YoDude: Thanks for the reply. Just returned from that site with both units and both the Dell and Nokia recognized the same unprotected Netgear signal ranging from 2/3 s/units.

The Dell locked on and I surfed the net for what time I had but no go with the Nokia. The Nokia reflected the same signal strength and showed a stationary antenna (or connected) but when I tried to hit a webpage I got a warning of network failiure.

Checked all settings and surrendered.

A lot of times a network will show brown bars on the N800 because of signal strength and not signal quality. Moving closer to the transmitter or getting in it's line of site will change the bars to green.

In other words, my first attemps were while trying to configure the connection in a fringe area. I brought my iPAQ with me the second time for my wife to use. (She could care less BTW but will do most anything if it means she can shop for shoes on Rittenhouse Square... A real trooper. Sort of a mercenary geek if you will. )

We found that:
1. Where the N800 picked up fringe signal it didn't register at all on the iPAQ.
... and
2. When ever the iPAQ did recognize signal it connected flawlessly... but so did the N800.

Well then... there is something else at play here.
... I got no clue.

After spending the w/e on the Penn campus I think I can shed some more lite on the "connected to local IP" issue.

My wife spent her time at various alum functions and I chilled in the background with the N800. (great babysitter BTW )

Philadelphia has WiFi in many flavors everywhere I went including Earthlink (major suckage BTW). Our Hotel, the Inn @ Penn had one and I could remain connected down the block to the café by the bookstore. The café had one too and from the tables outside I could connect to it as well as Penn's student mesh and a plethora of independent student routers located in the surrounding , Hi-Rise dorms.

What I found was that a connection that reported a "Local IP" message usually required you to register at that IP in order to control traffic. That local IP is the gatekeeper, if you will.
Once your registration is accepted, (name + room number, student ID, or PIN) a cookie is left on the device that will allow an instant connection for as long as the server will allow it. (3 to 48 hours in most cases).

Now here is the problem and solution.

Opera does not automatically go to the local IP when the connection is established like IE does. If the browser is open already, you are not redirected.

... So, if you open the browser first by using a bookmark to a site (other than the local IP) and then the device connects, you will get the "Network Problem" error as Opera tries to open your site.

The work around is to select the connection, wait for the "connected to Local IP http://yadda.yadda.yadda" and then only open Opera using the "Open new browser window" menu item.
Now when Opera opens it will go to that Local IP addy where you can register for access.

... when I open a new window from opera it tries to open my home page and gives a network error. Am I missing something?

(I am trying to access the London free wifi network)

Therblack, see last part of YoDude's post above yours. Maybe you need to get to some login page first?

... I guess that is the bit I don't get. YoDude's email says opera will 'goto the local IP' when I select open new window, but all I get is the error.

thanks for your help on this...

Using my 770, I just ran into the link-local IP problem at home for the first time yesterday. Switching the wireless channel on my Linksys router from 6 to 1 seemed to solve it.

that has been proposed by some before.

Unfortunally that is not an option when i'm on the road and want to access a Wifi Hotspot of my internet provider.

That's why my N800 stay's at home. To bad it could have been such a great device on the road... now all he does is eating dust...

I got it for the first time today, too. Rebooting didn't help, switching to a non DHCP setup fixed it. But I've been using DHCP for a while.

The one thing that HAS changed is that yesterday I was experimenting with setting up a bluetooth PAN based on this page:

http://maemo.org/community/wiki/HOWT...oothNetworking

But I don't see why the reboot didn't help, unless the bluetooth IP address was written to disk and used for the next wireless connection.