Double Wireless for VCM And Internet

[DwayneGorniak]

Ad-Hoc vs. Infrastructure mode. Ad-hoc is great for going on a road test without cables but sucks when you have to do a ton of FICM or PCM reprogramming like I do. Disconnect from Internet and connect to VCM, find out you need to download a later calibration, disconnect from VCM and connect to internet, download file, disconnect from internet and connect to VCM, punt in the calibration, and so on. Now take into consideration using your laptop to look at PCED's like I do and that makes the disconnecting and connecting unbearable.

 

Infrastructure Mode is great if you want to do what I was just talking anbout seemlessly and have a larger distance range within the shop. However, there is that slight pain of hooking up the cable for a road test. Didn't bother me that much. But curiousity got the cat. So I thought, why can't I use my internal wireless card for our main wireless network and add another wireless card into my expansion slot to be programmed exclusively for Ad-hoc mode?

 

So I did it. It was a bit of a tit fight figguring it out. (What is a tit fight you might ask: Well....you know what it is like when a woman has one tit bigger than the other and you have to reach up just a little further with your neck and strain to reach the smaller one. That's a tit fight. Good thing I got a woman with two huge ones. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbup.gif /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif )

 

Any way, Here's how I did it. Go to start menu and right click my computer, then click properties, then click hardware and then device manager. Go down to network adaptors and find your internal wireless card, click it and disable it. Close that all out and then install a new wireless card into your laptop. You may have to restart your computer once or twice during this procedure. Go to your VCM wireless cofiguration wizard and program that card for Ad-hoc mode. Get your VCM up and running on Ad-hoc and verify it is working good. Then go back into Start menu, right click my computer, click properties, click hardware, then click device manager. Go down to network adaptors and find your wireless card that you disabled and enable it. Now your second wireless card is exclusivly for Ad-hoc mode and your internal card is for your regular wireless network. I have found that it is quicker to power up the VCM before you open up IDS. The IDS system automaticly bridges connections. I can download callibration files, surf the web, go in and out of service manuals and never quit communicating with the VCM. I can go on a road test wirelessly and when I come back to the shop, my laptop automaticly connects to the network like it always did. This is awsome. I now have two wireless antenna icons down on the bottom right of my laptop that tell me the signal strength of each signal. I did this a weak ago and wanted to give it a good test run before I posted my results. I must say the results are just plain frickin awsome. Hope some of you guys can enjoy the same results.

 

 

Warning: My laptop is a Dell Latitude D810. I installed a linksys wireless card. When I put it in, my laptop automatically recognized the wireless card as a Dell 1300 wireless adaptor. I ignored that and installed all the linksys drivers. Then the lynksys wireless utility and my internal Dell card starting fighting eachother /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/boxing.gif. That was the tit fight. The lynkys would not allow the Dell to enable. So I had to fool my laptop and program the lynksys card as the Dell 1300 card. It worked seemlessly after that. So some computers may have software issues that you may have to fight with.

[Keith Browning]

Dwayne I have been waiting for someone to try this and see if or how well it works. All you needed was an additional wireless card in your laptop PC card slot. Keep us posted on how well it works.

 

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[DwayneGorniak]

Man, I love it. Like I said, it's just freakin awsome.

[DwayneGorniak]

Well, It's been fours weaks now and the system runs flawlessly.

[OHNO60]

HEY DWAYNE, JUST CURIOUS IF YOUR WIRELESS IS STILL WORKING? FINALLY GOING TO TRY THAT OUT. THANKS FOR THE POST!

[DwayneGorniak]

I use it every day and wouldn't want to be without it. Man, I love bein able to have no wires between the VCM and Laptop. Especially when I'm doing air pressure tests on the high pressure systems, I can just throw the laptop on top of the rad support or fan shroud and do my active commands and see what's going on right in front of me. No tripping on cords or jumping over them. It has been absolutely great.

[slim]

Just curious about your setup if you have a toughbook. What type of card do you have and does it fit inside the computer with the door closed? My boss just approved us to get a wireless card to run two connections and apparently put me in charge of purchasing. on edit nevermind-I just reread the first post. So if anyone else has experience with a second wireless card in a toughbook I'd appreciate any info.

[DwayneGorniak]

Slim, I have a Dell Latitude. But when I was at Fourlane, they had a Toughbook with a Belkin card in it. The Belkin card worked great. But we had to remove the door from the Toughbook. We just took out the little screws and removed the door.

[Keith Browning]

I recently acquired a wireless card for my VCM...

 

(thank you oh generous Turbo-Santa) /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rockon.gif

 

and had it set up and working with a dual wireless configuration in about 30 minutes. I am using a Dell Latitude 600D and I stuck a Linksys wireless card in the slot, loaded the drivers and UN-INSTALLED THE LINKSYS CONFIGURATION UTILITY before downloading the software for the VCM card from Teradyne. It works well but I would have expected a stronger signal being that the laptop and the VCM were only 5 to 10 feet apart. I plug in the VCM and loop it around the steering column and place it on the dash in line of sight. I am getting about 86% signal strength.

 

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But it does work nicely! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbup.gif

 

I believe the reason so many guys have trouble with setting up a dual wireless configuration is that they don't un-install all third party configuration tools and let Windows control the devices and connections. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif