Getting Wi-Fi Working

One of the first things I tried to do with my Elonex OneT+ was to connect to the internet over a wireless network. This looked straightforward enough: there’s a ‘Wi-Fi’ icon on the ‘Internet’ tab, and the wireless manager looks fairly intuitive.

When opened, the wireless manager performs a search for available networks automatically. My network was listed, and when I double-clicked it I was presented with a settings window. The only setting I altered was the WPA key. After clicking OK, a message appeared next to the network to say that it was connecting, then acquiring an IP address, followed by a message to say the IP was invalid.

At first I suspected a problem with DHCP, so I disabled it and chose a static IP address well out of the way of anything else on the network. I did this by clicking on the network, then ‘WLAN Setting’. The wireless manager told me I had a connection, but when I opened the web browser nothing would load. I never did find out why, but I think that I’d either entered an incorrect address for the DNS server (or that this hadn’t been picked up automatically), or had entered the wrong broadcast IP (the instructions for this were a little vague, “usually the same like your IP but with 255 as last number”.

At this point, I decided to Google the subject, and found several people with the same problem. The advice they were given was to plug into a wired connection and run Software Installer to get the latest updates. The laptop picked up the wired network immediately and I downloaded the updates. This took all of 5 minutes, and after a reboot I was able to connect wirelessly straight away.

I’ve now tried connecting to two wireless networks, both using DHCP and WPA-PSK encryption, and apart from a few signal drop-outs the Wi-Fi seems to work well.

Elonex Onet+ - My first impressions (and the importance of being in the right place at the right time!)

I first saw my Elonex Onet+ in the window of the local second-hand electrical shop. At the time, I didn’t really know what it was, but for £50 it had to be worth a closer look. I went in and asked about it and played with it for a few minutes, by which time I was hooked and I had to have it.

I brought it home and had a closer look at it, and my first impressions were that I’d bought a real bargain. It seems quite well-built but it’s very light. The keyboard is surprisingly firm and comfortable to type on, although obviously it’s smaller than a standard keyboard and some of the keys are in an unusual place. The screen is very bright and clear, and even though its only 7” it’s comfortable to read. It also folds back flat, so you can lift the whole computer up to eye level.

There were several accessories included in the box which aren’t mentioned in the fancy using this as its second hand...), a mini optical mouse, a USB card reader which reads SD, mini SD, MMC, T-Flash, MS, MS Pro, MS Pro Duo and MS Micro, a wristband-type 1Gb flash drive and a carry case.

I was a little disappointed with the included software. The Linux-based operating system is locked-down, and since the Elonex Onet+ doesn’t use standard x86 architecture it will be difficult (but not impossible) to get another Linux distro running on it. The web browser, Bon Echo, is based on an old version of Firefox. From the small amount of research I’ve done, it looks like it’s possible to install some Firefox add-ons, but many aren’t compatible. The word processor is a renamed version of Abi Word, and the spreadsheet program is Gnumeric. It’s a shame OpenOffice wasn’t included, but it’s understandable as it’s large and can be resource hungry.

My first attempt to connect to a wireless network failed. The wireless manager (which is basic but usable) tried to connect, then gave the error ‘IP address invalid’.

Overall, I’m quite impressed. For £50, this machine has a lot of potential, especially once I find out how to install third party software (and maybe a different Linux distro), and get the Wifi connection working. Whether it would have been worth paying full price is debatable, though.