Party Photos Talk

This is a story of amateurish software and the strange world of technology where you don’t always get value for money and, probably worse, many technical support folk have not been taught the basics, i.e. how to say “I don’t know” or maybe, “I’ve never come across this before, let’s see if we can learn together.”

This all began with my learning experience gained on the Nikon WT-3, my first encounter with wireless photography. I’m no expert at photography or computers at a high level but I knew enough about wireless communications to know that I wanted to opt for the infrastructure mode. Along the way, I discovered that the Nikon software (for the Apple Mac at least) was so patchy that, although it offered the opportunity to ‘edit’ a profile, the edit NEVER worked. It was only possible to make changes by throwing away the old profile and starting over with a profile using a completely different name. In this first venture I chose to work with a Netgear modem because experience had taught me they were logical to set-up and once configured, seemed to work forever. Over the last few years I had purchased and configured many Netgear modem routers and my experience was generally positive.

I eventually got the Nikon WT-3, linked to a Nikon D200, connected wirelessly to an Apple PowerBook Pro via a Netgear DG834G v3 modem router. The system worked well, I could go way out of range, come back in range, switch off and on and the system always worked. It was reliable and fast when set to transmit .jpg images. That said, I never did recover from the shock of discovering the high price one paid for Nikon wireless photography - pitched at what I would call blackmail levels. Let’s face it, these days you wouldn’t be shocked to discover a USB wireless dongle as the give-away in a pack of breakfast cereal.

When it was time to move on, I upgraded the Nikon D200 to the newer D300. I lost a packet on the WT-3 and purchased an even more outrageously priced WT-4. Within a couple of months I pitched for and secured a commission for a huge exhibition event where I would wander over a huge area and, when within range, would upload images to one of 4 huge 42″ plasma screens each connected to a MacBook Pro. It seemed obvious to use the Netgear modems I was so comfortable with.

In the weeks before the exhibition I obtained three DG834GT’s, the successor to the DG834G. I tested the basic set-up on my known-to-be-good Netgear DG834G v3 and with everything working, I used all the same settings, including the exact same IP address, SSID name and firewall settings as on the first of the DG834GTs. No joy! I then spent hours checking and double checking my settings and, at the same time, switching between all three of the new DG834GTs. Nothing I did worked but, whenever I switched back to the original DG834G v3 everything worked perfectly. I obviously tried creating new profiles with the Nikon WG4WirelessSettings application … each time giving them a unique name, often testing new profiles with the original, working DG834G. It seemed that whatever I did, the new modems never worked and yet the old modem worked perfectly.

It was obviously time to consult with the experts. I contacted Netgear and Nikon. The speedy but apathetic response from Brad Willey, Second Level Escalation support at Netgear, lacked sympathy with its waffle laden content basically advising me that I was trying to use the DG834GTs in a non-standard way and therefore support for such a complicated requirement did not fall within the scope of free support. Absolutely no reference to the fact that the DG834G v3 worked and the DG834GT did not.

At the same time, Damien O’Farrell of Nikon Europe Support replied with an equally evasive response saying, “When you change the modem as you have described it is necessary to create a new network connection and run the WT-4 set up utility again as the device will not be recognised due to the SSID number. By creating a new Network connection an running the WT-4 set up utility for each of your modems your issue should be resolved.”

When I read ‘SSID number’ alarm bells began to ring and so I replied asking if the WT4WirelessSetup application actually required the modem/router to be connected when the profile was created. Nikon’s Damien replied, “You are correct in your assumption that it is not possible to create a new profile without the actual modem/router connected to the computer at the time the profile is created. Although it is normal on Mac’s to more or less be able to copy and paste settings from one device to another, it will not work with the WT-4.”

By now I realised that both Netgear and Nikon were dispensing well meaning but elementary level support. I was convinced that I didn’t need a modem router connected to the Apple PowerBook Pro for the Nikon WT4 setup software to create a profile and I was also convinced that there was a difference between the DG834G v3 and the DG834GTs and that this was at the root of the problem.

I found and purchased a Netgear DG834G v3 modem router on Ebay. On the day it arrived I gathered all the equipment once again and set about loading the new modem with the same settings as the original DG834G.

Netgear modems are equipped with an option to save a configuration file containing all the settings so that it’s possible to do a factory re-set, import the configuration file and the modem will return to exactly the same settings as before. I saved a configuration file from the working Netgear DG834G (firmware version 4.01.20) and tried to import it into my newly acquired DG834G. It failed because the firmware version on the newer DG834 was 4.01.40. I knew from previous experience that it was possible to downgrade firmware to an earlier version so I scoured the Internet searching Netgear websites for firmware version 4.01.20 - strangely this version was missing although earlier and later versions were available. Hmmnnn, when I searched the internet I discovered that many people were discussing the missing version 4.01.20 because they had upgraded and then discovered that various functions (including Apple Mac iChat) that worked before but failed after upgrading from 4.01.20. How odd.

Having handled many many Netgear modems over the years, I searched though hundreds of gigabytes of backups and discovered I had a copy of firmware 4.01.20 and immediately loaded it into my new DG834G and tried again to load the configuration file and BINGO, I had an exact replica of my original modem and as soon as I powered up the D300 with WT-4 Wireless Transmitter, the connection was almost instant. I now had two working modems.

So, Damien O’Farrell, despite what your Japanese masters may tell you, I assure you that it is possible to create a wireless profile using nothing more than a computer and the Nikon WT-4 Setup utility. AND, a single profile will work with any number of modem routers as long as they all have exactly the same settings, are connected to different computers and are all out of range of each other. Quite why the wt4wirelesssetup application takes more than 60 seconds to open and, while the icon is bouncing in the dock, the force quit mode shows ‘Application Not Respoding’ I have yet to figure out. With my limited experience of Nikon software, I can assure you that the Nikon software development guys are not only PCcentric, but have the usual Not Invented Here syndrome, a problem many Japanese companies seem to suffer with and, if they would only ask someone who knows, their software would be superior and their bosses would benefit from the quantum leap in customer respect.

My principal question to Netgear’s Brad Willey is, where is the missing firmware version 4.01.20 and why, if this is the only version that works with the Netgear DG range, is it missing from the web site. It’s reasonable to assume that it’s not missing by accident and so this means that someone in Netgear knows the precise answer to my original question. If the Netgear DG834G v3 works with firmware version 4.01.20 and nothing later, why does my usage fall outside the scope of free support.

The BIG question for Damien and Brad - what do we have to do to get the WT-4 to work with a DG834GT ???

I’m really keen to know how many people have the Nikon WT-4 working in an infrastructure mode and if so, what modems are you using?

And finally, why is it so hard for technical support people to say “I don’t know!” I say I don’t know all the time and I find I learn a lot.

Damien O’Farrell
Nikon Europe Support
Possibly at Damien.O’Farrell@nikon.co.uk

Brad Willey
Second Level Escalation
NETGEAR, Inc.
Definately at Brad.willey@netgear-support.com