Using a Windows wireless connection with a Pi

Pursuing my quest for methods to connect a Raspberry Pi to the internet I have looked at using a PC with a wireless connection and a LAN socket. Has this been discussed here before? If so, I could not find it,

I have read discussions in the Pi Forum for Raspbian as well as the MS guide for sharing a wireless connection. I have attempted to transfer those methods to RISC OS, but without success.

I can set up the PC wireless share and can see that the LAN socket is given a fixed address of 192.168.0.1. I have tried leaving DHCP in RISC OS and also setting up a fixed address of 192.168.0.2. What more should I be doing?

The PC will probably refuse to do what you want.

Try a wireless adaptor that connects to the ethernet port of the Pi. £42 from CJE micros.

I can set up the PC wireless share and can see that the LAN socket is given a fixed address of 192.168.0.1. I have tried leaving DHCP in RISC OS and also setting up a fixed address of 192.168.0.2. What more should I be doing?

Never tried the bridge setup, but have you set your Pi with a default gateway of 192.168.0.1

Try to ping the wireless interface of your PC, then ping the router, then ping 8.8.8.8
You will probably need a crossover cable between the PC LAN port and the Pi for reliable connection.

Oh, and you need to manually insert a DNS entry in the Pi.
8.8.8.8 is a handy one that never goes away (for the curious ping -a 8.8.8.8 will show you why)

The PC will probably refuse to do what you want.

Why should that be? It is a feature of Windows and appears to work with other machines, including Pi with Raspbian.

Try a wireless adaptor that connects to the ethernet port of the Pi. £42 from CJE micros.

If you look back here, you will see that I had such a wireless connection many months ago, and somewhat cheaper than CJE’s. I am exploring what other options might be possible.

have you set your Pi with a default gateway of 192.168.0.1

In the ‘Routing’ dialogue, yes.

You will probably need a crossover cable between the PC LAN port and the Pi for reliable connection.

Both the Pi and my PC have auto-sensing connections.

Oh, and you need to manually insert a DNS entry in the Pi. 8.8.8.8 is a handy one

That is the missing link. I have an internet connection now. Thanks.

Now to think about a full network connection via the PC.

That is the missing link. I have an internet connection now. Thanks.

Well, you had one before but anything that needed name resolution failed. I bet you could probably have typed 91.203.57.172 into Netsurf and got a familiar page.

For all readers: it’s always handy remembering 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as public DNS, and rmembering a specific IP for a web page(just one) to test setups and name resolution.

That is the missing link. I have an internet connection now.

That’s brilliant, well done chaps. Now all we need is that ever elusive VNC server for RISC OS on the Pi, and we have a full wireless Pi “laptop” kind of deal! Anyone up for that challenge?!

I have tried leaving DHCP in RISC OS

You’ve probably hit the problem of RO5’s DHCP client not working with Windows DHCP servers, as discussed elsewhere on this forum.

What you need is RO4’s network stack… :-(

You’ve probably hit the problem of RO5’s DHCP client not working with Windows DHCP servers, as discussed elsewhere on this forum.

From the description I believe it was a back to back RPi and PC so unless the PC was running a DHCP server instance manual static IP was the correct method.

Reading between the lines and making guesses, I think Steve D is trying to build a Pi into (or hang off) a PC laptop and then access all network facilities via that. Presumably the laptop USB could provide the power.
As AndyM says VNC would finish that nicely. What he didn’t point out is that its neat because the video connection mouse and keyboard aren’t needed – just power and network.

As AndyM says VNC would finish that nicely. What he didn’t point out is that its neat because the video connection mouse and keyboard aren’t needed – just power and network.

Exactly! It makes the Laptop a giant Wifi dongle with added-value screen, keyboard and mouse. Means we can dispense with the Lapdock wiring and adaptor kerfuffle and replace it with two small cables – a network patch cable and a USB to MicroUSB. Nicely heat-shrinked together. Simple.

Would be like a hardware-based emulator of RPCEmu! Full circle completed! :-)

Just that working VNC server that’s missing…

There are exsiting vnc servers for RISC OS that do run on the Pi. The only thing stopping them working is a lack of 32000 colour mode support on the Pi.

I found a setting on the XP PC that looked as if it would activate a DHCP server on the local network, but if the RO5 stack is not sufficient I should not be surprised that it was not effective. By use of the Hosts file I have made swapping from DHCP, for my normal access, to manual fairly painless.

I would, indeed, like to be able access the whole network through the PC, but I think that I can only expect shared internet access by this method. My motivation has been the frustration of setting up a Pi at a show or jam with only wireless networking; Bryan H may remember trying to get me online at the London show. The Edimax Nano router I use in Client Mode can only access one wireless network at a time and the whole process of setting it up on a PC is time consuming when you are in a rush. I expect the other tiny routers have the same limitation. Connecting to a wireless network on the PC is trivial in comparison.

I use a Pi exclusively with a Lapdock and it is a great setup. At home I can connect to a cable network, either a B directly or an A via a USB dongle, and with either I can use the wireless router set up for my home network. I am not sure that I would have any use for VNC myself.

Can anyone help me with this?

I’ve tried several things to get this to work, but, whilst I can VNC between a Pi and a WinXP Pro laptop, I cannot get an Internet connection. If I give some details, I hope someone can guide me.

My network runs on the 192.168.1.x range, with the router as 192.168.1.254. My XP Laptop is served from the router with an address via DHCP over wireless. It generally comes in about the 70-90 range.

I have set up the Pi with a manual IP address of 192.168.1.201 and the ethernet port on the XP Laptop as 192.168.1.200. The netmask throughout the network is 255.255.255.0 and I can ping both ways without issue.

On the Pi, the the Gateway in the Routing box is set to 192.168.1.200 (the XP Laptop’s address). In the Host Names box, the host name is RISCOSPi, the local domain is home, and “try name server too” is ticked. In the Primary name server and Secondary name server, I am using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 repsectively.

One the XP laptop, the IP Address is set to 192.168.1.200, the netmask is set to 255.255.255.0 and the default gateway in 192.168.1.254. The preferred DNS server is 8.8.8.8 and the alternate DNS server is 8.8.4.4 – all to no avail!

When I boot the Pi, the XP laptop tells me there is a connected network cable, which briefly drops out midway through the !Boot sequence on the Pi, but then comes back up. I can then ping to and fro, and VNC from the client on XP to the server on the Pi (albeit with a fair bit of lag).

I cannot ping 8.8.8.8 or anything else other than x.×.×.200 from the Pi.

Any idea what I’ve got wrong? I have a feeling this is going to be one of those things I used to do as a matter of course, but have forgotten!

…and this after an hour or so of faffing before realising the laptop wasn’t providing enough power from one USB port to kick the Pi into gear!

Forget it! I’d forgotten to turn on Internet Connection Sharing! I’ve amended the addresses, to the x.×.0.x range and job’s a good ’un!

Oops! That was a lot of typing I could’ve avoided!

Yes, but typing it out probably helped you clarify what you’d done and may also be of use to others!

Thanks andym, what you wrote above enabled me to connect my RISC OS RPI directly to my XP laptop. I’m really pleased about that.

On a related matter, in a month or so I’ll be visiting my daughter who lives over 200 miles away and I’ll be going by bus/train/underground – quite a lengthy journey and luggage weight is an issue for me; my next question is, can I similarly connect my RO RPi to my EEE PC running Linux?