sobug242
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Wireless Networking Problem
I have a wired G4 Cube and a wired desktop PC (OS X and XP) connected to a Linksys networking hub. I later got an iBook and a pc laptop that I was running wireless through a graphite Airport Base Station. As I couldn't connect the Base station and the hub to the DSL modem (only one jack) I (in my infinite networking cluelessness) connected the Base Station to the networking hub. It worked for several months, actually, and then I started having problems throughout the entire wired/wireless system. There was an apparent conflict between the addresses of the Base Station and the hub that caused an inability to receive packets of information on all four computers. Confirmation of this is when I disconnected the Base Station from the hub. Voila, no more problems. My present dilemma is how to be able to connect wirelessly with the two laptops. I was originally looking at a wired/wireless router solution (Linksys) to accomplish this, but from everything I'm reading this would be a problem for the iBook as the PC-compatible hardware doesn't do so well with Macintosh. Based on my experience with the Airport Base Station, the PC laptop had no problems connecting with it. My ultimate question is what kind of Apple hardware do I need to connect the wired and wireless components of my home network without encountering my previous problem? Thanks.
Actually, plugging the airport base station into the Hub was a good idea, and in fact, the only solution. That's the way most people do it. You dont need any more hardware. As brett pointed out it's probably just a configuration error. You have conflicting IP addresses, or DHCP fights. Could even be that you have some bad ethernet cable between the ABS and the hub.
ASKER
Sorry...I haven't been ignoring you guys. I have been trying to get this thing to work. My ABS did have the same IP address as one of the four computers which caused the confiict. Since I upgraded my DSL service recently I remembered that I now have a block of 8 IP addresses to play with. When I tried to reset the ABS (several times) the reset failed. The old IP address is still in there and I can't reset it. I was hoping that I could use one of the other four IP's for the ABS so that there wouldn't be any conflict. Is that even possible or does the ABS choose whichever one it wants to in the IP block? I'm rather stumped right now.
Unless you're running a server, or have a specific need for 8 IP addresses, get rid of them. You only need 1 which will be routed to internal IP addresses.
You can set the ABS to whatever IP you like. Preferably one that isn't being used. Performing a reset on an ABS does not wipe its settings. That would be a nightmare. It just "resets" its connection, power, etc. Doing a "hard reset" does wipe the settings. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58613
You can set the ABS to whatever IP you like. Preferably one that isn't being used. Performing a reset on an ABS does not wipe its settings. That would be a nightmare. It just "resets" its connection, power, etc. Doing a "hard reset" does wipe the settings. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58613
ASKER
I previously had a block of four IPs, all of which were being used by my four computers. When I originally set up the ABS it took one of the four already in use, hence the conflict. I was thinking that I needed an additional IP address for the ABS to avoid that conflict. As the Enhanced DSL service I upgraded to last month gave me four more IPs I thought that would help solve the conflict issue. No such luck.
To further complicate matters I forgot my original password for the ABS. As instucted I tried to perform a hard reset. It failed. When I got to Step 7 of the process and pressed the 'Configure' button there was no prompt to reinstall the ABS software. A screen appeared saying that the ABS has been reset, asks for an IP address and a password. The default password is 'public'. I then get an error msg saying that 'an error occurred while updating the ABS configuration.' This is where I'm stuck now.
To further complicate matters I forgot my original password for the ABS. As instucted I tried to perform a hard reset. It failed. When I got to Step 7 of the process and pressed the 'Configure' button there was no prompt to reinstall the ABS software. A screen appeared saying that the ABS has been reset, asks for an IP address and a password. The default password is 'public'. I then get an error msg saying that 'an error occurred while updating the ABS configuration.' This is where I'm stuck now.
It would be a much simpler process if you just had 1 IP from your DSL provider. You dont need a whole batch of IPs for your internally networked computers unless youre running servers and want a different IP for each.
ASKER
The whole problem eventually got solved when I installed OS 10.3. Sorry for the delay in responding. Thanks for your help.
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I have a Linksys CableModem/DSL router with 5 port switch where I had similar problems.
It turns out the Linksys and the Airport both wanted to be DHCP masters. This caused
no end of aggravation until I figured it out. I then disabled DHCP on the Airport and things
worked much better.