Barnacle wifi tether

[Guest Stevos]

Barnacle wifi tether is a very useful program, but doesn't seem to be very reliable or consistent with when / whether it works, and even if it works, sometimes clients can't connect properly, and when they can, often they get disconnected apparently randomly, and even if that doesn't happen, something else bad often does (I don't think it's just me).

I have found that a few factors appear to be tangentially connected to whether it works, although not in a consistent or predictable way. This is possibly connected to our weird software, drivers and the fact that it's doing something not officially supported, but I like to believe that the gods of wireless networking are fickle. I'm using CM6 anyway which undoubtedly angers them.

Here is the best knowledge I have managed to piece together about how to get it working when it gets stuck. I post this in the hope it may assist other wifi weary travelers on this path, and help them appease the spirits of broadcom.

1) Give your phone a fresh reboot.

2) start and stop wifi in the settings (this doesn't always seem necessary - experiment with it if you are having problems. Barnacle doesn't seem happy if the wifi is running when it tries to share a connection, but sometimes it seems unhappy if it isn't, or if the wifi service hasn't been started since boot. Milage may vary.)

3) Open barnacle

4) Press menu -> Settings

5) Set the wireless encryption to WEP enabled, and set a 13 character ascii passphrase.

6) Check "Skip WPA Supplicant"

7) Mutter arcane incantations (or fierce oaths).

8) Exit the settings menu, and hopefully you should be able to start and connect clients (using your 13 character passphrase) to your phone's wifi by using the "start" button. When clients connect, you should hear a jingly tone.

If that doesn't work, try hitting the "Associate" button a few times. I don't know if it actually does anything, but sometimes hitting inanimate objects helps (may void warranty).

Occasionally it seems that it will just outright refuse to work at all, even when using settings that previously worked fine. In my experience then clearing the applications settings completely and re-entering them can help.

Launcher -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Barnacle wifi tether

Then select "Clear data". Relaunch the program and re-enter the details into the settings menu as before.

Hopefully some combination of these procedures, casting a few bones, and doing a rain dance will get it working.

If you have a deadline approaching, or something really important you need to do online, you may find it helps to speak loudly to your phone and tell it you don't care if it works as you don't have anything important to do, and anyway you were thinking about getting a Galaxy S. You have to keep it on its toes.

[Guest twrock]

:D :D :P

[Guest Stevos]

Just an update - sometimes when it force closes, it appears to corrupt or do something to the app settings making it so that it either won't start sharing, or so that it appears to work but that clients fail to properly connect.

When this happens, clearing the application settings and re-entering them (using the procedure above) seems to help.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Stevos

[Guest geez]

What a great, entertaining guide, thank you very much for that!

I found that useful myself, as it took a minute to get my FLB2 and my notebook w/ linux/64bit together.

Only my crappy NetworkManager tried to make this hard with a few disconnects, but the wireless gods were with me this time. Thanks again.