Reach Wireless - a little help please

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vbgeezer

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1396 18-Apr-2004 15:30

Can anyone fill in some gaps for me?

I have just bought an iPaq 4150 and subscribed to reachwireless.co.nz

I took myself excited little self off to the Auckland Downtown Starbucks to try it out :(

I can connect to the REACH AP but cannot surf any pages. Has anyone else used reach sucessfully. I expected it to be point and go. I can see REACH and even connect but ie won't surf a page.

I can't understand one other thing, is there somewhere I should enter my reach account details? How do they know it's me and charge my account?

Any help appreciated....

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#4880 18-Apr-2004 15:38

I'm going to Auckland this week, and will try Reach. I use Cafe Net in Wellington most of the time.

If it's like Cafe Net you just have to find a hotspot, and when asked tap the option saying "This network connects to the internet". Then open your Pocket Internet Explorer and go to www.reachwireless.co.nz, entering your username and password. Only then you'll have access to the Internet.

Now, I'm just imagining it will be like this, because there's nothing on their site actually telling users how to use the service.

vbgeezer

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#4881 18-Apr-2004 15:40

Hi Thanks for that

Didn't try that deliberately but did try to connect to reachwireless whilst connected :(

Anyway have end email to reach also so if get a response will post here.

Thanks

freitasm

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#4974 21-Apr-2004 22:42

Ok, have been to Auckland today, and tried Reach. Worked fine on my Pocket PC (a h4150 like yours), as you can see below. Once connected I opened Pocket Internet Explorer and tried to browse to any page. It showed a Reach Wireless logon page. I logged in with my user name and password, and was then able to browse, connect to my pop3 e-mail server, etc:

vbgeezer

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#4976 21-Apr-2004 23:36

Hi thanks for that Steve Simms from Reach tells me that the problem is probably the locations I chose. See his notes...

Both BP and Starbucks also use our generation1 kit – we are moving away from this stuff

There are two authentication types we use – Generation 1 kit and the better Proxim / Nomadix / RoamAD solution.

Generation 1 kit (starbucks, BP, Viaduct) use a Cisco837 DSL router connected to a Lynksys access point. This solution is very dependant on the Cisco router. In this configuration, we have managed to bypass the standard Cisco login screen and offer our own page which has a script request embedded in it to request name and password. The router is also set up for safe sites so you can easily browse our site before we open the internet ports.

In this configuration, we use standard RADIUS authentication. I understand from the techs that the Java applet is causing the issues here as Java pop ups usually can’t be determined by the browser on PPC2003 (or earlier). Even other browsers like Mozilla and Opera have trouble and Apple users had to do a work-around to make it happen.

Essentially, we would issue an IP address and use a telnet session to kill off the connection when it runs out of credit. In essence, the interim radius records are sent to our billing system at a very regular interval.

We did not like the system at all.

To that end, we have a programme to replace these gen 1 units for the Proxim, Nomadix or Roam gear. In this circumstance, these boxes don’t care what your settings are or what device even what browser you’re using. It simply uses standard Radius and has a more elegant way of handling a session without having to “hack” back into the router – real smart edge stuff.

Today, our Zone should be perfect for you (as well as Spencer on Byron in Takapuna).

I have to add that Steve Simms was just superb to deal with an dI fully intend to try another location in the next few days. Out of curiousity, where did you access from?

freitasm

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#4978 21-Apr-2004 23:44

I actually used my Pocket PC on a couple of Starbucks on Queen St. The first one I had problem authenticating, in the second one I used Access Netfront instead of Pocket Internet Explorer. Access Netfront supports multiple windows (tabbed browsing) and it opened a new window saying "Authentication successful".

zane

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#6139 28-May-2004 22:56

vbgeezer:

Any idea where I can find what the Mac work-around actually is? I haven't had any success using the REACH network with my Mac, nor any help from anyone at REACH. I get the afore mentioned router issue; every time I attempt to access a website after logging in, I'm bounced straight back to the REACH homepage.

Contrary to your experience, my contact with Steve Simms was significantly less helpful. After advising him of the issues I was experiencing, all I got back was an "Our Zone should not present any issues for you." response. (Gee thanks, that helps.)

Phoning the help desk yielded similarly anti-helpful advice; "it says here Macintosh users can't access the network" (um, yeh... that's why I'm calling), "I'll have someone phone you".

Well, I'm still waiting for the call.

I first subscribed to REACH over 6 months ago, and have been periodically checking to see if I can successfully use the network over this time. Still no go. As I live on Queen Street, in Downtown Auckland, it would be kinda handy if REACH actually worked for me... I've not had any trouble with hotspots anywhere else in the world (well, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Los Angeles at least..), nor do I with the wireless LAN at work.

Right now, I couldn't recommend REACH to anyone using a Mac - unless of course I can find out what this workaround is, and establish that it does indeed work.

aucklander2004

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#8687 19-Sep-2004 22:23

You'll be pleased to know my mac works ok on the network. contact reach on email (contact@reachwireless.co.nz) and a help file will be sent.

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zane

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#8706 20-Sep-2004 13:54

Awesome, I'll try email them - thanks for the input :)