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Grex > Micros > #255: Mac wireless internet networks. | |
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| 25 new of 86 responses total. |
prp
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response 6 of 86:
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Sep 3 23:44 UTC 2004 |
Mac OS 10.3.5 has some changes to help things work with Comcast. I've
never had a problem using Mac->Airport->BaseStation->ComcastModem, but
have had them using Mac->Ethernet->ComcastModem. Sometimes you have to
put the modem on standby then back online to get DHCP to work.
As for disconnecting the base station from a dial-up connection, the
Airport Setup Assistant won't do that, but the Airport Admin Utility
will.
As I understand it your configuration is:
ComcastModem->AirportBaseStation->WirelessNetwork->G4->LocalEtherNet
Looks good to me.
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rcurl
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response 7 of 86:
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Sep 4 05:54 UTC 2004 |
The end is AirportBase->WirelessNetworkAdapter->LocalEthernet->G4 (and
iMac).
There is a neat utility available at
http://edge.mcs.drexel.edu/GICL/people/sevy/airport/#Hangup for connecting
and disconnecting the Airport modem, from the desktop.
I've been unable to connect to Comcast after enrolling, buying the cable
modem and connect-kit, and installing everything. After some discussion
with Comcast on the phone, and trying various things, they ask about the
lights on the modem - and one is not showing cable synchronization. So I
agreed for a Comcast house-call. The tech found no digital signal on my
cable and, sure enough, he went outside and found a "trap" in place on the
incoming cable. He said that at one time traps were installed so people
could not steal internet access (but anyone knowing enough to steal
internet access would know to climb the pole and switch the cable from the
trapped to the untrapped connector on the box....). Anyway, he switched
the connector, and I had signal. But...
As of right now, I do not yet have high speed cable access. I think it may
be that the modem is mis-configured with the IP address I need, so I need
to leave it off until the current DHCP lease expires....I hope it is this
simple (this heads-up is from Macworld.com/forums).
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rcurl
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response 8 of 86:
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Sep 4 14:06 UTC 2004 |
Broadband! WOW! Instantaneous (nearly...) web pages. I'm sure this is old-hat
for a lot of you but I'm excited by staying up with the receding edge (as
opposed to the cutting edge). That thing about letting the DHCP lease expire
was true. Nothing about that, of course, in the Apple Airport, Linksys cable
modem, Comcast installation, or MacWireless literature.
I would like to thank those that commented and offered advice while I was
setting this up: it all improved by understanding.
A couple of amusing footnotes that came out of this:
The Comcast tech, while changing the cable to skip the trap, commented that
the cable end was "burned". When he brought down the piece of coaxial cable
he cut off I saw that the center wire was black. But that is just the result
of the oxidation of copper when the weather has access to it: copper oxide
is black.
While checking my cable modem he had to talk to someone at the Comcast office,
and commented that he wasn't going to use the installation disk from Comcast
as he "didn't want all that junk on my computer". I then gathered from how
he responded to the person on the phone that he was being taken to task for
calling what the Installer installs "junk". Anyway, I'll never find out what
it does install, as I'm connected without using it.
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rcurl
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response 9 of 86:
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Sep 7 06:34 UTC 2004 |
I have discovered that Comcast has a block on relaying e-mail that I
generate in Netscape or IE that will be handled by my e-mail server at
another ISP. I have sent them an inquiry about unblocking this relay, but
would like to ask here why they do this and whether they are friendly to
unblocking it.
I've done some web searching, and allegedly it is to cut down on spam.
However I did not understant how this would do so. I do not read my e-mail
with a browser, and receive none through Comcast. All I want is to be able
to click on "send mail" links on web pages and compose a send e-mail.
Responses would be through my e-mail ISP.
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gull
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response 10 of 86:
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Sep 7 17:22 UTC 2004 |
They don't want you sending spam with forged sender addresses through
their mail server, probably.
If Comcast won't help you, ask your other ISP if they'll support SMTP
authentication so you can send through their servers when you're not on
their network. SMTP AUTH has been around a long time but take-up has
been kind of slow in the U.S.
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prp
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response 11 of 86:
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Sep 7 17:31 UTC 2004 |
Try changine your e-mail composer to use the Comcast SMTP server,
but leave everything else alone. That way mail will go out with
the same from information but will go:
Mac->Comcast->Destination
instead of
Mac->OtherISP->Destination
I think you can make your SMTP server dependant on the Location
setting, so you can switch your ISP and SMTP server just by
changing the location.
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gull
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response 12 of 86:
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Sep 7 19:11 UTC 2004 |
I think that's what he's trying to do, and the Comcast server isn't
letting him relay. I could have misunderstood, though.
Another thing you can try is making sure that you've checked your
Comcast mailbox just before sending. Some servers use "POP before SMTP"
for authentication, where it lets you send if you've checked your mail
from the same IP address within the last several minutes.
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rcurl
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response 13 of 86:
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Sep 7 20:24 UTC 2004 |
Will using the Comcast SMTP server put comcast.net as the From address?
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rcurl
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response 14 of 86:
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Sep 8 01:57 UTC 2004 |
Re #11: how do I do that, prp? I'm rather "lost" in there protocols. I
haven't created an e-mail account with Comcast, yet. Is this the first
step?
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rcurl
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response 15 of 86:
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Sep 8 03:07 UTC 2004 |
Re #11: I figured it out myself. I just changed the outgoing mail server
to smtp.comcast.net - and it worked. I thought it was going to ask for
a password, and it did the first time (my comcast.net PW) but not thereafter.
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gull
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response 16 of 86:
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Sep 8 04:41 UTC 2004 |
Ah, okay. I thought you'd already done that and it hadn't worked,
that's why I gave somewhat confusing advice.
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rcurl
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response 17 of 86:
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Sep 8 05:40 UTC 2004 |
I shouldn't have said I figured it out "myself" only: I did look at the
comcast.net forums and found some comments (full of jargon) that mentioned
smtp.comcast.net, so that's what I tried. Funny thing, though, I haven't
gotten an answer to my earlier e-mail to Comcast asking about this error
message - and their mail response says it "might take a few hours" for
a reponse. Maybe everyone was at the beach for Labor Day.
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rcurl
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response 18 of 86:
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Sep 8 19:35 UTC 2004 |
What are the relative uses and merits of the various security options
available for wireless networks (and Airport wireless networks in
particular)? A variety of options are described in Airport Help - WPA,
WEP, Closed Network, port settings (SNMP access, etc), and maybe others,
but there are no suggestions on choosing them - or choosing them
simultaneously (?).
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prp
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response 19 of 86:
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Sep 8 21:20 UTC 2004 |
Re 17: I hate those automated messages that say "we got your message
and will respond". That might be the right thing for @aol addresses,
but not in general.
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rcurl
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response 20 of 86:
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Sep 11 20:21 UTC 2004 |
I have enabled WEP 128-bit encryption on my wireless net as well as
"closed network". Although Airport supports both WEP and WPA encryption,
my net's wireless Adapter only supports WEP: but that's sufficient for a
home net, although not totally secure for a larger net with much more
activity.
Doing this required a lot of puzzling over Adapter and Airport Help
documents (the Airport can be given a security passphrase, but the Adapter
requires its hex equivalent - which is available via the Airport Admin
Utility, although how is not mentioined in Airport Help - so it went,
along with several aborted attempts that required resetting the Airport
Base and starting over).
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gull
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response 21 of 86:
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Sep 13 16:41 UTC 2004 |
WEP will keep casual hackers out. It's possible to break it, but doing
so requires eavesdropping on a fairly large volume of traffic. If you
want to stay on the safe side, changing your keys monthly will probably
foil any attempts unless you really move a lot of data across the
wireless link.
Right now there are so many networks around with no encryption at all
that it's unlikely anyone will bother, unless there's something special
about your network that makes it an attractive target. Hackers tend to
go for the low-hanging fruit.
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rcurl
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response 22 of 86:
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Sep 13 17:05 UTC 2004 |
I won't worry until I see a van parked out front sporting antennas....
Since my Adapter has a Site Monitor function, I know there are no open
wireless base stations in my vicinity. But still, is there any advice on
setting the power level of the Base? The default is the maximum, 32 mw,
but it can be dialed down, to be able to be less likely to be "sniffed".
The Adapter monitor reported a "52%" power level before I closed the
network and couldn't read that any more, but what does that mean? I get
the impression that power level and packet transfer efficiency are
related, but I wouldn't think that only 52% of the packets being
transmitted between the Adapter and the Base are getting through.
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gull
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response 23 of 86:
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Sep 13 17:18 UTC 2004 |
I think the 52% is probably the signal level readout from the card, not
an indication of packet loss -- kind of analogous to an S-meter reading
on a radio receiver. A better indication might be the speed your
network card is using. It will fall back to a slower speed if the
signal gets too weak compared to the noise level. I'd use the lowest
power level that gives you acceptable performance in the most distant
location. (But then, I've always believed in the amateur radio credo of
using the minimum amount of RF power necessary for communications.)
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rcurl
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response 24 of 86:
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Sep 13 18:19 UTC 2004 |
I've been hunting in these device interfaces for some readout of traffic
rates, but can't find any. Is there a (Mac) utility that would show this?
I think you are right about 52% being a signal level, although I'm a little
surprised they put that function into the Adapter (which is the same thing
as a network card, to keep our nomenclature clear, except not inside a
computer but just on the network).
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gull
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response 25 of 86:
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Sep 14 14:56 UTC 2004 |
It's been years since I used a Mac, so I'm not sure where you'd find
that information.
Every wireless network device I've seen has some ability to measure
signal strength. It's necessary anyway for several functions of the
802.11b protocol -- the ability to choose the closest access point on
the network, for example. Since the capability is built into the card's
radio modem, reporting it to the user as well isn't too difficult. Most
cards I've seen have the ability to measure signal strength, noise
level, and "link quality", though not all drivers report all of these
values to the user.
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rcurl
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response 26 of 86:
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Sep 14 17:53 UTC 2004 |
Makes sense. Does a computer shift among nearby (open) access points
if signal strength varies? (I wrote "open" as a user would have to
specify the SSID and WEP Key to access my Base).
I'm rather pleased how my network now functions. As I've said, I have two
computers on a wired ethernet LAN and this network is hooked wirelessly into
the Base Station, which is on Comcast's high speed internet access. For the
first time my wife and I don't have to contend for time on the internet!
"Modern Living".
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rcurl
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response 27 of 86:
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Sep 15 05:41 UTC 2004 |
I just discovered the "Network Utility" in OSX. This seems to be telling
me a lot about the activity on differnt parts of my network - if I can
figure out what the jargon means. I start with looking for a meaning for
Ethernet Interface (fw0) [or en0], and Network Utility Help comes up with
nothing for Interface, fw0 or en0. Who were they writing thost "Help"
pages for? (And the Utility says "Link Speed" is 10 mb for en0 - which
isn't a *speed*...) Sigh.....
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gull
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response 28 of 86:
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Sep 15 20:21 UTC 2004 |
Re resp:26: It depends on the network setup being done properly, but
yes, it's possible to roam around and have the computer switch from one
access point to another. This relies on the access points all being
part of the same network, though. Automatic, seamless hand-offs from
one network to another aren't possible because of the IP address and
routing changes.
Re resp:27: Okay, I don't know MacOS X, but I'll see if I can help you.
fw0 and en0 are the names of interfaces. In BSD (which OS X is based
on) devices traditionally get names in that format, where the two
letters mean something about the type of the advice. For example, my
FreeBSD system has two DEC ethernet cards, de0 and de1. (The de stands
for DEC Ethernet, apparently.) A little Googling suggests that en0 is
the Mac's ethernet interface, and fw0 is FireWire.
"10 mb" probably means 10 megabits per second.
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prp
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response 29 of 86:
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Sep 15 22:44 UTC 2004 |
en0 is the built-in ehternet, and en1 is the Airport card. Assuming
you have an airport card.
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gelinas
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response 30 of 86:
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Sep 15 23:34 UTC 2004 |
"ifconfig -a" is a useful command, in Terminal.
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