router tutorial

Description

How to set up a router to share you broadband connectionow that you've broadband at home, here's how to set up a router toconnect your Macs and PCs. Shopping for routers is quite a choreNespecially for us Mac users. Ask questions, surf the net check out Apple discussion boards, do yourhomework. If you can afford it, the Apple base station and airport cards isdefinitely the way to go. It's probably easiest to set up but bear in mind itcosts a lot more. Being a glutton for punishment and cheap, I opted for oneof those other routers whose manufacturers which don't provide any supportand documentation for Macs at all.They don't even mention Macs on theirboxes! You may see MAC on the box but…read on. One sales associate at a prominent store pointed that out on the box and wastrying to convince me that they did support Macs. Now, don't confuse thiswith MAC(all uppercase) that you might see on the boxes. MAC stands forMedia Access Control it is your computer's unique hardware number .If youwant to know more about that, click on http://www.whatis.com and typeMAC in the search fieldBelow is a picture of the router that John Schreck recommended, it was onsale at compUSA for $80. The model # is the !BEFW11S4.o you open the box take it out and as expected there are no instructionsfor Macs. On the back of the router you will find 5 RJ45 ports. OneSwill have WAN over it, the other will say LAN over it. No need toget into what that means to set this router up. ...

Informations

• Publié par: Undrou
• Nombre de lectures: 37
• Langue: English

Extrait

How to set up a router to share you broadband connection

ow that you've broadband at home, here's how to set up a router to

connect your Macs and PCs. Shopping for routers is quite a chore

especially for us Mac users.

Ask questions, surf the net check out Apple discussion boards, do your

homework. If you can afford it, the Apple base station and airport cards is

definitely the way to go. It's probably easiest to set up but bear in mind it

costs a lot more. Being a glutton for punishment and cheap, I opted for one

of those other routers whose manufacturers which don't provide any support

and documentation for Macs at all.They don't even mention Macs on their

boxes! You may see MAC on the box but…read on.

One sales associate at a prominent store pointed that out on the box and was

trying to convince me that they did support Macs. Now, don't confuse this

with MAC(all uppercase) that you might see on the boxes. MAC stands for

Media Access Control it is your computer's unique hardware number .If you

want to know more about that, click on http://www.whatis.com and type

MAC in the search field

Below is a picture of the router that John Schreck recommended, it was on

sale at compUSA for $80. The model # is the BEFW11S4.

o you open the box take it out and as expected there are no instructions

for Macs. On the back of the router you will find 5 RJ45 ports. One

will have

WAN

over it, the other will say

LAN

over it. No need to

get into what that means to set this router up. If your Mac is already hooked

N

S

up for DSL or cable modem, unplug the RJ45 cable from the Ethernet port

and plug that into the port that says

WAN

then launch your browser. I use

Internet Explorer. There should be some directions there that tells you to

enter a number like this

http:// 192.168......

then you'll see the screen below.

If you see this on your screen,

you’re in good shape.

enerally these routers use an internet browser for setting up. Their

instructions will be similar or some variation of this. Under the

WAN connection Type, select PPPoE then enter your account name

that you got from your ISP and also the password. Then click “Apply.” The

basic setup for the router is done.

Now you need to set up your computer to obtain an IP address automatically

from the router when you plug the RJ45 cable into the Ethernet port.

G

For OS 9 users

nder the Apple Menu, go to

Control Panel

then to

TCP/IP.

You

should see a dialog box like this . Click on Configure and choose

“Using DHCP Server.” You’ll be prompted

to save. Name it something meaningful like

Linksys router

or something

that is meaningful.

And that’s it. If you have another Mac and are running OS 9, the above

directions should get you set up. All you need a a RJ45 cable to plug into

any one of the other 4

LAN

ports on the router.

U

For OS X users

nder the Apple menu select

System Preferences

then click on

Network ,

you should see this

:

Now under

Location

click on

New

. You will be prompted by a dialog box

to give this new location a name. Give it a meaningful name like

Linksys

router

. Then under the

Show

field, choose

Built-in Ethernet.

Then click the tab that says

TCP/IP

. When you click that tab you will see

you have different options than the above which shows the

PPPoE

tab being

highlighted.

U

Under

Configure

choose

Using DHCP

. Now your Mac which is running

OS X is ready to go. It will select a range of IP addresses assigned by your

router. Just plug your RJ45 cable into that computer’s Ethernet port and

you’re ready to do some web surfing.

Your Network dialog box should look like this with the name of your router

in the

Location

field

.

The Wireless Setup

ow comes the complicated part that I am struggling with. So if you

have more than one Mac and you don’t want to run wires, you will

need some sort of wireless card. I bought Apple’s airport card for

around $100.

I’ve read of cheaper alternatives but since I haven’t tried them, we’ll stick

with what I’m using. Depending on your Mac, it may or may not have a slot

for an airport card. To get instructions to install the airport card, look up

http://info.apple.com/usen/cip/

That URL is Apple’s Customer-Installable parts page where you can look up

the different upgrades you can do yourself all specific to your computer.

Some of these will link to a quicktime movie that you can download and

watch . You can download the PDF’s and print them for easier reference.

If you don’t own a powerbook but still want to connect your desktop

wirelessly, try

http://www.macsense.com

. That site might give you some

ideas. Even if you can’t connect wirelessly, you can still share your

broadband connection through RJ45 cables.

So after you have an airport card installed, you should be able to turn on

Aiport from the menu bar (in OS X) or the control strip in OS 9.

In OS X on top right hand corner you should see an icon that looks like a

fan. See the picture below.

N

Once that clear fan turns into this icon

, you’re ready to surf without

wires. If you have a laptop, you’ll be having loads of fun testing the range of

your wireless router.

On OS 9, you have to look for this on the control strip in the bottom of your

screen.

The green dots indicate signal strength. When you see that icon with the

green dots, you are ready to “cut the cord.”