Airport (basestation) Question

[uhlawboi80]

Just to start: this is not a thread asking if people like their airport basestations or if it is better/equal to/worse than any other wireless router

I was given an airport extreme base station when i asked for a wireless base station. I already have a router that maintains/ "dials" my DSL connection and spits out IP addresses through my hub. My question is this: the base station information tells you to go in and "set up" the base station before you can make any changes to its configuration, or more importantly for what i want to be able to do...change the security settings. As it sits (near as i can tell) my router will spit out IPs through the base station till the cows come home and i want to limit this. Is there anyway to tell the base station that IT needs a password to issue an IP without having to go in and change my entire network over to asking for a password? (currently my router will issue an IP to any computer that connects to it for internet access though the individual computers need seperate passwords to be accessed over the network) Im not overly concerned with hackers coming through my router or anything but i also dont really want the neighbors sitting around slowing down my connection (or worse, doing something illegal over my connection).

The base station. when i try to set it up sends a message that no base station is in range...which is dumb since im using it to surf when i try this. I tried to reset the base station and it still gives me this error. To set up the base station does it need to be acting as the router? When i get it to let me set it up, can i set it to require a password while it is not primarily distributing IPs but rather just routing out wireless IPs for my main router? Also, is there any way to see/monitor who all is connected to my base station -- like a list of connected computers/ how long connected etc??

thanx for any help you can provide!

 

[idkew]

turn on MAC address filtering. enter every machine's MAC address into the allowed users.

it will then only allow a computer that is registered with the basestation to connect, good password or not.

 

[uhlawboi80]

turn on MAC address filtering. enter every machine's MAC address into the allowed users.

it will then only allow a computer that is registered with the basestation to connect, good password or not.

thats one solution to the password issue...though i only use the wireless for my Macs, i frequently have people over who use the schools recomended Dell laptop and would like to allow them to get on.

 

[uhlawboi80]

well after messing with the base station a bit this afternoon i think the main question i need answered is...what do i do to get in to my base stations configuration??? It keeps telling me that it cant read the configuration file for my base station...but ive never configured it and the "setup assistant" doesnt seem to want to work unless im using the base station as my router or at least not letting another router send the IPs through the base station. Any ideas ANYONE??

 

[idkew]

thats one solution to the password issue...though i only use the wireless for my Macs, i frequently have people over who use the schools recomended Dell laptop and would like to allow them to get on.

a MAC address has NOTHING to do with a Macintosh. (you should note the all caps when the writer doesn't even capitalize)

well, besides that every network devices has a MAC address, so your Mac has one (or 2+, depending on airport...).

PCs also have MAC addresses. Once you input a friend's PC, you never have to do it again. You can find it on the bottom of the laptop (for on board wireless or on the wireless card. it is something like XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX where X is a hex digit.

 

[uhlawboi80]

AH, then that is a good way to limit access, thanx for the idea and also for explaining what was meant.

Anyone have any ideas on how to make my base station let me configure it??

 

[idkew]

it is possible to fake a MAC address, so i would not recommend it as the only line of defense.

as for setting up your base station, quit the helper app. open the airport admin utility (in the utilities folder) and click "show all settings" or something like that. there you can do most everything you need.

also- follow the instructions to reset it. i believe it is a 2+ second reset with a paper clip in the back of the station.