Help getting new Mac online w/ Cablevision Optimum Online

[amin]

I recently talked my parents into switching from PC to Mac. the main selling point was that they could see their grandkids on iChat AV if they did since both of their kids (me and my brother) are Mac users w/ iSight and iChat AV. Their new 1.6 GHz G5 (way more power than they'll probably need in the foreseeable future since all they ever do is surf the web, do banking, and manage family digital photos, and use iTunes) and iSight arrived today, but they can't seem to get online. Their ISP is Optimum Online, which I know can work with Macs. Anyone using this ISP? The Optimum Online hybrid install disc they have seems to be suggesting they install Netscape or something like that. The Optimum help site seems to have suggestions for OS 9 but is not clear about X. If I were sitting there with them I think I could figure it out, but I'm hundreds of miles away and am losing my patience trying to talk them through it on the phone. Are we missing somehing?

Thanks for any help.

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

Is it Cable or DSL? Tell them to turn off the modem. Restart the computer. Turn the modem back on. Open Sys. Pref. go to Network, select the Ethernet, click Assist Me and follow the steps. If they enter all of the information correctly, they should be online in under 10 minutes.

If it's Cable and Always On, they should only need to set it up to use DHCP (which OS X should automatically recognize and set it too) otheriwse they may need to call their ISP for the information necessary.

If it's DSL they'll need to set it up via PPPoE and enter their user name and password.

Again, all of this should be done automatically via the Assist Me, but if they want to do it manually it's quite simple. Good thing they don't have Windows, otherwise you'd never be able to talk them through it on the phone

Note: I did this when I first got my Powerbook and could not set it up on my parent's cable modem (worked flawless on my DSL), the reason being the Cable modem had to have it's IP reset by turning it off waiting a min. or two and turning back on.

 

[amin]

Thanks for taking the time to help. They just shut everything doww, turned it back on, and everything worked automatically.

 

[neoelectronaut]

See, this kind of stuff worries me.

I have a DSL modem (Bellsouth DSL), which is connected to a wireless router, which is inturn connected to my eMac

On the Mac it says it's connected using DHCP, but then on the router I have to set it to connect using PPPoE, and the DSL modem is set to "bridged ethernet".

I know that's confusing, but should my Mac say PPPoE, or does the router take care of that, so I shouldn't be worried?