Be careful what you order, a P or an R make a big difference. :(

[Omega-TI]

I wanted to WiFi my TI... well, I blew it. I ordered the Vonets VAR11N Plus instead of the the VAP11N.

<< THIS LINK >> that I ordered it from lists it as BRIDGE/REPEATER/ROUTER. Well, the documentations SUCKS, as what there is of it is written in minimalistic Chitnese. I cannot get it into 'bridge mode'. I'm not even sure you can. The VAP11N is supposed to be EASY to setup.. this one is not.

 

Does anyone else have one of the these things? If so, were you successful into getting in into bridge mode? I want to hook it up to my Lantronix UDS-10, but if you've been able to use it on any device like an Xbox the same settings should work.

 

[wyerd]

The reviews and questions on Amazon might help you out.http://www.amazon.com/Vonets-Wireless-Dreambox-Network-Printer/dp/B00H4WMZ1O

[Omega-TI]

The reviews and questions on Amazon might help you out.http://www.amazon.com/Vonets-Wireless-Dreambox-Network-Printer/dp/B00H4WMZ1O

 

Yeah, been there and done that... I even checked out the You Tube videos. It appears the VAR11N and the VAR11N PLUS (the one I have) even have a different setup screens in their vonets.cfg screen. The VAR11N has a screen (according the the videos, that I've not been able to find in mine. I probably should have just purchased the VAP11N. Oh well, I'll mess with it later, I have other things I need to get accomplished first anyway.

[+Schmitzi]

oh yes, there was a recommendation here on AA, I think for the VAP.

As he had shown a blackcolored one on his foto, and I did only find white once on the web,

I found the VAR too. This comes with black housing, but I hesitated....

I will try to find out now....

[+Schmitzi]

Yes, now I remember.

The VAR seems to be a router only, the VAP seems to be router AND bridge(mode).

That was why I hesitated, because also want to have a black one (VAR-bridge).

Yes, the VAR-sellers on eBay are speaking of a "bridge" too, in the headline,

but in the further text they only speak from "router"

Ralf

[Omega-TI]

I was talking to a friend last night (he's an IT Guru), anyway he said there *IS* a way to configure routers up to do the job, it's just a bit convoluted to set them up. So hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks, if our schedules jive, I'll learn about the proper settings. Once it's hooked up it'll look like this...

 

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

[+Schmitzi]

... I think all these eBay-seller try to cheat a bit, as they offer routers as bridges.

(If you write the word "bridge" in the headline (to get hits), you should figure clearly out

in the description that is is NOT a bridge, in BIG letters)

 

mostly they com from Hongkong (german views). I wrote to one of them.

 

oh yes, what an "accident"

 

 

/EDIT/ I will walk through all these auctions today and make a complaint to eBay, on each

/EDIT2/ well done

Edited March 4, 2015 by schmitzi

[Omega-TI]

Well, << THIS ONE >> appears to be the correct one (second opinions appreciated).

If you concur, I'll order this one and get it working with the UDS-10 and update the manual.

I dunno about you, but the idea of having a WiFiTi appeals to me. Boy's & Toy's I'm told...

 

Oh yeah, it was confirmed, the previous model pictured above CANNOT be put into bridge mode, it's IMPOSSIBLE, so save your money, save the trouble and effort do NOT buy the VAR11N Plus (black model) if you want to WiFi your classic computer.

[+Schmitzi]

just to confirm the confirmation

 

 

VAP11N is the right one. It worx.

 

 

The other models are sometimes mentioned as "bridge" too, but I think they work in a different way.

 

 

[Omega-TI]

Cool! ThanX.

While it does not mention it on the site, do the docs that come with it specify polarity and size of the non-USB power connector?

 

Is it the standard negative barrel/positive tip arrangement?

 

I'll probably get the square version and use a 'command strip' to attach it to the top of the UDS-10.

[+Schmitzi]

OK, I have checked the printed manual now, nope, no hint to that.

BUT, the USB-adapter-cable coming out of the Vonets housing has a plug in the middle of the cable,

I disconnected that, and just plugged the rest of it into USB. On the inside, middle PIN there is +5V arriving.

Should be the same on the plug in the housing. Also, mostly it is this way (mostly

 

There is one important hint on the manual, NOT to plug USB-power AND a power-supply the SAME time (!) to the Vonets

 

If you have a WLAN with MAC-Filter, you maybe have too look that the Vonets has 2 MAC-Addresses,

on my it was .......F0, but - at the end - I had to enter ...........F1 into my AccessPort...

Had to find that out randomly on my Syslogserver, as I was a bit desperate not getting a WLAN-PassThrough (Bridge)

I now just have both MACs entered on my WLAN-AccessPoint´s MAC-Filter-list

 

Good Luck

Ralf

[Omega-TI]

Yeah, the power thing makes sense, I would never have done that anyway.

It seems like this new one will not be much trouble all. ThanX.

 

** EDIT **

Ordered.

Edited March 26, 2015 by --- Ω ---

[Omega-TI]

Hey Schmitzi,

Mine arrived today, and this one works as a bridge alright. It was easy to configure, even if it is a little slow to sync up to the router after applying power. Anyway now I just have to be patient a little longer for my USB outlet/extension to arrive.

 

[+OLD CS1]

Be careful: there is such a thing as a too short network cable. You can over-drive the receiver unless the transmitter can detect shorter cable lengths (so-called "Green Ethernet,") but even then one inch is still pushing it.

[+Schmitzi]

Cooool, it is running Did you already got Stuarts browser online ?

 

I was missing some of the config-dialogs mentioned by Stuart, the reason was an old UDS-firmware.

And it was impossible to update the firmware with the UDS-integrated Java-GUI,

but with the given Windows-DeviceSetup-software there was a possibility to upload the bin-files directly (afterwards java-gui still not running

 

Then I took the UDS´ IP-address from my dhcp-server, and with telnet I set a fixed IP on it, and the parameters for the browser.

In the Windows-Software there is also a small telnet-app, also works easy and good for that.

 

I think, for the java-gui a version below 1.5 is needed, or something like that. But in this way, not needed.

 

Here on my ftp, you can find all UDS-10-files needed, if you don´t want to struggle through Lantronix´ website

ftp://u67140205-atariage:TeXasTI994A@toxic-instruments.com/UDS-10.bak

 

I also made a small clone of Stuarts website, maybe it is a bit easier to enter that url:

 

www.99er.info/99er.htm

 

 

I will try to setup a small homepage there, but time is my enemy

 

ah, I powerup my vonets via my laptop´s USB first, and I give him a minute for boot before switching the UDS on.

 

Ralf

[Omega-TI]

Finally up and running, the last piece arrived today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O77UM7qG1YY&feature=youtu.be

[+Schmitzi]

♫ ♫ disco infernale ♫ ♫

 

 

 

/EDITed/ for more music

Edited April 20, 2015 by schmitzi

[Omega-TI]

Heads up for those planning on doing the WiFi add-on to their TI...

 

I was having some minor issues with delays in my connection. As it turns out that there was a close proximity RFI issue that was resolved simply by putting a little distance between the WiFi bridge and the UDS-10. I don't think it looks as nice as it once did, but at least it works perfect now.

 

[+Schmitzi]

yeah, HangMan, same as mine

[Omega-TI]

The bandwidth of the VAP11N is more than I need for my home network, but I may just have to retire my new WiFi setup.

Since I've had it plugged in, the WiFi TV in the living room has been turning itself on and off about once an hour, for about 10 seconds at a time. To verify the problem, I've disconnected the power to the VAP11N and it's not happened since. Is this bizarre or what?

 

I guess the next step is to take the TV off the network and see if that fixes the problem.

 

[+Schmitzi]

hmm, maybe you can configure 2 different SIDs on you main accesspoint ?

one extra/new and only one for bridging with the Vonets ?

or, if your accesspoint does not suppport that, you maybe can distingiush by

using 5 GHz-WLAN with the TV, and 2.4 GHz with the Vonets ?

Just to seperate that, in any way.

This should prevent from some problems.

[+Ksarul]

Depending on where they are, an aluminum-foil shield between the Vonets and the TV might help. . .as long as both have a clear line of sight to the router.

[globeron]

WiFi training/education is my daily job for different type of customers, telco's, governments, military, enterprises, etc.

all installing WiFi like the wild wild west (or in my region/APAC the wild wild east). www.globeron.com/cwnp/training

and we have an online version (www.globeron.com/onlinetraining, 400+ slides), quite difficult certification to achieve

for most organisations.

 

TI-99/4A is the hobby (now finally we go to "TI-WIFI" !)

 

(OSI layer 3 - IP layer)

I think both vonet Bridge and Routing models works (I have read about Lantronix but do not have the device).

but if the LANTronix has an IP-interface, that means that the Vonets Router need to "route" back to the Lantronix

Look at your "forwarding table/routing table), it need to know where the IP-address for the returning traffic

(thus traffic from the Wifi side to the cable side) Check if you can ping in both directions (or try to ping from hop to hop to see how far you can ping)

I do not see why it should not be able to work.

 

(OSI layer 2 - Datalink layer)

bridge model - just forwarding mac-address - wired and wireless (note that wireless has 3-4 mac addresses,

and you need a separate protocol analyser to see the frames to analyse it if needed)

 

 

RF (OSI layer 1)

--------------------

Re: RF -- 2.4 GHz will be very challenging and you have adjacent-channel interference on channels 9-11 (but actually much more not visualised in WiFi Analyzer)

You can only use 1, 6 or 11 without having interference (depending if you do not have neighbours).

 

Also check if you use IEEE 802.11b / g / n modulations (as different devices use different modulations "HR-DSSS, OFDM, HT-OFDM,

they might not understand each other (so called hidden notes). Also reduce your radio power output settings (similar like your stereo-radio should not be on full power)

 

and SNR (Signal to Noise ratio need to be enough, like a room full of people, someone need to shout a bit louder to hear him),

from your screenshot it seems your environment is very clean for RF (it is a bit different here in a city with 10 mln people...)

 

Aluminium foil is not going to help I am afraid (it will create reflection, but you will get more "multipath" problems (like echo in a room)

 

multiple SSIDs will not help for this, it will slow down the wireless network as more beacons are injected in the air.

main rule: WiFi is half-duplex (like a walkie talkie), only 1 device talks (or the client or the Access Point - AP) and if there are more

wireless clients, there is a coordination function (like a classroom with a teacher, first raise your hand before asking a question and

many many other variants, e.g. voice/video/data prioritization).

 

The vonets "300 mbps" 802.11n, make sure to use AES as encryption. TKIP limits datarates to max. 54 Mbps.

Probably change to "20 Mhz" channels to channel 6 only (that reduces to 150 Mbps), or if you can allow 40 Mhz (not to interfere with

other Access Points, then you can go up to 300 Mbps). The throughput is way way lower than that depending on the number of clients,

interference, distance, etc. etc. long story (or follow the training :-)

[+Schmitzi]

Hi,

 

I think there is nothing to configure at all on the Vonets VAP11N, a menue for entering SSID and Passwort for bridge-mode only.

Thats the problem. This is a very dumb device. The only way to take influence may be an own SSID for the Vonets on your main access-point,

and to make "changes" on the AccessPoint for that SSID, to "seize" them to the Vonets connection.

 

The Vonets VAP11N supports the range-extension of 802.11b/g/n, at 150 MBits maximum. - 100 Mtr max. supported channels are 1-14

bridge-mode only. One important hint maybe: it is developped in and comes from China

And don´t believe eBay-sellers saying "router-mode", they are also from China, or from HongKong, and they don´t know what they sell

again: The VAP11N is NO ROUTER. This a a bridge/repeater only. No further config possible. Very important: eBay-auctions are wrong.

 

Ralf

 

/EDIT:

if you give the Vonets an own SSID to bridge your TI, you maybe prevent your TV from connecting/using/confusing with the Vonets bridge,

flapping around or so /

Edited April 26, 2015 by schmitzi

[+Schmitzi]

@Omega, which TV do you have exactly ?

maybe this behaviour or the reason is described anywhere (in the manual?), for specific WLAN-issues ?

Maybe its not a bug, but a feature ?

 

/EDIT is it a Samsung ? Do you use the actual firmware ? /

 

/EDIT2 is it a Philips, and do you still have connected - from the past - an unused patchkabel ? /

(some Philips have experienced equipotential bonding problems like that, if the patchcable has a connected shield)

Edited April 26, 2015 by schmitzi