, even without the boost hack to the Netgear AP's that I have.

What it boils down to is that you must have hardware "in kind" on the receiving end of your access point client. On netgear's web site the gave me the illusion that it could work as an access point client for any access point ... in reality it only does this with another ME102 ... or in the case of a Linksys WAP11 (same hardware, different name) another WAP11 in the back.

It'd be nice if they were clear on this before they sold it to me. And the tech support guys at both companies couldn't of course spell it out like that ... they had to tell me that AP client mode doesn't work like that, it's not meant to work like that. They continued to tell me that AP client mode wasn't what I wanted. When asked what I did want, they said (I'm not shitting here) an ethernet wire from my router to the machine I want to connect it to.

I asked them to envision a pit of lava surrounding the machine I wished to plug the ME102 into ... that there was no possibility to run a wire across. At that point he gave up on the call and hung up on me.

Linksys tech support wouldn't let me get that far ... they heard my initial story and put me on eternal hold ... the kind that says "If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and dial again." Twice.

If the Orinoco ethernet converter weren't twice the price of a WET11, I'd definitely rather not give these two jackasses my money anymore.

Greg

Read this thread for an alternative the the Orinoco Ethernet Converter.

Also notice that everytime I say two APs in AP Client mode of different makers will not talk to each other, I get crapped on.

If you are interested in a used OrinocoEC, I have one I am no longer using.