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Wi-Fi

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Two point's here :

1 ) I was wondering, from the access point what is the maximum range / distance that a wi-fi enabled device can pick it up ?

2 ) I took my PSP up town with me this afternoon and sat in various seating areas scanning for wi-fi spots. I picked up quite a lot, and each time they were always different but i could never connect to them. The psp gave me info saying which one's weere " secure " and which werent so it told me if an access point had a WEP or not. With the ones that didnt have a WEP i found i couldnt connect to them and the psp told me to check the security settings but of course oi'm not great with this LAN and wi-fi stuff so didnt know what to do. I left the psp to do an automatic scan.

The only access point i did manage to connect to was a BT one in the train station, but i had to leave before getting a chance to pay to try to use it sadly.

How does it all work, particularly with regard to the psp, the manual is useless i've found anyway so it'd be better to get someone in the know of these things to explain it to me.

I want to be able to surf the net whilst outdoors, i really want this to work.

Cheers in advance :)

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I dont know about psp, but my pda can pick up loads of open access points when on the bus, or on walkabouts.

    I think the range is only a few houses if you're lucky, because almost all houses in the uk are made with brick, which absorbes the wifi radio frequencies.
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    Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Are you talking about public access points? If it's the access point in someone's house of course you shouldn't be able to connect.
    I don't have a psp, but judging from my ds if an access point is to be used freely by anyone you can connect to it as easily as you can find it (with an area scan).
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sorry for any confusion i cause with this i'm totally clueless when it comes to wi-fi. Erm i suppose i could ask about both public and private in that case then, learn about both. From what i understand so far an WEP is like a code to secure the wireless network yes? So if an access point whether public or private showed up on my PSP as " no WEP " then it isnt secured so i should be able to connect to it ?

    When i as in town i found alot of BT named points and similar so those will be the public one's i take it ? Which obiouslt means then that whilst walking home around the residential areas those are the private one's, which makes sense from the names i recall that came up when i scanned. Although some hadnt been named they had been left as default IE Belkin54g or Linksys etc etc.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Are you talking about public access points? If it's the access point in someone's house of course you shouldn't be able to connect.
    I don't have a psp, but judging from my ds if an access point is to be used freely by anyone you can connect to it as easily as you can find it (with an area scan).

    Would it be safe to assume that as wi-fi is most likely the same thing regardless of what device is equipt with it that the DS and PSP essentially use it the same way ? I don't know anything about the DS.
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    Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    EDN1 wrote:
    Would it be safe to assume that as wi-fi is most likely the same thing regardless of what device is equipt with it that the DS and PSP essentially use it the same way ? I don't know anything about the DS.
    Similarly, I don't know anything about how the PSP connects, but I can't imagine it's so much different, since WiFi is a registered protocol (as far as I know).

    About your other question: Yes, the WEP is an encryption so that only authorised people can connect. If an access point has no WEP, you should be able to connect to it (again, as far as I know).

    There are probably more informed people to explain.... heh :p
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You've both been helpful so far tbh, thanks.

    I'm confused as to why the psp wouldnt connect then to those unsecured access points, both public and private.

    I'll scour google tomorrow for some answers.

    Although more info from other folk is more than welcome :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    EDN1 wrote:
    Sorry for any confusion i cause with this i'm totally clueless when it comes to wi-fi. Erm i suppose i could ask about both public and private in that case then, learn about both. From what i understand so far an WEP is like a code to secure the wireless network yes? So if an access point whether public or private showed up on my PSP as " no WEP " then it isnt secured so i should be able to connect to it ?

    You wouldn't necesarily be able to connect to APs that don't have WEP as they could be using WPA encryption (I don't know whether the PSP supports this). Also, many APs will be set to accept connections only from certain machines (using MAC address filtering). You would be able to see the AP but not be able to connect even if it says no WEP.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm getting to grips with this now.

    Spent the last couple of day's trotting around edinburgh city centre looking for wi-fi hotspots, free preferebly but also just scanning to see if i could find any.

    I'm amazed at the amount of people's wireless connections ive been able to use to surf the net, mostly yesterday and today. It's amazing that people don't know or havent secured their connection. Have actually logged on here and hotmail and google and it works brilliantly.

    Think i've got a better understanding of it now and know how it works.

    :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think most of the pay-for hotspots won't give you routing unless you're registered to the service. As for people who just don't bother to secure their wireless nets, well, that's their luck out - but remember folk could trace your activity I guess. (Though the people likely to have traces are likely to have security, too.)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Can they trace someone they have no details for? If it was done in the middle of a busy town centre ? I wouldnt think they could but i guess you never know.

    WHen i tried it in the train station i got connected to the BTopenzone i think thats what i was called which displayed a page saying to pay or use a voucher. So i'm guessing all public access point's will be the same with the exception of the free ones obviously.

    True though it is their luck out, i don't think i'm breaking any law's.

    Even if it is pay hotspot's .. well actually i wonder how much it does cost, i wwas goin gto say maybe it wouldnt cost THAT much but then again :chin:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As I guess, they could only really trace you through sites you visited if you logged on across insecure methods and actually had traceable data on one of the sites you logged on to. Otherwise no, it's anonymous (as much as anything on the internet is anonymous)
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