Where I work, we are building a GUI to run on iOS or Android; the GUI is intended to control an embedded board. The embedded board does not have WiFi, an Ethernet port, or a USB port, but it does have an RS-232 serial port; so we are using a product called a WiSnap.
http://serialio.com/products/mobile/wifi/WiSnapKit2.php
We have been able to connect to the WiSnap using OS X, or using iOS (an iPad 2). But none of our Android tablets recognize the device at all. The WiSnap acts as a WiFi access point, and broadcasts an SSID; the Android tablets do not list this SSID in the list of available WiFi access points. Under Linux Mint 12, my Laptop can see the WiSnap, but attempts to connect to it fail. Interestingly, my cell phone (a Droid 2) is able to see the WiSnap, but I don't have telnet on my phone so I haven't tested to see if it actually works.
Under OS X, I noticed something. In the drop-down list of WiFi access points, there are two distinct groups: the top group, which contains most of the listed WiFi access points, then a lower group, that has a sub-heading that says "Devices" and contains just the WiSnap and something called "hpsetup". (I don't know what "hpsetup" is or where it might be; there are lots of WiFi users in this neighborhood.)
The WiSnap is operating in "ad-hoc" mode with no security at all.
So, my question is: what is the significance of OS X calling the WiSnap a "device"? It is frustrating to try to search Google for "WiFi devices"; you get a giant haystack of results that are not related to this.
Also, is there anything we can do to make an Android tablet see the WiSnap and connect to it?
Can anyone recommend a good resource where I can read up on WiFi? Again Google hasn't helped much; there are so many introductions to WiFi out there, most of them at a very simple level.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
EDIT: The vendor does claim Android compatibility for some models of WiSnap, but not for others.
This lists Android as supported: http://serialio.com/products/mobile/wifi/WiSnapKit2.php
This does not: http://serialio.com/products/mobile/wifi/WiSnapAAA.php
I guess I should contact the vendor, but I do want to understand what is going on, so I was hoping to get advice from the StackOverflow community about this.
EDIT: We did contact the vendor. What we found out is that the WiSnap can be a stand-alone device only in ad-hoc mode. If you set up a WiFi router or access point, the WiSnap will join the network in infrastructure mode. But the WiSnap will not act as an infrastructure mode access point.
Android OS at the moment only supports infrastructure mode. So, if we want to use an Android tablet with a WiSnap we would have to set up some sort of WiFi router or access point. We are looking into other solutions now.
I'm relatively sure that hpsetup is the ad hoc wifi for an HP wireless printer. So perhaps the ad-hoc/peer-to-peer qualifier is what causes OS X to classify it as a device.