Ad-Hoc / Direct Connection to Laptop or Computer

[Stitch10925]

Hey,

I do not have any Eye-Fi card yet, but I do like to inform myself before buying something, that's why I ended up going through the forum and finding this post.

I agree that the missing ad-hoc feature on the card is a major drawback, but if I understand correctly, the main problem is that the card requires DHCP, well....I might have something for you guys.

Now, this software is only for Windows, so mac users....sorry!

It is called TFTPD32 and can be downloaded here: http://tftpd32.jounin.net/

*******************

CONFIGURATION:

How to configure it to run as DHCP server:

1. Give your pc/laptop a static IP address (XP: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_configure_my_static_ip_address.html, Vista: http://www.trainsignaltraining.com/windows-vista-ip-addressing/2006-11-15/)
2. Start the program (it does not need to be installed, so it will run from USB stick if needed)
3. At the bottom of the window press on "Settings"
4. In the "Global Settings" turn everything off except for DHCP
5. Under "DHCP Options" turn off "Ping address before assigning" and "Persistent leases"
6. Press "OK", and restart the program
7. In the DHCP Server tab, fill in the fields

- IP Pool Starting Address: Here you put in the ip address of the first highest ip address not in use. If you only use your computer to connect to the eye-fi card and without connecting to a router: if your computer has a static IP address of 192.168.1.1, then set this to 192.168.1.2 or higher. If your computer has static ip address 192.168.1.100, set this value to 192.168.1.101 or higher

- Size of pool: This is how many different computers are able to connect to this DHCP server. In cases of using your computer only for the eye-fi card, a value of '1' should be enough, when not, set it to a higher value

- Boot File: Leave empty

- Wins/Dns server: If you are not using any internet connection, set this value to the static ip address of your computer, else you will need to enter the DNS server your internet provider provides you/your router.

- Default Router: If using the eye-fi card only, set this value to the static IP address of your computer, else set it to the ip address of your router

- Mask: Also known as Subnet Mask. This is the same as the subnet mask you entered when you configured the static ip address for your computer

- Domain Name: leave blank

- Additional options: 0 | blank

8. Press 'Save' and restart the program
9. Now, after the program is started, turn on your camera with the eye-fi card in it, you should now see that the program has detected it and provided it with an IP address (this will be shown in the 'DHCP Server' tab under the configuration section)

QUESTIONS/PROBLEMS?:

- Contact me and I will try to help you as best as I can

REMARKS/DISCLAIMER:

- As I stated, I do not own an eye-fi card yet, so it is possible that the configuration above does not work because of a configuration error. Some trial and error may be needed!

- The configuration above is mostly thought when you are not connected to the internet, nor to any router, but are solely trying to connect your computer with your eye-fi card and nothing else. If you are using an internet connection this configuration may not work as described above.

- Note that the range might of this may not be as big as when using a router

!! IMPORTANT - WARNING !!:

- This will essentially make your computer act as DHCP Server, so be sure to turn the software OFF before connecting to a network or router. It could cause a lot of problems if you don't because then there would be 2 DHCP servers on your network, and your would provide wrong information to the other computers!

*******************

Ok, I hope someone is willing to test this, and I hope even more that it works!! If it does, eye-fi should give me a card for free!

Greets,

Stitch10925

[hyachts]

No joy here. I tried a few times with some different settings. I think the card just won't connect ad-hoc whether the computer offers DHCP or not. I followed your instructions, and also went through the steps to setup an ad-hoc network on my computer. I assigned my laptop an IP on a different subnet than my existing network, removed my existing wireless network from the card's configuration and even went so far as to try to manually add the SSID of the ad-hoc network to the card's configuration (even though I left it "open" and the card is configured to connect to open networks). No matter what, the card didn't find the computer. If I'm missing something I'd love it if someone set me straight.

[Stitch10925]

Hello hyachts,

Does the card require and SSID to be entered, because that may be the problem. Since the software does not provide an SSID Name. You could try to enter your computer's name as SSID, but I am not sure if this is going to work.

[hyachts]

I'm pretty sure that it does, considering that one of the troubleshooting steps is to make sure your SSID is being broadcast. I may try using my computer name later but I think we're out of luck until they make some changes to the card.

[Stitch10925]

Yeah, I just realized that the problem is not really DHCP but establishing the connection between the card and the computer.

Since DHCP occurs AFTER the connection has been established this software will not do anything. It will work on LAN's however (for those people interested) because there the connection is already there (by the wiring).

I will continue to look for a solution regarding the connection, maybe I'll find something and I will post it.

[Stitch10925]

Boy, do I have some disappointing news for you guys...

There is software out there that enables you to turn your computer into an access point, however, they are always limited to the network card in the computer. This means there is no solution that will work for all.

WLAN cards from Prism and Marvell/Asus do have solutions that enable you to set up your system as Access Point, but in laptops, mostly other cards are used.

So, why isn't there a work-for-all solution? Well, after doing a lot of research it appears that the beaconing (sending of the SSID) happens on a very low level, meaning that the software needs to know the cards 'language' in order to tell it what to do. Since the vendors know what language their cards understand, they can make software for it, but for a software developer it would be nearly impossible to debug the card in order to write software for it.

Now, the eye-fi card also has its own language, and eye-fi knows which language that is, so the easiest solution would be for them to add ad-hoc support. For those that do now want to wait, there are portable access points out there. ASUS has some, and D-Link.

The best one I found out there was the DWL-G730AP from D-Link (also mentioned somewhere else in this forum if I remember correctly). The reason I like this one the best is that it supports USB-Power and is fairly small. The Asus AP (WL-330) is a bit bulkier and requires a seperate power supply.

The advantage of an Access Point in comparison to your computer, is that the range is much greater, so maybe not such a bad idea after all.

I know a lot of this information has been posted before, but at least now there is an explanation as to why it is so difficult to configure your computer as Access Point.

So, I guess I will not be getting any free eye-fi card huh, bummer.

Greets,

Stitch10925

[legba42]

Check out:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=346

This is a pocket router and I think you can find them for around $50. This little device is a full blown router, and it fits in your pocket. All you have to do is to power up this router, your laptop, and the Eye-Fi should be able to download as usual. Plus, this pocket router can be used to share net connections so its handy to have around in any case.

[Stitch10925]

That is the router I was talking about in my post above, but thank you for providing a link.

Check out:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=346

This is a pocket router and I think you can find them for around $50. This little device is a full blown router, and it fits in your pocket. All you have to do is to power up this router, your laptop, and the Eye-Fi should be able to download as usual. Plus, this pocket router can be used to share net connections so its handy to have around in any case.

[TXnomad]

one could always utilize KNOPPIX (or one of the many Linux live CD builds out there; google "linux+live cd") as the host OS thus turning the laptop into a WAP while also running a localized DHCP server to accomplish what you're wanting.

the only drawback here is getting the card to work with Linux sans their Manager software...there's a Perl script out there that claims success in this arena but personal tests have come up short...

one solution that works for me is Ubuntu+VMWare which tackles every problem encountered...Linux host OS for WAP/DHCP and VMWare wrapped XP environment for the image transfers.

thought I'd add a few more cups of gas to the fire...

[Stitch10925]

Maybe some good news after all, after some extensive searching I found the following article:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_02april08.mspx

If there is someone willing to test it, please post your results.

If this article becomes unavailable, it is also attached to this post as PDF for you guys to download.

Greets,

Stitch10925

[hyachts]

Those are just basic instructions for setting up an ad-hoc network in XP - something the card doesn't support. Unless I'm missing something?

[Stitch10925]

As I said before, I do not have an eye-fi card, so I cannot test it. But this does allow you to give your laptop an SSID, a static IP address, and an open or encrypted network. It is possible that it doesn't work, but I am hoping it just might.

I don't know what you need to fill out in order to configure the card, and I do not know what protocols the card supports. But I am just trying to help you guys
find a solution to a very annoying problem, with the information I read on the forum and the eye-fi site.

Those are just basic instructions for setting up an ad-hoc network in XP - something the card doesn't support. Unless I'm missing something?

[hyachts]

The card does not support ad-hoc networking of any kind, currently. I'm not familiar with the fundamental differences between ad-hoc and infrastructure networks, so I can't tell you what exactly about it doesn't work (except for the lack of DHCP, which we've already covered). It simply doesn't...

[Myself]

To my knowledge, the ZyDAS and Ralink chipsets are the only ones that support SoftAP mode under XP. And ZyDAS is only found on USB dongles, so if you want to do this without a little snap-me-off lever sticking out the side of your machine, you'll have to replace your MiniPCI card with one made by Ralink.

After that, it's right in the driver, easy as pie.

The alternative is to run Linux on your laptop, since the common Atheros cards can do HostAP mode with the Linux drivers. Then, because Eye-Fi doesn't support Linux, you'd have to run XP in a VM so the card would have something to talk to. But if you know how to do this, you've probably already done it, and if you don't know how to do this, you probably shouldn't!

[jason0518]

Regarding ad-hoc network support, if you're using the new eye-fi pro card, it is somewhat easy to setup your own ad-hoc network. There was a lack of a easy step-by-step installation walk through online, so here's how I got it to work for myself!

This is easily done using a computer with wireless AND wired connectivity. I was unable to easily setup the ad-hoc without having both, as the eye-fi manager app needs to "dial out" if you will.

1.) Plug in your computer to an physical wired connection.
2.) Setup your own Wi-Fi ad-hoc (also called a computer-to-computer network). If you're on a PC, you'll need to possibly dig around online for how to do this on your machine for XP/Vista. On a Mac, simply click the Wi-Fi icon in the top right of your screen, and select "Create Network..." then just enter some made-up name for your network. (You can setup a password if you'd like, but for ease of setup I won't go into that.
4.) At this point, the Wi-Fi ad-hoc network AND your wired ethernet connections should be setup. (On a Mac, your wi-fi icon in the top right will show a small gray computer as the icon)
5.) Now insert the Eye-Fi card into your computer as you would for any other setup.
6.) Under the Eye-Fi manager app, go ahead and select Settings.
7.) Now edit your "Hotspots and Network Profiles" settings.
8.) Under the "Add wireless network" drop down, you should see an option to setup an ad-hoc network, and possibly your newly created ad-hoc network. If not, you'll need to scan/enter the name for the ad-hoc network your applied.
9.) Now, when you hit "Add Network to Card" it will use your wired connection to 'dial home' and save your settings for your card to your account, while at the same time using your ad-hoc network to identify, assign an IP address, and initialize your Eye-Fi card. (For me this step took about 30 seconds to complete, so make sure you don't cancel out too quickly if it doesn't seem to be working!)
10.) Now that your card is setup, you can eject it to test it. Unplug your ethernet cable, keeping your ad-hoc network working. This is how it would be if you were out and about and your machine was not by Wi-Fi. To confirm you have no internet, just try to open a new web page. It should fail as you no longer can reach outside your new ad-hoc network.
11.) Take a picture with the card in your camera. You should see after a few seconds the card transfer the pics to your computer! Success

Hope that somebody finds this helpful, as it wasn't terribly easy to find good info on how to setup an ad-hoc with the card. Enjoy

[randhirv]

This is easily done using a computer with wireless AND wired connectivity. I was unable to easily setup the ad-hoc without having both, as the eye-fi manager app needs to "dial out" if you will.

jason0518, we address this issue for the Eye-Fi Pro cards specifically. You don' need to have a wired Ethernet connection for this to work. If you have already set up your Eye-Fi Card, then while you are still on an infrastructure wireless network, go to the Settings page of the Eye-Fi Manager, with the Eye-Fi Card inserted.

In the drop down list, click on 'set up ad hoc network'.

You will now be on a page that does not require Internet access. You can down deploy your ad hoc network (instructions pdf here), click the 'refresh' option in the drop down to see your ad hoc network.

Select the ad hoc network and add it to the card.

Randhir 

[mcguyver]

jason0518, we address this issue for the Eye-Fi Pro cards specifically. You don' need to have a wired Ethernet connection for this to work. If you have already set up your Eye-Fi Card, then while you are still on an infrastructure wireless network, go to the Settings page of the Eye-Fi Manager, with the Eye-Fi Card inserted.

In the drop down list, click on 'set up ad hoc network'.

You will now be on a page that does not require Internet access. You can down deploy your ad hoc network (instructions pdf here), click the 'refresh' option in the drop down to see your ad hoc network.

Select the ad hoc network and add it to the card.

Randhir

Randhir, I followed your directions using my Macbook which connects to the internet via wifi. I get to the page that you say doesn't need internet access, and select the ad hoc option, then deploy my ad hoc from my computer but when I click the "refresh " option in the drop down, it seems to get stuck in searching. The list never refreshes. I think jason0518 might be right.

[randhirv]

Randhir, I followed your directions using my Macbook which connects to the internet via wifi. I get to the page that you say doesn't need internet access, and select the ad hoc option, then deploy my ad hoc from my computer but when I click the "refresh " option in the drop down, it seems to get stuck in searching. The list never refreshes. I think jason0518 might be right.

mcguyver, can you see the newly deployed ad hoc network in the drop down list of your Airport (in the Mac menu bar)?

If you can PM me the card log after you deploy the ad hoc network and try connecting to it, that will help us debug.

[sean]

Hi there mcguyver, jason0518

Can you guys give me a little more information about your systems - we'd like to figure out why the list of ad hoc networks on that page isn't showing up for you.

Can you please navigate to http://manager.eye.fi/diagnostics.php and post the output you see back to the forums. If you are using Firefox as your browser, can you please list the plugins you are using - sometimes Firefox plugins can interfere with the communication between the Eye-Fi Manager Website and the Eye-Fi Manager Software. Also, if you are using Firefox, can you try temporarily switching to a different browser just to see whether the root of this issue is the browser or not.

Thanks

Sean

PS. Cool user name mcguyver - wish I had thought of it

[mcguyver]

mcguyver, can you see the newly deployed ad hoc network in the drop down list of your Airport (in the Mac menu bar)?

If you can PM me the card log after you deploy the ad hoc network and try connecting to it, that will help us debug.

As I previously mentioned, it does not show the list at all, it seems to be stuck in "refresh mode" and both buttons are grayed out.

Here's the steps I tried on a MacBookPro 10.5.7 which is connected to the net via WiFi only:

1. Launch Eye-Fi Manager
2. Inserted Eye-Fi Pro card - Eye Fi Manager sees it
3. I click on Settings
4. I click on Hotspots and Network Profiles
5. Where it says add wireless network, I click the dropdown menu and select "set up ad hoc network"
6. I follow the steps listed:
a. deploy the ad hoc network now
b. refresh the network list using the drop down

Right here is where it gets stuck.When I selected "refresh network list", it then says "Refreshing networks, please wait" and that 's all. There is no progress bar, and both buttons below are grayed out. It stays that way for a long time (I tried waiting 1 hour - nothing)

[mcguyver]

Hi there mcguyver, jason0518

Can you guys give me a little more information about your systems - we'd like to figure out why the list of ad hoc networks on that page isn't showing up for you.

Can you please navigate to http://manager.eye.fi/diagnostics.php and post the output you see back to the forums. If you are using Firefox as your browser, can you please list the plugins you are using - sometimes Firefox plugins can interfere with the communication between the Eye-Fi Manager Website and the Eye-Fi Manager Software. Also, if you are using Firefox, can you try temporarily switching to a different browser just to see whether the root of this issue is the browser or not.

Thanks

Sean

PS. Cool user name mcguyver - wish I had thought of it

Eye-Fi Manager Software Response


STATUS RESPONSE:

agentVersion : 2.5.27.0

responseHeaders
Content-Type : text/xml
Server : Eye-Fi Agent/2.5.27.0 (Mac OS X - 10.5.7)
Content-Length : 2
Connection : Close


CARDS RESPONSE:


GetConnectedCardsResponse

Card
MacAddress : 00-18-56-40-03-db

responseHeaders
Content-Type : text/xml
Server : Eye-Fi Agent/2.5.27.0 (Mac OS X - 10.5.7)
Content-Length : 317
Connection : Close


REGISTRATION RESPONSE:


GetRegistrationParamResponse
MacAddress : 00-18-56-40-03-db
RegKey : 4b27bfd09abd1a97dfd11bf37fd1d1d1
FirmwareVersion : 3.0144 Jun 2 2009 22:26:17

responseHeaders
Content-Type : text/xml
Server : Eye-Fi Agent/2.5.27.0 (Mac OS X - 10.5.7)
Content-Length : 427
Connection : Close



BROWSER SETTINGS

FF VERSION 3.5

USER AGENT IS Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090624 Firefox/3.5


OS SETTINGS

OS IS MAC

[sean]

mcguyver,

Can you list the Firefox extensions you have installed on your Firefox 3.5 instance? Can you try disabling some of them to see whether that makes any difference? I've tried the steps you've outlined above with my Firefox 3.5 instance, but I couldn't reproduce the behavior you are seeing. One other option you have to try to get around this issue would be to try a different browser. The Eye-Fi Manager Website is supposed to run ok on Firefox 3.5, but using a different browser could get you better results. As you are on mac, Safari should work fine.

I'll PM you with my email address to get details on your Eye-Fi Manager Software log files.

Sean

[Fotog4]

I too am having an issue making an Ahoc connection with my HP laptop.
I've followed the directions line by line, but when the status get sto:

Verifying the network password...

I know, I've checked and checked to make sure that I'm entering in the correct password, and I am.

The ribbon status bar just keeps going and no conncetion. I get a popup that says that:
Unable to connect to selected network.
Any ideas???

[berend]

I too am having an issue making an Ahoc connection with my HP laptop.
I've followed the directions line by line, but when the status get sto:

Verifying the network password...

What type of encryption are you trying to use with your ad hoc network? Even though Windows will give you the impression that it is supported, WPA/WPA2 is not compatible with ad hoc and your only real choice is WEP. Can you please try setting up once with an unencrypted network (just as a test) and then with WEP?

Thanks,

Berend

[Fotog4]

I've tried all ways of encryption to no avail.
Do I have to have my laptop connected (wired) to a network before I can connect to the ad-hoc network and the EyeFi card?
Is there a step-by-step method that can be shared by people that have had success. I'm no dummy, with computers, I just can't get this thing to work and connect with my laptop.

[bigbass]

I'm having the same problem here.
MacBookPro, 10.5.8, got my Eye-Fi card today, and can't get it to work in ad-hoc mode. It works fine if I use another network, but ad-hoc refuses to work. I do can connect with another computer to my MBP in ad-hoc-mode, but the Eye-Fi can't... Tried crypted & no-crypted network.
When setting up the profile, the software takes its time to find and accept the ad-hoc-network, but acts as if everything went well ("You can now upload media..."). But, no raw-files are beeing uploaded. (As they are when I use the "regular" network)
As far as I understood, the card will try to connect wirelessly to the computer, even if plugged into usb, right? Well, it does transfer ("regular" wifi) then, but refuses to work when adhoc is set up.

Any idea anyone? Should I send the log?

Bassy regards,
Benjamin

[QBi11y]

Ok,
I was having the same issue above where the my network list would not refresh. I am on OS 10.6.2 running Firefox 3.5.5. I am a hardcore internet user so I have a lot of plugins. I read above where that may cause an issue. I very rarely use Safari. I started Safari up and went the process to get the ad hoc network added. Everything went smoothly. I tested the ad hoc connection by uploading a few pics and things uploaded pretty quickly without issue. So for those of you having problems with the initial setup I would try using a fresh browser. Also seems that I have to create the ad hoc network each time I want to use it. But that seems to go smoothly after the initial setup. I guess you just need to make sure you name the network the same as you registered it with the card. I hope this helps those having issues.

[ScottGO]

It wasn't due to the step by step instructions that were supplied with my card,:evil: but through the use of this forum and some thinking outside the box that I was able to set up my ad-hoc I hope anyway. What I didn't see mentioned is that when you set up your ad-hoc and assign it a password, it adds some additional, in my case numbers, to the password.

I had to view my WEP password, deleted and re-added an ad-hoc connection via the eye-fi manager, using the password that my setup had given the connection in order to get it to work.

What I don't understand, is when I had my computer hard wired to the internet, set up the ad-hoc, then disconnected the hardwire,leaving the ad-hoc running I was able to recieve pictures via the wireless connection. If I was idle for even a short period of time, I couldn't connect to the ad-hoc. After I re-entered the password, I powered off my modem and was able to download pictures.

I'm going to try to download some more pictures after I've sent this and hopefully it will work again.

This is a great idea, we just started a business of printing on-site shirts, and the wireless connection between my computer and camera is going to be great, once I get it working properly. It to bad that they instructions are almost non-existancant. The only other issue I'm seeing is that it take a little while to connect to the ad-hoc. If that would be a little quicker this would be perfect.

[MadDawgJ]

ScottGo
Stop using Windows XP

Everything you mention is an issue with Win XP and ad-hoc, it has nothing to do with the Eye-Fi Card or anything else, that's how windows sent it up. Any other system will work better, but if you really want to use XP I can find and post the link to instructions that will actually work better and limit the amount of time that it takes XP to re-join it's own network, I've had success using it, but it is alot easier to use a Mac for ad-hoc.

[ScottGO]

I'll admit, I didn't state what operating system I was using in my post, to assume I was using XP,it not appropriate. For clarity I'm using Windows 7, 64 bit version. So what is my problem now???

ScottGo
Stop using Windows XP

Everything you mention is an issue with Win XP and ad-hoc, it has nothing to do with the Eye-Fi Card or anything else, that's how windows sent it up. Any other system will work better, but if you really want to use XP I can find and post the link to instructions that will actually work better and limit the amount of time that it takes XP to re-join it's own network, I've had success using it, but it is alot easier to use a Mac for ad-hoc.