Wi-Fi Access problem

I hope this is the right group to try and solve my problem!

I have a UT Starcom F1000G Wi-Fi phone which was finally replaced
after problems. The old one was used in USA but with some difficulty,
hence the replacement.

Now I'm at home I have a D-Link router which works ok after many
e-mails to the phone company. For some reason I had to change to WEP
but at least it now works at home.

In my local area there are only a small nunber of unlocked sytems and
on holiday in Costa del Sol very few were found. The problem is I have
not yet got the new phone to register and work outside the home. Twice
I got the message "Registering" but that never succeded. At home it
takes about 35 seconds.

The question is should the phone find/register and work with any
unlocked system or do I still have a problem with the phone.

Thanks,
David

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I hope this is the right group to try and solve my problem!

uk.telecom.voip might be worth a shot.

> Now I'm at home I have a D-Link router which works ok after many
> e-mails to the phone company. For some reason I had to change to WEP
> but at least it now works at home.

Change to WEP from what? WEP is commonly thought to be so insecure as to be
pointless.

> In my local area there are only a small nunber of unlocked sytems and
> on holiday in Costa del Sol very few were found. The problem is I have
> not yet got the new phone to register and work outside the home. Twice
> I got the message "Registering" but that never succeded. At home it
> takes about 35 seconds.

When you say 'unlocked system', are you referring to a Wifi AP with no
encryption? Bear in mind that if you're using some random wifi access
point, there are absolutely no guarantees whatsoever that it will work. It
could even be a honeypot set up to capture login details or other personal
information from the unsuspecting freeloader. What were the SSIDs of the
APs you were attempting to connect through? Some unencrypted APs require
you to click through an agreement or log in through a web page before
granting access.

> The question is should the phone find/register and work with any
> unlocked system or do I still have a problem with the phone.

I would have said that if it works with your access point but not anyone
elses, then the problem is likely to be down to the configuration of either
the access point or the phone, not a fault with the phone itself. Can you
browse the internet through any of these open access points? Is your phone
using DHCP or a manual IP address? If it's manual, your IP settings will
most likely be wrong.

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In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, david@lochaber-
physio.co.uk says...
> I hope this is the right group to try and solve my problem!
>
> I have a UT Starcom F1000G Wi-Fi phone which was finally replaced
> after problems. The old one was used in USA but with some difficulty,
> hence the replacement.
>
> Now I'm at home I have a D-Link router which works ok after many
> e-mails to the phone company. For some reason I had to change to WEP
> but at least it now works at home.
>
> In my local area there are only a small nunber of unlocked sytems and
> on holiday in Costa del Sol very few were found. The problem is I have
> not yet got the new phone to register and work outside the home. Twice
> I got the message "Registering" but that never succeded. At home it
> takes about 35 seconds.
>
> The question is should the phone find/register and work with any
> unlocked system or do I still have a problem with the phone.
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
When you say 'unlocked system' are you referring to public wifi or any
wifi that you detect. If the latter, try knocking on doors and asking
the owner to set his wifi up correctly to allow you to illegally use it
for your phone calls.

If the former, most public wifis need some sort of logon.

On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:33:35 +0000, alexd <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> I hope this is the right group to try and solve my problem!
>
>uk.telecom.voip might be worth a shot.
>
>> Now I'm at home I have a D-Link router which works ok after many
>> e-mails to the phone company. For some reason I had to change to WEP
>> but at least it now works at home.
>
>Change to WEP from what? WEP is commonly thought to be so insecure as to be
>pointless.
>
>> In my local area there are only a small nunber of unlocked sytems and
>> on holiday in Costa del Sol very few were found. The problem is I have
>> not yet got the new phone to register and work outside the home. Twice
>> I got the message "Registering" but that never succeded. At home it
>> takes about 35 seconds.
>
>When you say 'unlocked system', are you referring to a Wifi AP with no
>encryption? Bear in mind that if you're using some random wifi access
>point, there are absolutely no guarantees whatsoever that it will work. It
>could even be a honeypot set up to capture login details or other personal
>information from the unsuspecting freeloader. What were the SSIDs of the
>APs you were attempting to connect through? Some unencrypted APs require
>you to click through an agreement or log in through a web page before
>granting access.
>
>> The question is should the phone find/register and work with any
>> unlocked system or do I still have a problem with the phone.
>
>I would have said that if it works with your access point but not anyone
>elses, then the problem is likely to be down to the configuration of either
>the access point or the phone, not a fault with the phone itself. Can you
>browse the internet through any of these open access points? Is your phone
>using DHCP or a manual IP address? If it's manual, your IP settings will
>most likely be wrong.

Thanks for the various comments. As you will gather I'm very new to
wi-fi and not familiar with much of the terminology etc.

I'm not impressed with having to use WEP but I've not tried changing
back since making some other changes. Fortunately there's not much
wi-fi around here and I've deliberately use reduced the router power.

By unlocked I mean no padlock sign against the name.

I believe I use DHPC.

At least on SSID in Costa del Sol, possibly two had names suggesting
they were for public access. I may be wrong

Locally it's just walking down the high street to find a signal though
one has a name suggesting it's open. I think it was "? cloud".

As for needing to "click through an agreement or log in" there's
nothing on the phone screen to suggest anything. This is a basic
phone.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Thanks for the various comments. As you will gather I'm very new to
> wi-fi and not familiar with much of the terminology etc.
>
> I'm not impressed with having to use WEP but I've not tried changing
> back since making some other changes. Fortunately there's not much
> wi-fi around here and I've deliberately use reduced the router power.
>
> By unlocked I mean no padlock sign against the name.
>
> I believe I use DHPC.

If you don't know, then the chances are that you are using DHCP.

> At least on SSID in Costa del Sol, possibly two had names suggesting
> they were for public access. I may be wrong

I'm just guessing here, but if they've been set up as intentionally open
access points, then they may require you to click on something first before
letting you on to the internet. Then again it may have been nothing more
than just a bog standard AP with no encryption and an SSID suggesting that
it's free to use :-)

> Locally it's just walking down the high street to find a signal though
> one has a name suggesting it's open. I think it was "? cloud".

Presumably this is a The Cloud hotspot that requires a login or an agreement
not to abuse the service before use.

> As for needing to "click through an agreement or log in" there's
> nothing on the phone screen to suggest anything. This is a basic
> phone.

Exactly - your phone will not be allowed access to the internet because you
haven't clicked through a login or agreement.

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On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:00:49 +0000, alexd <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

-- Cut --
>Presumably this is a The Cloud hotspot that requires a login or an agreement
>not to abuse the service before use.
>
>> As for needing to "click through an agreement or log in" there's
>> nothing on the phone screen to suggest anything. This is a basic
>> phone.
>
>Exactly - your phone will not be allowed access to the internet because you
>haven't clicked through a login or agreement.

Unfortunately I suspect you're right :-(
Not being familiar with wi-fi I wasn't sure what's happening.

My Son bought me the phone last Xmas so I could use in the USA (he'd
already found hotspots on the web so I knew it should work). It's left
me with a steep learning curve as I had to buy the router to make use
of it when I got back home!

Thanks for your help.