Swimming in the Pensieve

Sometime back–probably 2+ years ago–I bought a notebook computer from my brother, as a result of Xerox, Corp’s ‘end-of-life’ sale of field technician notebook computers to employees. Greg said that he didn’t want it, but offered it to me for the price Xerox wanted. I don’t remember what it ended-up costing us; but, it was a nominal price, and gave Annie something to use between home and work.It’s a Compaq Armada V300, with Compaq’s vendor-specific, model-lock-in, first release version of windoze 98 (release 4.10.1998). [No. I haven’t stopped hocking-up hairballs since!]

Now, the whole idea of notebook computers inspires visions of computing on the go, un-tethered by CAT5 cables, possessing the idyllic visions of freedom that simply do not exist (with any hope of security) on this planet. Fine. Even though I can handle the idea of a Network Interface Card that sports an RJ-45 jack and requires the use of a four-pair “dinosaur tail” for network connectivity; the fairer sex would prefer to simply turn on the machine and start Google-Whacking without even so much as a first thought.

I, my friends, live to please. It is my purpose in life. (Not you! My lovely wife.) I, therefore obtained for Annie, a Linksys WAP11 and WPC11 to slavishly link-up her notebook computer to the >cough-choke< “_World_Wide_Web_” >hack-gag< :::gritting teeth::: .

Despite the inherent non-security of wireless networking (Really, folks! A fourteen year-old kid with a copy of AirSnort can own your entire network in a matter of minutes!) I did for the love of my life that which would make her happy.

I shall further enlighten you with the fact that–Great cavorting, caffeinated, goats of Kaldi D’Abyssinia!–I didst bestow upon Annie the fatal combination of a VERSION 2 Linksys WAP11, and a VERSION 4 Linksys WPC11. Allow me to tell you that, in retrospect I have no idea what I miracle I conjured-up to get things working originally, I made it work with no small problems, and no small inclination to turn the air blue–at both our home, and my father’s humble abode.

The Linksys WPC11, Version 4, works just fine with my father’s Linksys BEFW11S4 Wireless router/4-port switch. It does not, however, work ‘fine’ with the WAP11, Version 2. The connection is, at best, sporadic. Other brands and models of 802.11b wireless PCMCIA/CardBus cards have no problem working with the, WAP11 Version 2. “Uh, Houston? You’ve probably heard this before…”

Fine. It worked without a hitch at my father’s house, and we switched between the occasional wireless connection through the WAP11, and just using either a Linksys NP100 or Linksys PCMPC100 10/100-BaseT adapter, and a scrap length of CAT5e, plugged into a second-level switch.

After our move, the notebook was dragged-out (Because my system was nowhere near being hooked-up–I couldn’t even get near it until about a week ago!) in an attempt to amuse myself with the idea of “doing something about” that sporadic wireless connection with the WAP11 to allow me to update StarOffice, and the plethora of browsers that the Open Source community have graced the windoze community with. Work can be, after all, fun.

A very Jeff Foxworthy-like, “Heeeeeeey!” later; I discovered that–incorrectly–the WAP11 suddenly decided to give me a solid connection to the notebook computer. It was only after updating all the applications on the notebook, that I had another Foxworthy-like moment; realizing–correctly–that the literal hordes of windoze users in this little area of our part of town, think wireless networking is just about as safe and secure as living IN NORAD.

Let me tell you that this block is, without a doubt, a Cantenna-wielding, war-driving, SPAMmer’s paradise!

Well, I reasoned, I’m not going to dump any SPAM through somebody’s unsecured network, and the knowledge might just allow me to help a few of the folks around here become a bit more computer and network literate.

It was on New Year’s Eve
that I fired-up the notebook to pull less than a hundred KB of a web page about Jan and Dean off the Internet (prompted to make the inquiry by a PBS New Year’s special), and the machine pretty much sat, doing nothing on the coffee table, until I shut it down–sometime around 1:00 or 2:00 AM.

The next morning, I decided to do a bit of casual work on making the WAP11 and WPC11 like each other forever–only to discover that the entirety of the Linksys configuration application, along with all of the MSFT networking layers, were hammered. The notebook refused to acknowledge that it even had a PCMCIA card in it, and had no clue what networking is.

Great! A good idea stopped dead in it’s tracks, because somebody (talking about one or more of the kids, here) got cute the night before and hosed all the work I had done to get that card working long enough ago that I don’t remember what it is that I did to get things up and running. Can you say, “I is not happy!”? I was far from it.

I was treated to the following windoze error code:

Error 10038: Socket Operation on non socket.

after the machine landed at the desktop without offering a network login dialogue. Between no network login and a socket error, we’re definitely dealing with a networking issue, and a driver issue at that.What would a customer do?
In this situation, they’d probably naively start out at microsoft’s support web site, or on TechNet. Dumb move. A couple of years ago, microsoft was blaming the error code on McAfee Personal Firewall. I certainly remember that much about it. Now, there isn’t anything to be had on the error that relates to win98-version 1 at all.

A customer’s next move would probably be to go to a MCP of one type or another (I’m an MSCE, BTW). Okay. I can act dumb for a few phone calls, and hold my tongue on the Linux issue.

The first thing I remember about microsoft’s welcoming me to the fold of their “certified professionals” was that, to microsoft, I was nothing more than a certified ‘product evangelist’. (Yes, that is a direct quote from their welcome letter.) Don’t trust MCP’s of any variety–unless they tell you that microsoft sux, of course.

A few phone calls netted me the unanimous verdict that I had to buy XP Professional (which certainly won’t run acceptably on the notebook in question), with most of the ‘product evangelists’ volunteering to help me out by selling it to me directly. Never trust an MSP/MCP!

Visiting Compaq’s (forget it, it’s HP now) web site was a waste of time, as was Linksys’ web site; so I picked-up the phone and gave Linksys a call directly.

After over an hour on the phone, the conclusion was that the Version 4 WPC11 is incompatible with win98-release 1. It is compatible with win98se, though.

“I had it working before. This is new behavior.”

I’m sorry, sir, but that’s impossible. You’ll need to buy a WPC11, Version 1 card.”

“That’s a dead product, as far as I’m aware. Does Linksys/Cisco actually still sell the Version 1 card?”

“Oh yes, sir!” She gave me the number to call to order a Version 1 WPC11; which I called to see if I really could order what Linksys/Cisco must certainly considers to be an obsolete product.

Surprise! (NOT!) You can’t buy anything but the WPC11 Version 4 card.

Why am I telling you all of this?
To save you the hassle in a similar situation, and to point out that windoze victims have nothing that can even remotely be considered support–from microsoft, their brain-dead drones, the notebook vendor, or from the wireless card manufacturer.

I’ll also tell you how it is that the notebook is back up and running on the wireless card. See? I’m a nice guy. I’ll even tell you what I bumbled-into.

Of course I fixed the problem.
The card isn’t compatible with win98, release 1, but it is compatible with win98se. There has to be some minor variation between the two to make that a fact, but they still have to be similar enough to make them minor revision cousins. This implies that I can take a few liberties in substituting the win98se networking libraries for the original win98-rev.1 networking libraries. (I may have done exactly that by accident, over two years ago; and never realized it at the time.)

First, I:

• removed all software relating to the wireless card (for the umpteenth time),

and

• removed all traces of microsoft networking support from the machine.

Then, I:

• copied the drivers and applications from the Linksys CD,

and

• copied the ‘win98′ subdirectory of a win98se CD to the hard drive.

From that point on, it was a matter of:

• installing the Linksys drivers and apps,

and

• pointing windoze to the cabinet files copied from the win98se CD;

then

• answering ‘NO’ when it asked if I wanted to keep the newer files already on the hard drive.

>Reboot< Got network login prompt back. Got wireless connectivity back.

Now, it’s time to get to work on that WAP.

While I do that, you might want to take a look at:

• OpenOffice Label Templates

and

• British Library’s Turning The Pages™ Exhibits

Just for kicks.

BTW: The notebook works just fine with Linux, and without the kinds of hassles you just read about.

Nyaah!

(If you really must know how I did the wireless on Linux, check here. )

UPDATE: The Linksys WAP11V2, mentioned above, absolutely refuses to work with the WPC11V4; however, quite fortuitously, one of the neighbors decided that she had no use for a Netgear 802.11b/g router that she had sitting around in a box for “too long!”, so I decided to give her the $15.00 she wanted for it.

Hooking the WAN interface up to one of the ports on my my level-2 switch, gave me the wireless I need for the laptops. Between wireless MAC addy filtering, WPA and a 32-character, non-broadcasted ESSID; I’m fairly sure that we won’t have very many problems with the one or two kids in the neighborhood who might have learned how to use airsnort.

But, just in case, the router is modified to allow me to instantly disable the WAN connection by remote control; and it’s configured to regularly email the logfiles to my webserver root email account. It’ll instantly message me, real-time, upon any compromise/exploit attempt.

Over-kill is so easy to accomplish, and soooo worth the effort.