Dear all,
As a thank you to those I've been lurking amongst, and as a help to
anyone else who's stuck, I am posting how I set up my laptops to
connect wirelessly to my Blueyonder Broadband modem.
[First you need to know that when I write mac, I mean my apple
macintosh computer, and when I write MAC, I mean the magic number on
the kit.]
I know a bit about macs but next to nothing about PCs. I have an Apple
iBook 500 laptop (dual USB, dual boot OS9.2 and OSX) and my partner
has a Sony Vaio laptop (running XP) and we wanted to run them in
different rooms away from the modem. They are both about two or three
years old and did not have wireless cards installed.
So I ordered the kit from Jigsaw. I rang and asked them what I needed
and ordered it and it arrived first thing next day. The sales guy was
very helpful. It cost £200.
I got: Airport Card for the iBook,
Buffalo Wireless CardBus WLI-CB-G54A-3 for the Vaio,
and the router: Buffalo Airstation Wireless Broadband Router for
DSL/Cable WBR-B11.
The sales guy had warned me to print off the manual from the Buffalo
website because the so-called setup guides that come with the kit are
not useful. However, the manual didn't help much either and I had to
ring the Jigsaw tech helpline.
There they first said they didn't know, but when pressed, the guy went
and looked it up or asked an expert and became much more helpful. He
told me not to do things in the order that the setup guides said.
Instead: first I plugged the router in to the modem. Then I put the
wireless cards in the machines. The Vaio one went in a slot on the
side that was 'filled in' with a plastic thingy. I took out the thingy
and pushed in the card. Then I ran the disk that came with the card.
I went on the apple website and printed out where to put the Airport
card before I started. On this iBook, it goes under the keyboard. I
had to switch the mac's OS from OS9 to OSX so that I could easily
install the Airport card by running Airport Setup Assistant.
Both computers seemed to know the router was there but neither of them
could connect to the internet. Then I read everyone else's posts. Then
I went to bed.
Here are some of the things you might need to know if you reach this
point:
Register the MAC address with Blue Yonder. Do it as soon as you unpack
the stuff because it might take time to register, but probably will be
immediate. The address is on the back of the router and it is the WAN
MAC address that you want, not the LAN (local) one. It is a series of
numbers and letters. You can type it into the selfcare part of the
Blue Yonder website or you can phone the BY tech helpline and get them
to do it.
If you use Buffalo, make sure you run Client Manager on the PC. It's
on the Air Navigator disk that comes with the card. Say yes to the
thing about disabling wireless communication, even though it sounds
wrong.
Ring the helpline of the router manufacturer if you get stuck. Buffalo
Europe helpdesk is: 01753 555 050. They were enormously helpful so I
recommend buying their stuff even though it comes with useless
documents.
Not sure if you're done? Reboot everything in this order:
turn off everything, turn on modem for 5 mins, turn on router, turn on
computer.
I got a lot of help from Jigsaw, BY tech helpline and Buffalo tech
helpline, so if you are new to this, you might want to use those firms
and just keep ringing their helplines.
It has taken about 48 hours, on and off, to work it all out but I now
have two laptops happily connected to the internet at opposite ends of
the house.
My main advice is: instead of reading lots of newsgroups, ring the
helplines!! Also, if you've been getting messages on your computer to
upgrade your wireless software from the internet, then do it before
you start.
If this helps anyone, I'll be glad!
-Aitch
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