[P1] Cable Modem and Airport

[Mary C. Youra]

Paul--
We have a network with a snow Airport base station connected to a cable 
modem, all Macs with Airport cards plus one PB 3400 with a Roundabout 
card. I'm not sure I'll be of much use for setting up your girlfried's 
pc, but based on our experience...

Btw, my daughter has a network (but not wireless) using a router 
connected to a Comcast cable modem to connect four computers (two Macs, 
two pcs). Comcast actually instructed them what they needed and how to 
set it up. The Airport Base Station, if it is a snow or Extreme, 
functions as a router as well as a wireless access point, so you should 
be all set.

Do you already have cable broadband, or will the cable guy be coming 
out to install it (there may be a self-install option available to you, 
also)? If he's coming, he will probably want to connect a computer to 
the cable modem with an ethernet cable. This is fine because it will 
prove it works. He will probably also want to install some software 
which you do not need (but they think is wonderful, and actually may be 
necessary when connecting to a pc). My advice would be not to tell him 
about your girlfriend's pc, because he will want to use that one. It 
will be easier to get rid of him quickly if you tell him to use your 
iBook. You will need to set up your TCP/IP panel (how you do this 
depends on what OS you have), which is basically a matter of selecting 
Ethernet and DHCP. Once he leaves, unplug the ethernet cable from the 
computer, and leave it out for a couple of minutes before plugging it 
into the ABS, and it will reset itself. (While you wait, you can be 
re-configuring your computer's TCP/IP panel for Airport and DHCP.)  
 From your computer with its Airport card and software installed, use 
the Airport SetUp assistant. It will walk you through the process of 
setting up the base station and also setting up your computer to join 
the network. Then connect the cable modem to the Airport by plugging 
the ethernet cable into the Airport port marked <-->.

When I recently added my old PB3400 (which is not Airport compatible) 
to our network, I used an inexpensive Roundabout pc card from Wegener 
Media. The documentation is spotty for Macs, and the setup not nearly 
as elegant as with Airport. I had some trouble figuring how to enter 
our network password. I have seen screenshots of the Orinoco card's 
setup which look  simpler to understand. Those cards are available 
under several different labels, including Dell as the TrueMobile, so 
perhaps it's what your girlfriend has.

Apple has some good info on this--read the Designing AirPort 
Networks2.pdf, (this was  included with the Airport 2.0 Software CD; I 
don't know about Airport Extreme, but it's online, too), and there are 
some helpful Knowledge Base documents, also.

And one other thing--if you have 2.4 GHz portable phones, expect some 
problems with interference (like being knocked offline).

Mary Youra

On Jan 29, 2004, at 3:01 AM, iBook List wrote:

> From: Paul Bernhardt <pbern10 at xmission.com>
> Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 23:16:12 -0700
> Subject: [P1] Cable Modem and Airport
>
> I'll be setting up a home Airport network in the next few days which
> will connect to Cable broadband (Comcast). On it will be my iBook and
> my girlfriend's Dell Win XP laptop. Any advice, ideas, awesome
> websites, or other helpful hints y'all can offer as I enter this realm?
>
> Paul