3com WAP - public/secure and 'N' vs B/G

I was at our local library today,
and it appears they have several WAP's installed,
but I had problems getting connected...

There are two SSID's -
one is public and one is private/secure.

Using WiFi Hopper it displayed a couple of 3Com access points
with what appeared to be "related" MAC addresses...
00:22:57:00:13:40 - public
00:22:57:00:13:42 - secure

Anyway - when I got home & sent an email to their "tech" person
and mentioned that I was having a problem,
here was the jist of the reply...
Wrong tech language makes me not hopeful

Since I don't have anything running B/G/N -
could they have something configured to support N,
that accidently doesn't allow B/G to connect - and they don't know it

----

I have familiarity with our
wireless access points, and also have familiarity with wireless
setups. I'm sorry you had some connection problems when you were at
the library. Every so often, our wireless connection weakens, but
overall, the signal is usually pretty strong. However, I have a few
ideas that you might want to try:

If you were sitting at a table near the magazines, you would be near
one of the wireless hubs, which should have boosted the
signal. There are 4 hubs throughout the library (2 downstairs, one
in the meeting room and one in Youth Services upstairs) and are for
anyone to use. You indicated that your laptop showed access points
of LLD-Public and LLD and if you select one of these, your laptop
should make the connection with no problem.

The LLD-Public connection is using the newest technology for 802.11 N.

In addition, some of the newer laptops, like ones from Dell, need a
utility enabled to allow complete connection. We ran into this
problem with the new laptops for our computer classes, and I know
another patron who also had this problem. If you are using a Dell,
you might want to check that you have enabled the Dell wireless
utility. You can go to the Dell website if you need to download it
--- it is called Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility. If you are using
a laptop made by another manufacturer, there is most likely a similar
utility for your wireless connections.

Another thing to double-check are any firewall settings you might
have enabled to protect your laptop when accessing wireless
points. Our wireless network is unsecured (no password required).

"LR" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsZedndyweZrdCjLUnZ2dnUVZ8o-(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 05/03/2009 03:23, ps56k wrote:
>> I was at our local library today,
>> and it appears they have several WAP's installed,
>> but I had problems getting connected...
>>
>> There are two SSID's -
>> one is public and one is private/secure.
>>
>> Using WiFi Hopper it displayed a couple of 3Com access points
>> with what appeared to be "related" MAC addresses...
>> 00:22:57:00:13:40 - public
>> 00:22:57:00:13:42 - secure
>>
>> Anyway - when I got home& sent an email to their "tech" person
>> and mentioned that I was having a problem,
>> here was the jist of the reply...
>> Wrong tech language makes me not hopeful
>>
>> Since I don't have anything running B/G/N -
>> could they have something configured to support N,
>> that accidently doesn't allow B/G to connect - and they don't know it
>
> If they are running an 802.11n network they don't have to allow 11b or 11g
> to connect, the draft 11n only says that the equipment must be capable of
> connecting to legacy devices so the user can have the capability to run a
> mixed network.
> Look at the set of 11n mode options that are available on this emulator
> <http://support.dlink.com/Emulators/dir655/Basic_Wireless.html>

If the access point is setup for 802.11n - and only 802.11n -
would I still see the SSID beacon on my b/g card via NetStumbler, Hopper,
Windows ?

Is the beacon packet seen by all technologies at the lowest common "speed &
structure",
and only goes into 802.11n mode after the actual connection ?

Would I see the SSID, but just not be able to establish a connection ?

I recently borrowed a wireless router that accepts cell phone 3G wireless
cards (this one was Sprint) and rebroadcasts the signal as standard b/g/n (I
don't recall the router brand)... I wanted to see if this setup had enough
bandwidth to allow three b/g equipped laptops to surf the net without
obvious slowdowns (it did). The default was set to broadcast in b/g/n modes,
so at one point I selected "n only" and after the router restarted all three
laptops detected the network but could not connect. I then connected to the
router with a network cable to change the setting back...