Interesting network issue
 

I am going to a friends house tonight to have a look at their wireless network.

The problem is he has 3 laptops. 2 windows + 1 MAC. the MAC is new but i'm not sure of the model. the windows systems have either vista or xp (i'm not sure). The mac connects wired or wireless but the other 2 wont connect with either. They are using the same cable as the mac. The router is a rangemax. The guy seems to think this started when he got his mac, i don't know if this is coincidence or not.

I know roughly what i'll be doing to resolve the issue but I was wondering what were the basic settings that should be on the router?

I was also just wanting some tips if anyone has any..........i've never used a mac before. i don't think this should be an issue though as its actually working.

Any help is welcome

Re: Interesting network issue
 

is dhcp on in the router.
are the windows boxes getting an address automatically.

Re: Interesting network issue
 

I've not seen the systems yet so don't have any further info. I'll check that later though ;)

As the mac is connecting ok is this just a configuration issue with the windows systems?

Re: Interesting network issue
 

"The mac connects wired or wireless but the other 2 wont connect with either"

when you say that are you saying the windows PCs wont wirelessly connect to the router or they wont wirelessly connect in adhoc mode to each other ?
LT1<--->wireless-router
LT2<--->wireless-router
LT1 <-adhoc-> LT2

<---> =wireless connection


first things first make sure you turn off any security in the router to rule out some basic bad typing of a password, do they still not connect?, if they do it might be as simple as reactivate security and re-enter passwords.

make sure you are not using a security mode the LTs wireless drivers or router dont support...

Re: Interesting network issue
 

They wont connect wirelessly to the router. They won't connect wired either, and thats using the same cable the mac uses.

I'm guessing a setting on the windows computers has changed

Re: Interesting network issue
 

im going to assume ( i cant be bothered looking for the PDF URL and you didnt supply it) that the rangemax has auto sensing x-over ethernet ports and the cable that works with the apple isnt an x-over cable.

plus OC, you did plug this cable into the exact same port and so even if it was the x-over uplink , it would have still worked as the apple did anyway.

the fact its not working wired eather looks rather odd to me right now, but iv not got time or patence to try and help you work out what it might be, perhaps later.....

Re: Interesting network issue
 

Hi again.

Ok, I've got a bit more info.

What they've got - a MAC desktop, 2 notebooks (1 XP + 1 Vista) and a Netgear Rangemax WNR834B. The XP machine doesnt have wireless but the Vista one does.

At the moment the MAC is connected to the Virgin modem and is working fine. I didnt want to mess around with any settings without some advice as they need at least one system connected to the internet.

I know how the wired set-up should be, modem-->router-->desktop. I managed to get into the router setup but wasnt sure what settings i needed.

Under basic set-up do i set it to pppoe then put in the email address and password of the user? what other settings to i need to get the desktop to work?

Once i've got the desktop to work do i just check there is no wireless security set up on the router then connect the vista machine?

Then is it just a case of connecting an ethernet cable to the xp machine and it should work?

Thanks for all your help

Re: Interesting network issue
 

The router should have DHCP enabled. Without it only 1 PC at a time will connect.
Turn off the wirless security.
Connect the MAC and 1 lappy to the router via RJ45 network cables.
Turn everything off.
Turn on the modem, wait for it to stabilise.
Turn on the router and wait for it to stabilise.
Turn on the MAC.
Turn on the wired lappy.
Turn on the wireless lappy and search for your wireless router.
Once a wireless connection is established, go back to the router settings and setup wirless security. You will have to re establish a connection with the wireless lappy and enter the security key.

Ignore the PPPOE settings, they are not required.

Charge them £20.00, call it a day and let us know how you got on. :)

Re: Interesting network issue
 

Thanks Bri G, its sounds very easy..........will let you know how I got on ;)

Re: Interesting network issue
 

Thanks Bri G, that worked a treat!

I reset the router as i wasn't sure what settings had been changed on it. Plugged in all 3 computers. Switched off all hardware, turned on modem, router and then computers. And bob's your uncle, all worked fine. Went in and setup wireless security for the notebook.

Job done, thanks for all the replies I got :)