Computers 101: DSL/time capsule question

[stacyc]

Hello,

First off I know very little about computers, so please bare with me as I painfully try to articulate my most basic questions.

I just received a new imac and am looking into purchasing time capsule. I have not yet hooked up my imac and am still using my Windows PC. Right now I have a DSL connection through AT&T, it is not wireless at this time. I have a Siemens 4100 speedstream modem.

My questions are as follows: If I purchase the time capsule will it be compatible with my internet connection? By that I mean, will I just connect time capsule to my current modem and off it will go?

Will I be able to create a wireless network (ie: use time capsule to connect 2 computers to the internet) by simply connecting it to my Siemens modem?

Do I need to buy anything else besides time capsule (an additional router etc.) to set up a wireless internet connection for more than one computer in the home?


My questions are at best muddled. If anyone understands what I'm trying to ask, can you give me the basics? Thank you for your time.

-Stacy C.

 

[macdot]

Yes, your modem has an ethernet port which will connect to Time Capsule to provide wireless internet.

Time Capsule can handle more than one person on the wireless network at a time.

Each computer must have a wireless card to access the wireless internet. The iMac comes with one, you PC may not have one.

 

[stacyc]

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I really appreciated it. Now if my old PC does not have a wireless card, is there anything I can do to get it connected?

 

[DLH]

Now if my old PC does not have a wireless card, is there anything I can do to get it connected?

Time Capsule also has 3 LAN ethernet ports. You are probably using an ethernet cable from your PC to the Speedstream. You would just connect that cable to the TC instead. You would then connect another ethernet cable from the WAN ethernet port of the TC to the Speedstream.

The wireless clients and those connected to the LAN ethernet ports can all share the internet through the TC.

 

[CanadaRAM]

You may need to call your DSL provider however -- some DSL lines are provisioned specifically for the MAC address of the computer, and inserting a router may need adjustment.

 

[begladstone]

Couldn't get Time Capsule to work with SBC Yahoo Modem

I just returned my Time Capsule for a refund. After spending over an hour (half of it on the phone with an Apple Tech), turning the modem off and on three times, turning the TC off and on three times, quitting and restarting Airport Utility more times the tech finally gave up and said that I should call SBC Yahoo and upgrade the firmware for my modem and then call back. I contrast this with a 10 minute setup for my Linksys router using a nasty old PC. I have little or no confidence that upgrading modem firmware will solve the problem and I can only guess what might happen when I want to connect my PCs to the Airport in the TC. I can only imagine the classic Apple answer to this class of problem. "Not our problem contact Microsoft".

BTW, for what it's worth Airport Utility and the Airport firmware is a pretty dismal set of stuff. Take a look at a Linksys wireless router to see how it should be done.

 

[PcBgone]

You may need to call your DSL provider however -- some DSL lines are provisioned specifically for the MAC address of the computer, and inserting a router may need adjustment.

At&t Does not require a specific mac address...just the pppoe user id and password.

I just returned my Time Capsule for a refund. After spending over an hour (half of it on the phone with an Apple Tech), turning the modem off and on three times, turning the TC off and on three times, quitting and restarting Airport Utility more times the tech finally gave up and said that I should call SBC Yahoo and upgrade the firmware for my modem and then call back. I contrast this with a 10 minute setup for my Linksys router using a nasty old PC. I have little or no confidence that upgrading modem firmware will solve the problem and I can only guess what might happen when I want to connect my PCs to the Airport in the TC. I can only imagine the classic Apple answer to this class of problem. "Not our problem contact Microsoft".

BTW, for what it's worth Airport Utility and the Airport firmware is a pretty dismal set of stuff. Take a look at a Linksys wireless router to see how it should be done.

Im just curious, did you input the userid and password into the modem or the time capsule? I have the same setup, and I had no problems getting it to work with TC..

 

[Ben1l]

I have a similar set up to you.

the main problem i had was that my old modem/router was wireless. this ment that when i connected my Time Capsule to it, there were two devices trying to assign IP address. I had to call my Internet Service Provider and get them to talk me through turning off the wireless funtion of my old router, so the conflict would stop.

 

[stacyc]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I called my internet service provider and was told there should not be a problem with time capsule. We will see...it is being delivered next week. Hopefully you won't see me back here with more setup questions. Thanks again all!

 

[Macky-Mac]

I just returned my Time Capsule for a refund. After spending over an hour (half of it on the phone with an Apple Tech), turning the modem off and on three times, turning the TC off and on three times, quitting and restarting Airport Utility more times the tech finally gave up and said that I should call SBC Yahoo and upgrade the firmware for my modem and then call back......

yes, when i first set up my wireless router I had similar problems.

It turned out that the software that my ISP uses senses and locks onto the MAC address of the device at my end and it took a long time for it to clear and release. It took a whole lot longer than the usual "power cycle the modem" fix.....long enough for me to go to a movie and dinner as I recall. Afterwards I was able to set up the router with no further problem.

 

[begladstone]

yes, when i first set up my wireless router I had similar problems.

It turned out that the software that my ISP uses senses and locks onto the MAC address of the device at my end and it took a long time for it to clear and release. It took a whole lot longer than the usual "power cycle the modem" fix.....long enough for me to go to a movie and dinner as I recall. Afterwards I was able to set up the router with no further problem.

OK, mea culpa, mea minima culpa. It turns out the Apple tech who pointed at the Seimens modem was somewhat correct. As I said I returned the TC. I really did like the idea of a central backup site tied to the router. So I purchased a D-Link 655 wireless router with USB and Gigabit Ethernet. The only problem with D-Link's setup software is that they don't tell you to start as if you never had a router in the system. It took quite a bit of time and a good guess (after a number of bad guesses) on my part to hit on this solution. Once I did that setup was straightforward, if slow. One disadvantage to this solution, for some of you, is that D-Link setup requires a PC. For me it was Bootcamp on my Macbook. TC just left me with no idea where to turn to when it couldn't connect. I am still not convinced I could have ever gotten the TC to work without buying a new modem and I don't know which modem that would have been.

It did end up that the Seimens 4100 is a D-Link unsupported modem according to D-Link setup. But D-Link, unlike TC, seems to be able to deal with this. I believe the problem with TC is that it requires the modem to operate in Bridged PPP mode (or maybe it's your MAC address issue). The default mode for the modem is PPP on the modem. Someone from Apple will have to verify or contradict this. I also don't know quite how D-Link deals with this but they do.

Now I am going to buy a LaCie 1TB Usb drive. The whole thing may not be as cute as the TC, but it's about $100 cheaper and I think it will end up, after I install Macdrive 7 from Media 4 --included in my total cost, that I will be able to have 700GB for Windows and 300GB for Mac or whatever I want after taking a good look at my backup needs.

Anyway, Apple, I am little bit sorry for being so harsh but I do stand by my initial assertions about Apple software and support. The best analogy that I can give is a cliff versus a slope. Up to the edge of the cliff Macs are easier to use and setup than Windows PCs. But once you fall off the edge of the cliff Macs and some of the Apple software just seems to leave me in a black hole. PCs on the other hand seem to slope down and take much longer to reach the edge of the cliff. They are generally more trouble to set up till cliff edge is reached but go much farther than Apple does to reach the cliff edge. I would guess this is a result of Microsoft's largely successful attempt to stay compatible with a much larger base of hardware and software. They just seem to know a good deal more about what's out there and how to hook to it. Or maybe they provide their development community with better tools. Or maybe their development community works much harder because of the vastly larger installed base and market share. Whatever.