tough one : Mac and PC wireless network connection

[caccamolle]

This one is interesting.

I bough (really built) a PC (I know I know after buying Mac only for the past 20+ years...but dudes for games and wife's work..).

Of course I included a 802 PCI card.

Now, in my summer house where I have an airport express for my lapton wireless internet access, I simply started the PC and Boom! I was online, no questions asked (quite amazing eh, for a PC !).

Now I brought the beat to my home, where I have an Airport Base Station (the old, snow, model) and I have not yet managed to do the same.

Any hints ?

Plus I would love to be able to access my mac from this PC via the wireless network, but primarily I need to be able to access the internet (wife part, I only play singleplayer games).

Thanks for any help.

 

[TLRedhawke]

It may sound dumb, but did you repair the connection? I'm presuming you're running Windows XP. Now, with Pro, it tends to pick up networks quite well, but Home doesn't do it. Under Home, you'll need to right click the wireless connection, and select Repair. It will then seek out the new connection. This usually works.

Failing that, does the PC even see the wireless connection, and is unable to connect to it, or does it not show up at all?

 

[iEdd]

Does it have security? If so you may need the hexadecimal WEP key (Which you can find out by using airport admin utility on a mac) or a WPA password or something.

 

[caccamolle]

It may sound dumb, but did you repair the connection? I'm presuming you're running Windows XP. Now, with Pro, it tends to pick up networks quite well, but Home doesn't do it. Under Home, you'll need to right click the wireless connection, and select Repair. It will then seek out the new connection. This usually works.

Failing that, does the PC even see the wireless connection, and is unable to connect to it, or does it not show up at all?

Nothing is dumb with me when it comes to Windows ! I will try that repari thing. Thx !

And yes, the PC sees the connection, eventually after dealing with a few security questions (hexadecimal vomit stuff...) it seemed to connect "successfully" but with the message that the connection was too weak or something ... I am afraid that dealing of mine was not optimal

I am going to switch to Pro, I understand it is a lot better anyway.

 

[caccamolle]

Does it have security? If so you may need the hexadecimal WEP key (Which you can find out by using airport admin utility on a mac) or a WPA password or something.

that is a good question since I thought I had my airport station w/o security. But I guess it did have it (I believe it was 128bit WEP) as Windows would ask me for a "key" just like you mention.

So, I did go to my Mac to find out about that and changed the key (it does not show you what it is and I never use it from the Mac so who on earth would ever remember). I even tried to go down to 40 bit WEP, nonetheless, even though it looked like there was a connection, it was not functional.

I am missing something, I suspect with the set up of the airport such that the PC could work with it.. but really, just a guess.

I should experiment a bit more, I just don't want to screw up my Mac !!!!!

 

[TLRedhawke]

Well, let's put it this way. I work at an Apple Reseller, but we also sell a lot of PC stuff (primarily because we're the only computer store on a major university campus). We refuse to sell Windows XP Home, or Media Centre. We only sell Professional. We end up with altogether too many issues trying to deal with the half-baked options that Microsoft provides.

 

[TLRedhawke]

Don't worry about the Mac. We all know that she'll connect to anything

 

[iEdd]

that is a good question since I thought I had my airport station w/o security. But I guess it did have it (I believe it was 128bit WEP) as Windows would ask me for a "key" just like you mention.

So, I did go to my Mac to find out about that and changed the key (it does not show you what it is and I never use it from the Mac so who on earth would ever remember).

Did you go into Applications/Utilities/Airport Admin utility, then click once on the base station, then click configure? When you do that, you have to click on Password at the top and it will tell you the WEP key.

 

[caccamolle]

Did you go into Applications/Utilities/Airport Admin utility, then click once on the base station, then click configure? When you do that, you have to click on Password at the top and it will tell you the WEP key.

ooops, I did go to the AA Utility, but hey, missed that part !!! I am not sure at all how the hell I did miss it, really. Thank you for so clearly pointing that out for me, stupid me. You guys are good.

I will try this tonight when I get home, but then I will still switch to W Pro.

 

[caccamolle]

ok, it worked ! All I did was input that key thing shown under password. This is what I was asked all along however I coud never find it when looking for it in the AE Admin. Utility. Believe or not even now it took me a while to find it, which made me realize that I had never thought of looking up there in the window. Strange things.

Anyway thank you all very much again. I still want to switch to W. Pro.

 

[iEdd]

ok, it worked ! All I did was input that key thing shown under password. This is what I was asked all along however I coud never find it when looking for it in the AE Admin. Utility. Believe or not even now it took me a while to find it, which made me realize that I had never thought of looking up there in the window. Strange things.

Anyway thank you all very much again. I still want to switch to W. Pro.

Not a problem. It's good to see I've actually helped do something right with networking -it's not really my area of expertise. Yeah going pro is a good idea, unless you'd rather wait for Vista.

 

[caccamolle]

man, it is so sad, the PC is even faster than my Mac (Mirror dual g4 1.25ghz) loading web pages !! pretty cool to do comparisons like this, side by side. I mean obviously the Mac wins anyway, but raw speed......oh well we all know we had to switch to Intel to get real