[UFO Chicago] Non-ASCII Character In SSID

[Jay F Shachter]

Fellow Nerds:

Until recently, the private network at the Shachter Computer Labs was
held together by a Linksys BEFW1154.  Recently, however, its wireless
capabilities became sporadic -- i.e., wireless clients were unable to
see the wireless network that it was presumably providing -- so the
Linksys BEFW1154 was replaced by a Linksys WRT54GS, the other router
that the Shachter Computer Labs has in its stock.

One thing was unsatisfactory: the WRT54GS refused to accept "palantír"
as the wireless SSID, and I was forced to change it to "palantir",
which is, of course, wholly unacceptable.  I spent several hours today
upgrading the firmware.  First I upgraded to the most recent firmware
provided by Linksys (n.k.a. Cisco).  Sheer futility: after all my
efforts, it still refused to accept "palantír" as an SSID.  Scorning
obvious defeat, I then upgraded the firmware to DD-WRT v24-sp2
(07/22/09) micro.  This was an astonishingly time-consuming procedure,
I was amazed at how many steps there were, and how long it took
(partly due to several side-trips that had to be made along the way,
such as needing to invoke "sh winetricks mfc42" -- no, you don't want
to know why that was necessary, but take my word for it, it was).
After throwing away my afternoon and early evening on that, my router
still refuses to accept "palantír" as an SSID, and, when I try to make
it so, sends Firefox a pop-up window which complains that "Wireless
Network Name (SSID) have illegal ascii code".  Yes, this new firmware,
which cost me so many hours to install, can't even get its grammar
right.

A lesser man, at this point, would accept that this is a dead end, the
mirror you break your nose against, but I am not a lesser man, I dare
do all that does become a man.  I am not resigned to the loss of my
SSID name, which a Linksys BEFW1154 with ancient firmware accepted
easily.  Surely there must be some firmware for my WRT54GS that will
enable it to do the same.  Where do I find it?  I thank you in advance
for any and all replies.


			Jay F. Shachter
			6424 N Whipple St
			Chicago IL  60645-4111
				(1-773)7613784   landline
				(1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
				jay at m5.chicago.il.us
				http://m5.chicago.il.us

			"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"