Although we’ve had the laptop for quite a while now, I’ve not yet connected to the internet. From reading comments on this blog and posts on the smalllinuxlaptop forum I was aware that connecting wirelessly was not always straightforward. I’d previously had a quick go at trying to connect to the wireless network with the router settings left alone, adding the MAC address given on the back of the laptop to the trusted stations list, but this did not work.
I have a netgear wireless router, with SSID hidden, encryption WPA-PSK2 and wireless access station control on (ie limit access to router by MAC address of device). I followed the following steps:
- Connect One T to router using ethernet cable, allow auto-detection and then carry out system update (which included an update for the wireless software).
- Using another computer that can connect to the router settings page, temporarily disable security settings on router so that SSID visibile, no encryption and no access control.
- Using the wireless conection tool on the OneT, find and connect to the router. Check connection has been made correctly (try out a page in Bon Echo).
- Using another computer that can connect to the router settings page, find out the MAC address of the connected OneT. This may have been where I went wrong last time – the MAC address on the back of the laptop was not the wireless MAC address. Add the correct MAC address to the Trusted Wireless Stations list.
- Disconnect the OneT from the router.
- Restore the security settings of the router using the other computer.
- Using the wireless conection tool on the OneT, find and connect to the router, entering the settings as required (this will include the network SSID if this is hidden – my One T+ showed the network in the wireless connection tool, but without a name, so I just entered this on the next dialogue box).
- Connect to the network, then test out a page.
- This worked first time around, but when I tried it later it would not connect until I set the SSID to visible on the router again – then it connected fine. I’m unhappy about leaving the SSID visible, so I shall be manually altering this each time I connect the One T to the router (which is not likely to be often, so not really an issue to me).
Obviously, this will vary from system to system but it worked for me. You also have to be comfortable with altering your router settings and the potential risk of leaving the security settings open for a period of time whilst you obtain the OneT’s wireless adapter MAC address.
