I can't connect to hotspot

Aside from the fact that I'm 68 and totally new to wireless, I'm at a
loss to figure this out:

Got my new (to me) laptop and loaded it with Streets and Trips 2004,
Delorme Street Atlas 2004, my GPS drivers, and my picture loading
software. Windows XP got it all working fine.

The laptop already had a Microsoft MN-520 802.11b PCMCIA card installed,
and it was working fine when I bought it on Friday.

I loaded Netscape 7.2 (as my browser, to use for email and newsgroups)
and drove down to the Travel America truckstop to try it out. When I
got there, the laptop indeed identified TA as a hotspot and connected.
So far so good. I get out my credit card to buy some time.

But, when I clicked on Netscape, it showed that the the network is
connecting, then nothing. The first time I tried this a few weeks ago
(with a Netgear WG511 card on my old WIN 98 laptop), Internet Explorer
brought up a Travel America page with payment instructions to continue.

This time with Netscape, nothing. My signal reads 3 bars ("good") and
it says I'm connected, but I can't sign in to TA to pay to get on line.

Keep in mind that I know absolutely nothing about wifi, or any of the
buzz words, nor am I familiar with XP. I've gone thru every thing I can
think of, but that ain't much, since I'm so new to all this wifi stuff.

Help, please? Can you tell from any of this, what am I doing wrong, or
what more information do I need to provide you with?

It's a Fujitsu 400MHz laptop with about 160 Mb of RAM, and it showed
that it was connected to the TA hotspot at 11Mps. The XP "wireless
wizard" config screens weren't much help, since I didn't understand the
choices they were asking me to make, using terms I didn't know.

Harvey Gerst
Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://www.ITRstudio.com/

"Harvey Gerst" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Aside from the fact that I'm 68 and totally new to wireless, I'm at a
> loss to figure this out:
>
> Got my new (to me) laptop and loaded it with Streets and Trips 2004,
> Delorme Street Atlas 2004, my GPS drivers, and my picture loading
> software. Windows XP got it all working fine.
>
> The laptop already had a Microsoft MN-520 802.11b PCMCIA card installed,
> and it was working fine when I bought it on Friday.
>
> I loaded Netscape 7.2 (as my browser, to use for email and newsgroups)
> and drove down to the Travel America truckstop to try it out. When I
> got there, the laptop indeed identified TA as a hotspot and connected.
> So far so good. I get out my credit card to buy some time.
>
> But, when I clicked on Netscape, it showed that the the network is
> connecting, then nothing. The first time I tried this a few weeks ago
> (with a Netgear WG511 card on my old WIN 98 laptop), Internet Explorer
> brought up a Travel America page with payment instructions to continue.
>
> This time with Netscape, nothing. My signal reads 3 bars ("good") and
> it says I'm connected, but I can't sign in to TA to pay to get on line.
>
> Keep in mind that I know absolutely nothing about wifi, or any of the
> buzz words, nor am I familiar with XP. I've gone thru every thing I can
> think of, but that ain't much, since I'm so new to all this wifi stuff.
>
> Help, please? Can you tell from any of this, what am I doing wrong, or
> what more information do I need to provide you with?
>
> It's a Fujitsu 400MHz laptop with about 160 Mb of RAM, and it showed
> that it was connected to the TA hotspot at 11Mps. The XP "wireless
> wizard" config screens weren't much help, since I didn't understand the
> choices they were asking me to make, using terms I didn't know.

I can only give some guesses. Firstly, when you connect to a wireless
hotspot, you need to open a browser and login via their 'splash' screen (in
this case Travel America screen). Even though your computer is connected to
the wifi network, you don't have permission to do anything else until you
have logged in via this splash screen.

It may be possible that their splash screen is not netscape friendly, so try
and log in via internet explorer, and when done, open netscape.

Finally, use tools such as 'ping' and 'tracert' with the command shell
(start > run > cmd from the start menu). e.g. tracert www.bbc.co.uk

This will help you diagnose whether or not you are correctly connected and
logged in.

Harvey Gerst <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I loaded Netscape 7.2 (as my browser, to use for email and newsgroups)
> and drove down to the Travel America truckstop to try it out. When I
> got there, the laptop indeed identified TA as a hotspot and connected.
> So far so good. I get out my credit card to buy some time.

> But, when I clicked on Netscape, it showed that the the network is
> connecting, then nothing. The first time I tried this a few weeks ago
> (with a Netgear WG511 card on my old WIN 98 laptop), Internet Explorer
> brought up a Travel America page with payment instructions to continue.

When you say "clicked on Netscape", are you opening a new browser, or is
this a window that was open from before?

The hotspots usually use a special server so that any page that you request
is redirected to their login page, but if you have a page leftover from an
earlier hotspot, it won't open the new page, or the old page.

This is sort of mentioned on their FAQ page
< http://www.tatravelcenters.com/ta/di...ml?page_id=720 >

What web site were you trying to open? Was it maybe one that you had
opened previously. I'm not sure about Netscape, but it might have cached
old information, and just not worked properly. Try something different.

You could try a different hotspot, like Starbucks, just to see if the login
page comes up.

There are lots of nationwide plans. The TA setup looks like quite a few
spots. Starbucks/Barnes&Noble/T-Mobile has lots of spots. Boingo has a
lot. There are lots of "free" spots.

You might check out Boingo, T-Mobile, and Intel, to see if there are any
other sites near you that you could test.

http://www.boingo.com/search.html
< https://selfcare.hotspot.t-mobile.co...ationDomain.do >
http://intel.jiwire.com/

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Harvey Gerst <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> I loaded Netscape 7.2 (as my browser, to use for email and newsgroups)
>> and drove down to the Travel America truckstop to try it out. When I
>> got there, the laptop indeed identified TA as a hotspot and connected.
>> So far so good. I get out my credit card to buy some time.
>
>> But, when I clicked on Netscape, it showed that the the network is
>> connecting, then nothing. The first time I tried this a few weeks ago
>> (with a Netgear WG511 card on my old WIN 98 laptop), Internet Explorer
>> brought up a Travel America page with payment instructions to continue.
>
>When you say "clicked on Netscape", are you opening a new browser, or is
>this a window that was open from before?

Well, here was my thinking when I got this new laptop: I wanted to get
email and newsgroups with one program, so I loaded Netscape 7.2 and
deleted Internet Explorer. (Turns out, I didn't delete IE, so I'll try
that tonight, when I retest the system.)

>The hotspots usually use a special server so that any page that you request
>is redirected to their login page, but if you have a page leftover from an
>earlier hotspot, it won't open the new page, or the old page.

This is a new install of Netscape so the default home page tried to come
up. I reset it to come up blank, but the TA splash page still isn't
showing.

>This is sort of mentioned on their FAQ page
>< http://www.tatravelcenters.com/ta/di...ml?page_id=720 >

Cool, I didn't know about that page. Thank you.

>What web site were you trying to open? Was it maybe one that you had
>opened previously. I'm not sure about Netscape, but it might have cached
>old information, and just not worked properly. Try something different.

I've got IE working so I'll try that tonight.

>You could try a different hotspot, like Starbucks, just to see if the login
>page comes up.

There's a free Panera Bread hotspot about 20 miles away. I plan to try
that, too.

>There are lots of nationwide plans. The TA setup looks like quite a few
>spots. Starbucks/Barnes&Noble/T-Mobile has lots of spots. Boingo has a
>lot. There are lots of "free" spots.

This is going in our motor home, so I just want to test it and make sure
the damn thing works and I know how to use it.

>You might check out Boingo, T-Mobile, and Intel, to see if there are any
>other sites near you that you could test.
>
>http://www.boingo.com/search.html
>< https://selfcare.hotspot.t-mobile.co...ationDomain.do >
>http://intel.jiwire.com/

I'll try those.

Harvey Gerst
Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://www.ITRstudio.com/

On Mon, 02 May 2005 13:01:34 -0500, in alt.internet.wireless , Harvey
Gerst <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Well, here was my thinking when I got this new laptop: I wanted to get
>email and newsgroups with one program, so I loaded Netscape 7.2 and
>deleted Internet Explorer. (Turns out, I didn't delete IE, so I'll try
>that tonight, when I retest the system.)

You can't delete IE, its integrated into the OS. If you try, you'll
most likely render your computer unusable.

Plus you'll need IE if you ever visit Windows Update or most other MS
websites, they simply refuse to work with any other browser.

--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
CLC readme: <http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>

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Mark McIntyre <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Mon, 02 May 2005 13:01:34 -0500, in alt.internet.wireless , Harvey
>Gerst <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Well, here was my thinking when I got this new laptop: I wanted to get
>>email and newsgroups with one program, so I loaded Netscape 7.2 and
>>deleted Internet Explorer. (Turns out, I didn't delete IE, so I'll try
>>that tonight, when I retest the system.)
>
>You can't delete IE, its integrated into the OS. If you try, you'll
>most likely render your computer unusable.

Well, it seems like the OS brought IE back from the dead. Gonna see if
it work in an hour or so.

>Plus you'll need IE if you ever visit Windows Update or most other MS
>websites, they simply refuse to work with any other browser.

Harvey Gerst
Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://www.ITRstudio.com/

Harvey Gerst <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Well, here was my thinking when I got this new laptop: I wanted to get
> email and newsgroups with one program, so I loaded Netscape 7.2 and
> deleted Internet Explorer. (Turns out, I didn't delete IE, so I'll try
> that tonight, when I retest the system.)

Even if you don't use it, you might want to leave IE installed. It is
supposed to be officially disconnected from the OS, but I'd rather just
leave it in place, fetching my Windows Updates on a regular basis.oAnd also
as the "base reference" for web sites that don't quite work.

> This is going in our motor home, so I just want to test it and make sure
> the damn thing works and I know how to use it.

Yep. Having even one "public" hotpsot connect and work will prove that you
can make the connection, and should work for other sites, once you hit the
road.

If the Panerra bread site has a splash screen login, I'd say that would be
a fine test. If it is wide open, with no splash screen login, you still
have to get somewhere to pass that test.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Harvey Gerst <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Well, here was my thinking when I got this new laptop: I wanted to get
>> email and newsgroups with one program, so I loaded Netscape 7.2 and
>> deleted Internet Explorer. (Turns out, I didn't delete IE, so I'll try
>> that tonight, when I retest the system.)
>
>Even if you don't use it, you might want to leave IE installed. It is
>supposed to be officially disconnected from the OS, but I'd rather just
>leave it in place, fetching my Windows Updates on a regular basis.oAnd also
>as the "base reference" for web sites that don't quite work.

Seems like it can't be removed anyway.

>> This is going in our motor home, so I just want to test it and make sure
>> the damn thing works and I know how to use it.
>
>Yep. Having even one "public" hotpsot connect and work will prove that you
>can make the connection, and should work for other sites, once you hit the
>road.
>
>If the Panerra bread site has a splash screen login, I'd say that would be
>a fine test. If it is wide open, with no splash screen login, you still
>have to get somewhere to pass that test.

Panera didn't work, but the Travel America splash screen came up fine on
IE, so, thanks to everybody here, it seems like I'm gonna be fine. I
deleted Netscape and I'll probably just use Free Agent (or a small
newsgroup reader to get to the newsgroups, and IE for email and
browsing.

Thanks to everybody for the help.

Harvey Gerst
Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://www.ITRstudio.com/

Harvey Gerst wrote:
>
> Help, please? Can you tell from any of this, what am I doing wrong,
> or what more information do I need to provide you with?
>
> It's a Fujitsu 400MHz laptop with about 160 Mb of RAM, and it showed
> that it was connected to the TA hotspot at 11Mps. The XP "wireless
> wizard" config screens weren't much help, since I didn't understand
> the choices they were asking me to make, using terms I didn't know.
>
> Harvey Gerst
> Indian Trail Recording Studio
> http://www.ITRstudio.com/

Do it with Internet explorer instead of netscape. Most sites use "splash"
screens (to display instructs on your system), and some versions of netscape
don't work correctly.

(you didn't say what version of netscape, but they keep coming out with new
versions to fix old problems, I just try things with IE)