Acer Iconia A500 - Forced closes, some apps not opening, wireless security

[Douvie]

Leases are supposed to expire. That's how DHCP works

The Acer handles expiring leases just fine. As does everything else in the world.
Manfred even reported XP having trouble with expiring leases, which is simply unheard of.

So there are other problems with his router that are causing trouble here.

He got it working in a very non-standard way, and I posted my warning to others not
to go that way, because it is simply un-necessary if your router is working normally.
Apparently his isn't.

If you have an odd-ball router that is misbehaving you do what you have to do, but
for my money $25 for a working router is a better bet than struggling along with
a totally screwed up one.

Ice, I have DHCP turned ON, SSID OFF, MAC ADDRESS FILTERING ON and I have not problems. By the way turning SSID OFF does give you a little more security. A sniffer will not tell you the SSID if it is turned off. I have 2 wireless networks one OFF and the other ON. The sniffer cannot give thename of the SSID turned OFF. To connect the unit needs to know the SSID. That what I've found - whether you think it is true or not.

 

[Douvie]

As far as modems are concerns, I have A BILLION BIPAC 7404 so I don't think his modem is the problem.

 

[Douvie]

Point made, note taken. I guess every one at some time or another experiences "non-standard"-ness and deals with it in their own way untill someone comes along who questions the way and makes one re-think the way.

Manfred,

I would do a complete CLEAR of your router. Re-enter the info for your ISP. Make sure modem is set to DHCP ON. Refresh your modem. make sure you enter your admin pw.

Then set all you wireless devices to standard. Make sure all your devices have DHCP ON. Set your WPA2 to something new. make sure all devices have this pass key. At this point access ypur router's settings again and enter all the MAC ADDRESSES into your modem/router. Turn ON MAC ADDRESS FILTERING and allow only those MAC ADDRESSES access. Do all your laptops first and other wireless devices and make sure they connect.

With all devices active, turn on your A500, search and connect entering your WPA2 KEY. check if it will connect. Sometimes ANDROID devices may grap the same IP address as another device. This seems to be a quirky issue with ANDROID. If it is the case then refresh and force the tab to pick another address. This seems to be the issue I really believe you're having because 2 devices are trying to use the same address.

 

[Manfred]

Thanks Douvie, I will try that as well, anything right now just to get all things in order.
Will post a reply as soon as I have had time to do all this, just not at home right now.

 

[HolyGrailHunter]

Have you found an answer yet...I have the exact same problem...

 

[HolyGrailHunter]

Douvie how do you do a reset

I'm lost

 

[Icebike]

Ice, I have DHCP turned ON, SSID OFF, MAC ADDRESS FILTERING ON and I have not problems. By the way turning SSID OFF does give you a little more security.

Sorry, Douvie, hiding your SSID provides zero security. MAC Address filtering is not much better, unless your device is on 24/7.

Some useful links:

Debunking Myths: Is Hiding Your Wireless SSID Really More Secure? - How-To Geek
Wi-fi Mythbuster: Do NOT hide your SSID - TECH.BLORGE.com
The six dumbest ways to secure a wireless LAN | ZDNet
Your SSID Isn't Hidden Forever

The Jury is in. Hiding SSID is a total fail. The people who might try to hack you already know how to pick up
your SSID which is broadcast by every client device trying to connect to your router, even if your router
doesn't send it itself.

Besides that, you are an experienced user. You won't fall into the trap that hiding the SSID lulls most new users into.

 

[Douvie]

Douvie how do you do a reset

I'm lost

Of your modem there is a hard reset button or a little hole where you can insert a paper clip. Doing this sets your modem back to factory default. How ever before you do all that make sure you have a hard copy of your settings so that you can enter them manually.

On the A500, next to the fullsize USB, there is a little hole where you can insert a paper clip. Same procedure.

But on the modem, come to think of it, you can use your browse to access the modem admin page and do a factory default.

 

[Douvie]

Ice, I don't argue with you about security and yes I agree hiding SSID is not going to stop someone hacking the modem or into your system/network. And yes while the modem might not BROADCAST its SSID, devices that need to connect to it do. Same applies for MAC ADDRESSES. But let us debunk the whole WIRELESS SECURITY thing - there is no security. The only thing we can do is make it difficult to crack. The passphrase is the key to the whole issue.

Encryption works but is also easily cracked - given the right tools and enough time. What is the time it takes a hacker to crack encryption - about 33 minutes. That why DHCP LICENSES when implemented last about 30 minutes.
Not even a proxy can stop a determined hacker - you know that Ice!

 

[Manfred]

Hey everyone,

I would like to mention that I reset my router and did the whole thing as Douvie explained in #18 on page 2 of this thread, I have however maintained the crazy length of my password.

The A500 connected like it is supposed to, and for the time being everything works 100%.

Thanks everyone for your assistance, I will try to keep this open for future reference sake, to report back whether good or not, so that other may benefit from this thread.

Regards.

 

[Douvie]

Hey everyone,

I would like to mention that I reset my router and did the whole thing as Douvie explained in #18 on page 2 of this thread, I have however maintained the crazy length of my password.

The A500 connected like it is supposed to, and for the time being everything works 100%.

Thanks everyone for your assistance, I will try to keep this open for future reference sake, to report back whether good or not, so that other may benefit from this thread.

Regards.

Manfred, I'm happy the problem is sorted but I think Icebike was eluding to the same solution. I had an issue like this before but sometimes the memory cells are a bit slow.

ps: have left message in you private message box

 

[Manfred]

Hey there everyone, a follow-up as promised:-

Still no problems to report, I even connected with a second Iconia and had no trouble doing so. Thanks again to Icebike and Douvie for their time and effort spent guiding us into the right direction.

Manfred

 

[Douvie]

Hey there everyone, a follow-up as promised:-

Still no problems to report, I even connected with a second Iconia and had no trouble doing so. Thanks again to Icebike and Douvie for their time and effort spent guiding us into the right direction.

Manfred

Manfred I'm glad to hear your problems are solved - even connecting a second A500 with no problems.

It is very interesting because just this week I had to install and setup a MFD on a customer's network and had a lot of trouble with the copier. Every time I scanned from the copier, the scan to email worked fine but after 5 minutes the copier would drop off the network and could not be pinged, print job failed. Even the copier's web page wouldn't work. After struggling for 4 hours Isuggested to the customer that I needed to change the IP address and see if the problem would go away. I did that and all the issues withnthe machine disappeared. The problem was another printer that had the same IP as the IT guy had given me for the copier. This is the most common issue with networks. Typical IT error.

Cya