Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 June 27

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June 27

When I turn OFF my WEP, PSP and Bootcamp Windows suddenly works?

I've been trying to get my PSP connected to my wireless internet all night. I finally tried just turning off the WEP and what do you know, it worked! Why is that? I know the key was correct (and it works on my PS3 just fine). After this, I decided to try to connect Windows XP on my Macbook (through Bootcamp) to the wireless. Before this, it would always have trouble locating an IP. And of course, it worked! But why? The internet works fine for the Mac OS, and I can connect the Windows XP to other wireless internets (ie at my friend's house), so why did I need to do this now? I'm using Ambit Broadband if that makes a difference.

I've read something about needing a 13 character WEP password (mine is much longer), at least for the PSP. Does this relate at all to my situation? I've also read that keeping the WEP off isn't exactly safe, but is not terrible. I'll probably turn it back on once I'm done with what I need to do, but I doubt anything bad would happen if I left it off...

Thank you

74.69.117.101 (talk) 06:29, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

WEP has two authentication modes - shared key authentication, and open authentication. Have you tried setting your wireless router to open authentication? - Letsbefiends (talk) 07:57, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

On the security issue: WEP is meant to keep unauthorized people from using your WiFi. But it's horribly broken — even someone with very basic technical skills and a desire to do so can break into it in less than 10 minutes. So it's really not much when it comes to security. WPA is much better; if you have that option, try it instead. Basically all WEP does is keep completely random strangers from hogging your bandwidth, which isn't nothing, but it's not much by way of security. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:13, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

identical file problem

Hello all. Kubuntu 12.04. I love wmpinboard (a little app that manages a things-to-do-list) but want to have the same to-do list at home and at work. The to-do notes are stored in a file that is apparently hard-coded to ~/.wmpinboarddata. My first thought was to use a hard link:

 ln ~/.wmpinboarddata ~/Dropbox/.wmpinboarddata

(and then do the same at the office), but this doesn't work because wmpinboard over-writes the ~/.wmpinboarddata file and gives it a new inode number, so the link is lost and the files differ. Can anyone advise? Robinh (talk) 10:09, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

That's odd. I found the source here, but it does an fopen as a binary file, then it writes to the file. It shouldn't be changing the inode number of the file! How do you know that this is what is happening? Are you sure it's not the way that Dropbox is handling the file? How have you got Dropbox installed on Kubuntu? - Letsbefiends (talk) 11:51, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

You could set up a simple script that changes the HOME environment variable to ~/Dropbox for wmpinboard, and use that script to run it instead. I doubt it would have any negative effects on the program. I haven't checked all the source, but the file linked above only uses it for figuring out where to drop the data file. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 12:18, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Did you try using a soft link (ln -s)? I have been using Linux for almost 20 years, and have never yet needed to create a hard link -- they are tricky things. Looie496 (talk) 15:40, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

More WEP woes

Hello, guy from last night here. After disabling the WEP, I reenabled it later, only to find that I could not connect to the internet at all. What was really weird was that my girlfriend's macbook (lion, with wifi), was able to get to the internet fine. Airport kept self assigning an IP on my macbook and the PS3 was not able to connect. On my girlfriend's macbook, I went back to the router and shut off the WEP. And now everything works...what a mess. Why was the one macbook able to work and not mine? I would think it might be a wrong password or something on my part, but the PS3 wasn't working either. Any thoughts? 74.69.117.101 (talk) 17:32, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

As per my previous comment, what is WEP set to on the router - shared key authentication or open authentication? Also - why use WEP, given it's not particularly secure - try WPA2. - Letsbefiends (talk) 03:59, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Taking a step back, in your earlier post you mentioned using a PSP to connect. Sorry for the vagueness, becasue it's been a couple of years, but when I was using my PSP to connect wirelessly, I had to order my router to use some old, obsolete wireless security scheme, because the PSP would not work with fancy WPA or WPA2 schemes. You may have to make the experiment of using the minimum amount of security, checking to see if everything works, then incrementally increasing the security regime until something (it will be the PSP) is unable to connect, and then you have to decide whether you want to run your wireless network with that amount of crappy network security. Alternatively, if you have 2 wireless routers, you could set up your network with your cable modem (or DSL modem) connected to wireless router #1 which has minimal wireless security, and which has a wired connection to wireless router #2 which is set up with good security. Have your PSP be the only device that connects wirelessly to wireless router #1, with its bad security; and have your computers and PS3 and other modern stuff connect to wireless router #2 so they'll enjoy a secure connection. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:22, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Another point that may come up is that the PSP only supports 802.11b and does not support the five-times-faster 802.11g like everything else these days does. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:35, 28 June 2012 (UTC)