Shocking! Android cannot see ad-hoc network

E

Eric I

New member
Hi there,

I'll try to do my best to write a correct English, please forgive any mistake...


I just entered Android world this morning and was very happy with my HTC Hero. I got this horrible and so frustrating problem and I hope you will help me.

1) At home, i get a RJ45 connection -> no WIFI. So, my Mac is able to create an Ad-Hoc wifi network, so, i am very happy. All my friend that came are able to connect their laptop, Iphone, and other wifi devices. ( no try with android stuff)

2) When i came back with my new HTC Hero, i tried to connect this network, but HTC wasn't able to see it. It show all my neighbourgs network, but never the home network! I still can connect with Ipod Touch and work laptop, so the network is correct.

Is that an android known issue?

This is a really big and annoying problem.



I hope my english is readable and you will be able to help me.



Edit: found this for G1: http://modmygphone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22681
I don t want to make terminal commands until it works on Hero!
 
I got my HTC hero yesterday and was able to connect to the access point at the office with no problems. (proxim AP)

but when I tried at home using my laptop AD-HOC from xp it didn't see the the wireless then tried the same from vista and Ubuntu using a defernt laptop with no luck.

note: the same ad-hoc setup is used to access internet from many other devices around my home!

anyone successfully connected to AD-HOC network with HTC hero?
 
A quick search seems to indicate that Android just doesn't do it at the moment. Check this thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/browse_thread/thread/b4b2eca664b249b6

Dunno if anyone more savvy has any more info
 
you need to root your phone and then do some stuff, pitty there isn't an app to do it for you so you'd probably have to do it again when you update your custom rom and i'm not sure what custom hero roms there are.
http://modmygphone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22681

but it's probably easier to pick up a cheap wifi router or ask you isp for one..
 
Yes I write this link in my first message, si it isn't helpful because:

1) This is a G1 terminal line, i am effraid to do this on a new Hero...
2) Buying a cheap router mean: Less space on my desktop ( i have a little student flat), one more eletrical stuff plugged, i don t want to shut it down ever time,...

I have a really cool solution for any Wifi device (Laptop, MacBook, Iphone, Nokia are able to connect). I don t want to buy router only for my Hero!!!



I totally agree with what you said: "pitty there isn't an app to do it"

Thank and have a nice day!
 
Android currently doesn't support Ad-Hoc networks. There are some hacks to do it, but this will involve flashing your phone a few times (some risk involved) and directly editing the wifi settings from the console.

I would advise buying a cheap access point. It'll last for years, and it'll mean you can use ALL of your wireless devices with it, and any future wireless devices. You won't need your computer to be switched on all the time either.
 
I really don't understand why function that are present for years on any hi-tech mobile device, considered in everybody's mind as "of course, you'll have it" are missing on the best and expensive of the new devices.

I really don't understand, because this function is not requiring hi-tech material and is totally "easy to program" and not recent.

I get really frustrated with this and don't plan to buy a wifi router only for the hero. As i said my computer do this and buying router mean less space, more electricity, environnemental impact, and wasted money.

Why buying stuff i have no use when a good programmer can write 10 codes lines and make a lot of android user happy!
 
What you say is true - it is relatively easy to support ad-hoc networks. I also appreciate that it sucks if you have to rely on ad-hoc wifi and you own an Android device.

However, there are good reasons as to why Android, or any OS for that matter, doesn't support it.

Ad-hoc networks are inherently insecure as they require no authentication for people joining the network. Ad-hoc networks were only ever intended to be used for very short term spontaneous and informal networks. "Short term", in this context, means the time it takes you to purchase a proper wireless access point.

Ad-hoc networks are highly discouraged, as not only are they insecure, but they interfere with people using the proper, secure, and recommended, infrastructure WiFi networks.

These facts probably demotivated Google from implementing support for it.

As most broadband (Cable or ADSL) routers come with WiFi these days, and as a lot of the rest of us (like me) use stand-alone wireless access points, the requirement for Ad-Hoc support is low. Also, as the phones that run Android have 3G, Edge, and GPRS support the need is even lower for Android users. As such, you can probably see why Google didn't bother - there are other features that more people "require", and so Google probably concentrated on adding those.
 
One way or another your problems will be solved via rooting your phone, cyanogens and jf roms apparently have this problem fixed, so possibly it is on the MoDaCo custom Hero ROM, if not it could be added if you ask the dev nicely .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=552591

have a read in http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=512 about rooting the hero






and btw some nokia phones can't do the adhoc thing it's pot luck.
 
I would only like to comment that with an HTC Hero recently updated I'm only able to connect to a ad-hoc network, for sharing internet connection, created in a MacBookPro.

I have created sharing networks on Ubuntu and Windows, but my Hero is unable to see the networks. With an Iphone and a Nokia N95 I can see the ad-hoc networks, but not with the android device.

It's really sad that you can't connect to your own computer, like in my case I don't have 3g access and I'm a student and I'm not gonna buy a router.

Does anybody know anything new?
 
So why don't they also support the enterprise infrastructure wifi networks which are as secure as they get?? Certificate based and/or wpa2 enterprise authentication isn't supported either... What would their excuse or "good reason" be on that one??



So android is a mobile solution which is only really useful at home if you have a limited data plan or in a bad reception area?!



In most cases with android GPRS isn't exactly adequate to use any of the features in a timely fashion (ie. when youre being paid for your time) and a remarkably high percetage of android users aroun dthe world have limited data plans and don't wish to run over their credit limit and cost themselves an arm and a leg. So what are we to conclude?? that android phones are for stay at home mums who have a realiable connection via home router and only go out in high reception areas for shopping and picking up the kids??

Theyve completely excluded users from most corporate environments, educational institutions, government installations by not implementing support for enterprise end wireless and THAT is half the reason why people are turning to the possibility of ad-hoc networks as a workaround for androids oversight. I think it's rediculous and google need to up their game if theyre going to seriously complete against the competition - as it stands I'm unable to recommend (as a educational institution network administrator) an android phone to ANY of my clients or colleagues for the reason I've mentioned above... thats a huge loss of customers.
 
Doesn't 2.0 and above support enterprise (just asking, I thought it did, but I don't have it to check).

In my experience most phones don't support certificate based WiFi either. I would imagine, along with ad-hoc, it's not in huge demand. Nearly everywhere uses normal infrastructure mode with one of the common encryptions and a password.



Android is a mobile solution which is useful if you have a data plan (like most mobile operators try to insist you need with an Android phone - it's your problem if you choose to ignore that advice) and have a mobile signal. It's also useful for the majority of people who have access to WiFi, either at home, work, or at a hotspot. The WiFi is only limited to the very few people who require either ad-hoc mode (that's people with broadband who don't have a WiFi router or separate access point) or use certificate based or radius based WiFi who are still on Android 1.6 or below (again - feel free to correct me on that).



GPRS versus 3G would be down to network coverage, not your price plan or Android. All phones would be restricted in the same ways.

Android cannot be held responsible for people with limited data plans who ignore the advice of their mobile providers, or for people who can't afford said data plans. No other phone would work any better in such circumstances. These are limitations of the person's finances and/or the mobile operator, not Android.

I don't understand your conclusion either. I pay ?15 a month for my 18 month plan on T-Mobile UK. That included getting a G1. UK?15 is about US$22. It's not a whole lot of money when compared to other plans. In fact in the UK you'd be hard pressed to find any plan that has a cheaper monthly cost. With that I get ?30 worth of call/text allowance, and 2GB of data per month.

As for "stay at home mums", well that's simply not true. Ask people on here - I'd imagine by far the vast majority of people are not stay at home mums. I'm not, for starters, and I find Android very useful. In fact I know a whole bunch of colleagues, students, friends, family, etc, all of whom use Android, and none are stay at home mums. Sure, it can't connect to all WiFi infrastructures, just like most phones, but to be fair the ones it doesn't use are by far the most rare.



"most"? I disagree. I travel between many corporate environments, and all use the standard password based access. I don't necessarily agree with this practice, but they do. I used to be a lecturer, and the university I worked at used standard WPA + MAC filtering. Maybe things have changed since I left... However, I agree with you that this is a shortcoming of Android - it would be nice if it supported enterprise WPA schemes. Having said that though - how many of these people don't have a mobile signal or data plan?



I agree - it's as simple as editing a text file to make ad-hoc work, but you need to have root access to do it. I imagine it's relatively simple to support Radius and cert based WiFi, but (at least in 1.6) they don't.
 
I think you're right that android 2.0+ (eclair) supports certificate based wifi however being a G1 owner (I like the physical keyboard) I'm finding it hard to find an eclair rom which has these features working. Winmo devices support certificates and enterprise connections and even iphones though not natively supporting it have the iphone configuration utility which makes connecting to cert based enterprise wifis relatively easy, theyre the main 2 touchphone competitors.

I live in Australia. I'm with Telstra which has the largest mobile and 3G coverage in the country (the 2nd largest blocks paid apps from the market). I pay (handset NOT included) $80AU per month (46 Brit pounds) with that I get $200 (116 pounnds) of call/text (the cheapest cap plan for my provider) and 300mb data (the largest allowance before starting to pay really big bucks) so as you can see not all of us are as lucky with telco companies as you lot in the UK as far as pricing is concerned. In the UK one can't escape civilization, most major cities are 30-40 miles from each other making coverage an easy accomplishment. In Australia (and many other 1st world countries) they can be between 100 and 500 miles from each other meaning that 3g or even edge coverage is minimal in between. When being a travelling business person and the five 3g areas in your state are all at least 100km from each other, having an easy enterprise/certificate based solution (or adhoc) which covers all authentication scenarios would be extremely handy not only for fast access, but to save precious pennies. I love the android system as much as the next person but it's silly things like lack of a short bit of code which provides such a huge releif to people who arent in UK or US which is letting it down a lot. I guess at the end of the day there just needs to be more 3rd party android developers in AU who are in the same boat.

The ones it doesn't support happen to be the ones that every government education institution in this state and most of the country uses (yes a change which happened within the last 5 years but it's the way that everyone who values security is headed). It also happens to be the choice of most large corporate firms that I know about, and if it isn't implemented for them yet it's already in the planning stages.

I'm glad you agree, we do get mobile signal and data plans, but unfortunately we just dont get it for peanuts like you lucky folks.

Simple in theory, but i tried a couple of times editing the wpa_suppliment.conf and tiwlan.ini files by following a couple of reliable how to's and ended up with "unable to start wifi" and had to restore a nandroid backup.. and this is certainly not the avenue I would be suggesting any of my clients or collegues would have to take.. I'd so much love to recommend android devices to them given androids numerous benefits but I just can't knowing that theyre going to want to connect to the wifi at work like all their iphone and wm friends are doing right now.
I'm sorry to sound like I'm getting my back up about it but I've wasted an incredible ammount of time trying to find a resolution to this and now I've found that the only real 3rd party solution for pre-eclair phones to access enterprise wifi (wifi helper) has been abandoned and removed from the market so that the full release version (the one I would need - and which would be a simple risk free solution for my collegues and clients) is now completely unavailable. *sigh*
Guess we just gotta wait a few years until either a 3rd party developer comes to the rescue or android gets all the nitty gritty features sorted out.
 
*YAY!*: I finally found a rom which has a "Security Certificates - Manage Wi-Fi security certificates for TLS" option under wireless settings -> advanced which allowed me to get connected to our wpa2-enterprise certificate based network. By using that and renaming the user and root certificates to pfx extensions and then messing around a whole lot trying to figure out what username it would accept etc (as our wireless isn't username driven, just certificate driven).... HOWEVER! ...

*BOOOOO!*: Now I've just realized that there's no way to set proxy settings in android *facepalm* (unless someone can prove me wrong). I hear there's a 3rd party app to get the browser working but I won't be able to browse market, get weather, update calendar, get emails etc. So is someone going to try and tell me that android decided to neglect proxy settings because theyre inherently insecure or something too?? or that most secure business environments don't use proxy settings?? or that it's like the iPhone and is designed to have a good data connection? (never mind the fact that iphone in all its 3G glory supports both enterprise networks and global proxy settings).

There's no two ways about it, much though I want to love android in it's current form it simply isn't equipped to deal with large business wireless.
This therefore inconveniences:
* The corporate world outside of major metro/3g areas
* People whos workplace has bad reception due to obstructions (not uncommon in even metro areas).
* Business people who live in countries with tighter data plans who want to save a buck).

Android has a long way to go to catch up to the functionality of WM or come anywhere close to being an "iphone killer" (much though it pains me hugely to admit that). Imho Android shouldn't be even up to v1.0 with these things lacking - theyre fundamental parts of any respectable OS.
 
its working on samsung galaxy s and many other htc phone see

http://www.emoiz.com/how-to-connect-samsung-galaxy-s-to-ad-hoc-wifi-network
 
This will not allow you to see any ad hoc networks, but it will share the internet connection from ad hoc via wireless tether. If someone has posted it already i'm sorry for spamming, but i hope it'll help http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDfR5yuu5R4
 
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