Problems connecting to Wifi, need help please.

[cparknson]

Hi everyone. I'm using the Motorola droid and when I'm at my house I can connect to my Apple Airport Extreme wireless connection perfectly. My problem is I'm going to Southern IL University at Carbondale IL and on campus their wireless net for the campus runs on a Cisco VPN client where you have to download a program that allows you to enter your user name and password to connect and I can not figure out how to get this connected. I've found a few topics on here talking about VPN clients but haven't found the one that really explains what to do or is it even possible. I'm a definite newbie when it comes to working with this system. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I really need to be able to connect up there because the 3G coverage is spotty on campus and some rooms have cell signals blocked out completely.

Another minor problem while I'm asking, most the time when someone sends me a text that has a pic or video attached it either won't show them or will just show a very small pic in the upper left part of the screen. Sometimes I'll get the sound but no pic. Any fixes for that?

 

[OyVOid]

I didn't even know this before this weekend. I was at a family dinner and my older brother (who happens to be a computer programmer) immediately grabbed my Droid as soon as I sat it down on the dinner table and basically he had his way with it. I felt so helpless to protect it. LOL!

Anyways , he was doing God knows what to it and then he asked if I every use the Wi-Fi feature and I said, "Whaaaaaat?"

If you go to menu >settings> Wireless & networks> Wi-Fi settings, you can select Wi-Fi scanning and Network notification to be ON and it will search for a Wi-Fi signals anywhere you are located. Some are secured and you need to enter in a password. Beyond that I don't know anything else.

Pretty cool though.

 

[cparknson]

I have done all of that already. The problem is it won't bring up a screen to let me log in. It show's that I have a strong wifi signal and it even shows both of the university's wifi connections, (don't know why there is two because both operate the same with the same passwords and everything but they have two for some reason), but it is showing they are there but when I try to connect to them it takes me to SIU's homepage where it directs you to set up your VPN client program for web access. There are programs for window's, mac's, Linux, Iphone's, and I think the Palm, or something like that. Maybe a few others as well, but nothing for an android operating system. I'm needing to figure out how to get around this. Any suggestions?

 

[OyVOid]

Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in.

Is your Airplane Mode On or OFF?, if it is ON it disables all wireless connections? It should be Off. My Wi-Fi settings give me 10 possible networks and when I click on anyone of them, it brings up a dialogue box to type in the password.

Sorry I can't help.

 

[cparknson]

Airplane mode is not checked on it. I'm able to connect with all the wireless networks I've tried with the exception of the colleges that has that Cisco VPN network client. I was thinking I read somewhere on here that you had to have your droid rooted and running a special program to be able to access a VPN type network but now I can't find that post again. I may be thinking of something else I've read so much stuff on here it all starts to run together so I don't know. I have not rooted my droid, so far I haven't had a need for it. That and I want to learn more about it before I go to tampering with things that can void my warranty. I will if I have to to be able to access that internet connection though.

I'm lost on this one. If anyone has an idea of what to try I'd really appreciate it.

 

[mrapollinax]

Typically you would need to setup your VPN settings in the phone. The phone has a built-in client that will support PPTP, L2TP, L2TP/IPSec PSK and L2TP/IPSec CRT VPN connections. You will need to check with your Campus IT department to see if you can support their VPN connection with your phone.

Your phone should find and connect to the on-campus wifi but you need to authenticate using your VPN client. When you connect using a laptop what is the process? Does your laptop first connect to the wifi and then the VPN client pops up asking to authenticate? What are the settings are used on your laptop to connect to the campus wifi?

 

[cparknson]

Well 3 weeks of trying and still have not managed to get connected through the wifi network at the college. When I connect with my laptop, I'm using an apple, I first go to applications and open the VPN client that I downloaded from the campus website. If you try to log on or use the wireless signal without having the VPN client on and logged in all it will do is take you to a page for installing it. But I do have to log in with my user name and password before it will connect with my laptop. Hooking up with the droid still has me stumped and that sucks cause the 3g coverage isn't too hot at all on campus.

If anyone has more suggestions I'm all ears.

 

[MPTP]

As mrapollinax stated, the Droid has a VPN client and you should ask the IT department what the proper settings are to determine if the Droid can support it. Email your school's network admin. Ask another student. Surely someone else there has successfully connected to the network with their phone.

Unfortunately without more information no one here can give you a definitive answer as to whether it will or won't work, or tell you the proper settings to enable it. All we can do is assume that it should work.

 

[cparknson]

We have all the settings and that is pretty much all the IT department can give us. I dropped my phone off and let them play with it all day last week and I think they spent more time playing with the phone than trying to set up the wifi. If they can't read it off a help screen then they don't know is what I'm starting to think. There are a couple people there that are very sharp with this stuff, unfortunately I haven't caught them in the office yet.

I haven't found anyone with a droid that has been able to connect yet, just a bunch that are trying. We've went through all the normal steps, just wondering if someone had an off the wall idea or app that could get around it or through it. I'm sure its something small that we are not catching because its reading the system to even bring up the cisco log in screen to begin with. Its just a matter of figuring out how to let us log in. So its got to be something minor.

 

[STIDRIVER]

There has got to be people all around you with smart phones that have allready figured this out.. have you asked any Iphony or BB users? I'd bet the procedure is very similar....

 

[cparknson]

Oh ya, they have setup instructions on the website for the I-phone's, palm's, and a couple others I think. I do know the latest I-phone software update has made the connection really buggy for a lot of them. But no, trying the same steps as the I-phone's, or any of the others they list does not work, nor does trying to pull a little bit of everything out of each to try different combo's. None of the files you have to download for any of the other systems want to open on the droid, or run. Says something that its not compatible or something along those lines.

I'd say I've asked about 30 or so people with droids now and I've not found anyone yet that's gotten it to connect. I'm starting to wonder if those files for each system on their website are the problem, cause with a laptop, you won't connect till you download it and I can't get one they have listed to load properly without saying its the wrong format. They have about any system you could think of listed with step by step instructions except the android.

Is the droid similar system wise to the linux, mac, or any of those other op. systems as far as its base programing goes? If it is I'll play with trying to get that one to work more on the droid.

 

[MPTP]

Sorry to hear about all the trouble. Since no one has figured it out yet you probably need to install a certificate in order to get it to work. That is something I know nothing about as I've never had to do it before.

Unfortunately it won't be as easy as just copying the certificate over to the phone and installing it. A friend of mine went through this process and said it wasn't easy. I will try to get him on the phone sometime tonight or this weekend to see if he can tell me all the hoops he had to jump through in order to make it work.

 

[vegainey]

I am familiar with the Cisco VPN Client you are using, and it is not supported on a non-rooted Android (yet).

You can track it as Issue 3902 ere:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3902

 

[cparknson]

Well its good to know I'm not just an idiot and too stupid to figure out how to use my phone. It does suck that the phone's not capable of it though. That's a pretty major thing to not be capable of. Wish I'd known that before hand. I guess I'll look into what it takes to hook up to it if I root my droid but I'm not too crazy about doing that. I guess I will if I have to though cause I need it bad.

MPTP, if you hear anything about this from your friend I'd appreciate it if you could let me know.

 

[MPTP]

I talked to my friend briefly today and his story is remarkably similar to yours. Tried and tried, nothing would work so he gave up until he saw another in his building with a working Droid. That man referred him to their "resident Android expert" and my friend left his phone with him. Picked it up later in the day with working wifi.

Apparently the phone had to be rooted and he's using "some free VPN software from the market." I checked the market and assume he's using VPN connections but I didn't think to ask at the time. He did say that his ability to stay connected was relatively poor and was unsure if that was because of the phone or method of connection.

My friend is currently out of his home state and won't be back to his office for another week or two, but I did ask him if he could grab the Android guy and get him to email or fax me some directions. Hopefully I can pass those along since this stuff is kinda over my head.