InTheBlack Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 And if so, is there a proper way to set up the numbers. IIRC the range for each of the four numbers is 0-256. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Nah, just let it start at the default and run with it. If you want some security, turn SSID off and set MAC addressing to only allow your own machines onto the network. That'l stopem' cold! -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheBlack Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 I can't find those two things in the Airport Admin Utility app. Where are their controls? Using it for a wireless connection to my IP with a single computer so I can work off of the wire. While looking for those items, I just enabled WAN privacy and created a closed network. *** I'm back on the wire using the internal modem now. After I made those changes, it shows that I was connected to the internet BUT I cannot "get to it." AirPort Admin Utility won't let me get back into the base station control panels. Aftern entering the password I tried doing the "soft reset" described on pp 22-23 of the manual, but it cannot even locate the base station; I re-scan but it finds nothing, even though the base station is sitting 5 feet away blinking at me. WTF ????? *** The main menu Airport icon "Other" gets me to a dialog box asking for me to enter the name of the network (without showing any choices, which matches with the private setting I made) BUT its not accepting the password. Nor is is accepting the Apple default password. How the heck do I clear this stupid machine and start over? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Do Not enable WAN privacy! You will lose your internet connection unless you know what you are doing. A hard reset can be performed on an Airport by pushing the pinhole, or reset button with a straightened paperclip for 30 seconds +. You can also get a reset by powering up with the reset pushed and holding it for 5 seconds then releasing. After it's reset, the password will be "public" like when it comes outadabox new. With SSID off (the Create Closed Network option does this by not broadcasting the network name), you will not be able to see the network because it is no longer broadcasting it's name and will now have to use the "Other" option to access it by typing in the EXACT network name when prompted. You may, or may not need a password here. The OSX admin password will not work, it needs to be the one you set in the WEP security panel, or "public" if the base station has been reset. With SSID off ("Closed Network" in Apple terminology), your system will be pretty secure. Add MAC address lockouts and it will be pretty much impenetrable on the WiFi side. MAC addressing and security is handled in the "Access Control" tab of Airport Admin Utility. You will need to go to each machine that will be on the network and get it's MAC address from the System Profiler in the Network section. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheBlack Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 Thanks George. I spent some hours resetting & poking around and I'm back wireless. Still haven't figured out why I was getting negative results when SCANing for the base, but eventually it found it again. I discovered that to connect to the net I have to leave ISDN "on" within WAN privacy. Its annoying that the Private Network name doesn't appear on the Airport menu even after you have joined it. And I can't figure out how to UNDO the "make private" option. The manual is deficient because it doesn't explain that the NETWORK and the BASE STATION are two different logical things, and you have to access each one seperately. I don't really have a network, just using the Base for wireless access to the Net from one machine, which I guess would be using it as a Bridge, not a Router. Now I'm concerned about broadcasting my password in the clear between the Mac and the Base. Turning the WEP Encryption ON should care of that. I tried turning SSL ON within Eudora, but can't get IP access. Don't all IPs use SSL as a standard item nowadays? Or is it the interaction with the Airport encryption? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 If SSID is off with any Apple AirPort, or 3rd part WiFi base station, the network name will/should always show in the menu bar Airport icon rollout once you have joined it. If you are not seeing it, it may be because of WAN privacy being enabled. I have never bothered using it myself, in fact, I don't use WEP either, just SSID off and a non-trivial network name. Just make sure the OSX firewall is turned on in the Sharing prefs pane. Even with WEP on, if you sent something clear text, it's clear text. BTW, never use the same password for the wifi Network as for the Base Station admin and neither of those should be your OSX admin password, ever and that should be non-trivial as all get out! All WiFi base stations have a logical address for the admin control panel, usually via Ethernet (192.168.1.1 with Linksys for example). The wifi network logon is always a separate function anyway, so the idea that Apple doesn't explain that doesn't seem weird to me. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheBlack Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 I just tried to double check that I have WEP Encryption ON, and find that I am still having the same mysterious trouble I had last night-- when I use Airport Admin Utility, it sees my Network but when I select it and type in the password, it says it cannot read the configuration file. However, a few hours ago I WAS able to get into the control panel for the Network and the Base. Is this a DHCP problem? Do I need to Renew the DHCP Lease? What's the acronym stand for, anyway? I downloaded Apples "Designing Airport Networks" file but no help there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheBlack Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 And another strange thing. I just noticed my system clock is 3 hours slow. Showing CA time but I'm east coast. Might have happened last night, I zapped the PRAM to try to clear any network parameters in the Mac. But when I went to Date&Time and selected "set time automatically" using the Apple Americas server, the time only changed by a few seconds. Even though my Time Zone was correctly set. I re-set it just for good measure, and had the same result. Finally I manually changed it by 3 hours & corrected the Date. I wonder if the Apple time server is handing out west coast time in a way that the machines Time Zone setting can't handle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 DHCP = Dynamic Host Control Protocol Try a paperclip hard reset and then access it via Ethernet with Airport turned off in the PowerBook network preference pane and only Ethernet DHCP enabled in the networking settings (making a new network location that is Ethernet Only is helpful here). Here is Apple's info on accessing via Ethernet: 1. Open the Network pane of System Preferences. Make sure your computer is set up to connect to the Ethernet network. 2. Connect a cable from a port on the Ethernet network to the AirPort Extreme Base Station's local area network (LAN) port, or to the Ethernet port on an AirPort Express. 3. At your computer, open AirPort Admin Utility, located in Applications/Utilities. Select your base station and click Configure. Enter the base station password if necessary. 4. Enter the settings you want for the base station. (Note: after a hard reset the password may be set back to "public") After you get control back, turn off WEP and WAN privacy and change the "Base Station" password to something non-trivial and write it down. Change the name of the base station to something hard to gues, but easy to type and turn SSID off. Then update the base station and let it restart. Disconnect the Ethernet cable, change back to an Airport enabled network location in your Location Manager in the Apple menu and logon to the wifi network using Other in the Airport menu. Use the network name with no password and when it prompts you to always join this network automatically in the future, for God's sake, say yes ;-) Let me know if you have any further hassles with this -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 Check to see what time zone your time and date prefs are set to. If the time zone for your machine is set right, the time server always serves correct time. Don't ever zap the PRAM unless you really have a good reason to, it can sometimes go Sad Mac doing that for no good reason and a trip to Single User Mode, or an install CD may be in order (just to reset the startup volume, not to erase and re-install!!). -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheBlack Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 OK I'm getting the hang of this. Wish the MANUAL told the secret... The BASE holds the information about all NETWORKS. First you access the BASE and from its control panel you can make modifcations to the NETWORK which you might have created there or might have created from the Mac's drop-down Airport menu or from the Airport Setup Utility. I had named the BASE with the name I wanted for the NETWORK and thus was using the wrong password to get into the BASE. I don't recall the Airport Setup Utility asking me to name BOTH the base and the network. *** I know my Network is "closed" because it doesn't appear in the Airport drop-down menu. However, in the Admin utility, the "create closed network" box is NOT checked. Confused. But WEP Encryption is ON, so at least my data stream is safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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