# Solved: Setting up wireless access point



## BlackGarden (May 23, 2004)

I've run into a bit of a wall setting up a wifi connection. What I want to set up is this:

cable modem >--(cable)--> primary computer >--(wireless)--> other computers and devices

So I need the primary computer (which is running on Vista) to act as a wireless access point. Here is how far we have got with this:

1. Bought and successfully installed drivers for a USB wireless adapter.
2. Successfully set up an adhoc network, and detected it using a second computer, a Nintendo Wii, and a Nintendo DS.
3. Changed IP address range on the router to 192.168.1.x
4. Completely and dramatically failed to share the primary computer's internet connection with the other connected devices.

The USB adapter came with some software, which we have installed (it says it is compatible with Vista), but when we try to run it it appears on the running processes list but there's no window for it, no icon in the system tray, and we can't work out how on earth we're supposed to use it without either of these.

The USB adapter is a Safecom SWMULZ-5400, and from all the information I can find about it it sounds like it is possible to use it as either a wireless access point or a receiver (and others seem to have successfully set it up as a wireless access point, though I noticed that somebody running WinXP SP2 was having the same issue with the software as us).
The software that came with this USB adapter is called ZDWLan.
The primary computer we're trying to use has an ethernet connection (obvious but I just thought I'd eliminate that one!).

Please don't post saying to get a wireless router, we have but for various reasons can't move it from its current position, so we're trying to use the primary computer to boost the internet connection of all the devices in the room, as well as to allow the DS to connect (it can't connect to the router that we have, even if we're standing right next to it).

*Small update* Now the tray icon doesn't disappear (we updated the drivers from here and are trying to follow the associated guide) but when we double-click it, it comes up with a message saying that Windows Zero Configuration Utility is currently managing the wireless settings, do we want to use ZDWLan instead? And we say yes, and the message disappears, and nothing happens. So we click it again, and the message comes up again. We've tried disabling WLAN Autoconfigure (or whatever it was called - the Vista equivalent of Windows Zero Configuration anyway) in services.msc but the same message still appears.

*Update 2: sorted* Well we've sorted this out so I'm updating this for the benefit of other members with the same problem. We think the bluetooth software that we had installed was conflicting, so we uninstalled that, uninstalled the drivers, uninstalled the software, unplugged the USB wireless adapter, reinstalled the software, plugged the adapter back in, and continued to follow the guide at codejunkies (link in previous update above). Hope any others with this problem can sort it out.


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## edd080 (Dec 15, 2003)

hi thanks for this post, i am having the same exact issue with the only difference that iam not managing to change through the zdwlan utility , the wireless zero configuration seems to always be taking over even though i have disabled it throught the services console, iam asked if i want to use zdwlan,i click yes but still nothing happens, i also repeated the steps mentioned in the link you gave me but still nothing happens, is there someone that can help me solve this issue please ?? thanks !!


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