Hi, Tom, and group(s).

First, thanks for all the discussion. There have been developments, of
which more anon, but to Tom's question(s), first:

tlindly wrote:
Going back to the original question, Skip said:
"No amount of fiddling in the way I'd
become accustomed, which is to just type the URL of the bridge in my
browser, bringing up the setup pages, would do anything other than
bring a signup page to the pay site. I grumbled but the other sites we
had
been using were a bit less than stellar..."

Do you mean to say that when you type in the "URL" [192.168.1.100 or
something like that] of the bridge into your web browser, you get the
paysite signup page rather than the bridge's setup page?? If so,
you're
going to have to climb back up and push a reset button.

Or do you mean that you Did get into the bridge's setup pages, but
cannot
figure out how to deny the offending paysite provider?

I meant that originally, with the Vonage router acting as referee, my
AP could communicate both to the outside world and enter the
configuration pages of the bridge. Before that time, all attempts to
have the two units directly connected failed, producing IP conflicts
regardless of the IPs set in the setup pages, all of which were readily
available by connection to a NIC on the same IP class network. The way
I was able to communicate with the bridge through the AP/router chain
was to have the AP set to the same netclass as the router, which IP was
not adjustable; it got the DHCP connection from the bridge and passed
my URL access through. So far, so good. A nuisance to have to type in
the specified SSID each time there was a change, but manageable -
didn't have to take the ethernet to the computer - Vonage logged me
into the internet and I could make phone calls and surf/mail on however
many computers I wanted to connect to the AP, all was well with the
world. Having the AP set to the same netclass as the Vonage router
allowed me to interrogate it and see what was happening, proving
whether it was working or not, and regardless of whether it was
connected to the outside world.

Once Beacon was the stronger signal (now that the bridge and antenna
were atop the mast), it redirected the bridge, forcing it to show the
signin page rather than allowing me to interrogate the bridge. Reset
would not change that - a power-off/on cycle will return me to the
basic setup, which is that without a specified SSID, it associates with
the strongest signal. Unfortunately, in Beacon's case, that signal is
a redirect, not either an open or encrypted site where I enter my
password. Accidentally I touched the factory reset button when I was
fiddling the setup in the NEMA box; I just typed in the factory URL,
reset it all to what I wanted, and it came back. However, that was when
we were breadboarding it, and the Beacon signal was visible (only) and
not dominant.

However...

I've spent yet another set of hours on the phone with a Vonage rep. We
wound up going through a DLink router, which solved the communication
problem for a while, and now it's back to plug-and-pray, as I can
interrogate the bridge just fine over a configured NIC (not DHCP but
the same netclass as the bridge), set it, and put it into a DHCP NIC
and make my connection (still through the redirected signup page) and
surf and mail (as I'm doing with this post) but not wirelessly.

As to the aiw bunch, I not only followed the given directions to the
letter, I had another offline relationship with someone who had the
exact same setup (Senao units in AP and Bridge mode doing what I
wanted, rather on a ski slope, than our mast-top); we could not kill
the IP conflict dragon. He and another offline correspondent
recommended either a switch or a router between the units. That,
indeed, solved the IP problem, and I was successful in making the
connectivity work.

That I can - from the top of the mast, before I closed it up, just
checking the setup - quote (from memory) the setup pages, and
manipulate them with my totally computer illiterate wife at the
keyboard below suggests I have a handle on how the unit works, despite
the chiding I get in aiw. What I don't know, of course, is why it
doesn't work later, after it's successfully worked - and I've very
easily manipulated the setup pages - before (and in fact can still do
so if connected over ethernet cable to a same-netclass configured NIC).

The conclusion, in any event, is that this unit is not suited to the
purpose, and more, is a "b " only vs b/g or others, which is one of the
gotchas which had me going nuts initially, as my b/g enabled unit could
see and communicate just fine with a station which the bridge could see
but not talk to. We presume they had their network set up as 'g' only
to increase connectivity or packet throughput or some other internal
reason, confusing me because of the success with the adapter and
failure with the bridge.

So, I'm on the hunt for a plug-and-play, moderately amplified (don't
want to be a bigmouth nuisance), point-and-click-to-associate
(required, not go to strongest signal, also a benefit in the cases
where there may be multiple iterations of the same SSID with different
MAC addresses), bridge (12V, as I've already spent the bux to have the
POE).


tom
=-==
p.s. Nice pics! Tampa at christmas time?

Yup - it was a real toad-strangler, as well as very high winds. We
were at family south, so only got to see it on TV. Glad you like the
pix. The electronics installations are nearly finished, with the
radar, chartplotter and other stuff working. Pix to follow, as well as
followup on the comms situation as I have something more than interim
reports to communicate.

The aiw and seven seas folks know that I'm more persistent than a
bulldog, so we *will* solve this challenge. The internet is perfectly
(well, acceptably) workable now, if I am willing to be connected to a
cable, and switch between NICs to make changes - which I'm not.

So, we'll have a new bridge, which will send down its static IP to the
telephone switch/router. That unit will be assigned an IP by the host,
and Vonage will then see the MAC of the base station to the two
wireless handsets, and log me into the world. The ISP (the local AP,
whether Beacon here, or something else elsewhere) signal will go on out
to the AP, which will provide us boatside wifi.

So, that's my current challenge. Just because there may be other
interest in phone connectivity, and this thread is pretty deep, I'm
also starting a new topic with this name. Informed, or experienced, or
knowledgeable, or otherwise contributions to this new thread
encouraged. This is the challenge:

A bridge connected to an antenna atop a mast. Light amplification to
get the signal back to whatever AP we're connected to ashore, whether
free public or subscription access. If we're a long way out, even
though we could hear them on the big antenna, we might not be able to
talk to them. That bridge is powered by, and sends data down to the
inside of the boat over, POE. We've proven that part of the system.

That data goes to a Vonage router/switch, via the WAN port. When it
sees an internet connection, the MAC is visible, so Vonage logs me in,
and I'm on the same telephone number as I've had for 30 years, having
taken advantage of the LNP to move it to Vonage several years ago.
That gives me a dial tone at the two wireless handheld phones. That
component has been proven. The above was proven, briefly, as we
successfully used the phone on two successive days when we were miles
out of the marina. It passes data out through the LAN port to a
computer or something else. That something else is:

An AP which we set up to allow us to access the internet wirelessly.
It's the same as having a wireless router in your home, if you were
connected to the Vonage unit, and the Vonage unit were connected to
your cable or DSL modem. At least one iteration of that has been
proven. Whether I stick with the Senao unit is yet TBD; I'm pretty
soured on them currently, and there may well be better solutions for
our boatside stuff.

My objective is to 1) Use plug-and-play units which require nothing
other than perhaps entries of addresses to set up, and perhaps firmware
upgrades and 2) not have to mess with any wires (Lydia's absolutely
ballistic over visible wires; she's spiral wrapping all the engine room
and any other places where any exposed wiring might be visible) once
it's set up. A power cycling should be all that's needed to start over
in the event of challenges, but I'll make it so I can get to the cables
involved in case I have to do some direct manipulation of the various
units. Once I've made the shoreside connection, the telephone is
active, and I don't have to have the computer running to achieve
telephony; turning on my computer and the AP should provide me internet
access. (Perhaps that's objective 3, but I think that should be a
given; if the Vonage unit is receiving an outside signal and is logged
in, turning on the AP will be the equivalent to your turning on the
computer hooked to that LAN port at home.)

Thanks again to all who've contributed to the original thread, and for
those looking in, I'm glad you like the pictures. I hope to make it so
someone trying to do the same thing as I, later, will have a visual
guide to what I did...

L8R

Skip, clueless in St. Pete

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery!
Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

p.p.s. I saw:
8 cranes abuilding;
7 gulls awinging;
6 slips aempty;
5...bosun's chair;safetyharness;halyardend;snapshackle Rings
4 stainless bolts;
3 copcars;
2 waterways;
and a partridge in a pear tree.
[video and imagination enhancing devices required for the last]