![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Verizon, round N
Dealing with Verizon has gotten less excruciating since I acquired the direct-dial number of someone in tier-3 tech support who seems to have a clue. We are definitely into the second-order problems now.
Muhammad (who I spoke with last week) did not approve of our modem, so he sent us a new combined modem/router (including wireless). It came today; if any paper it shipped with had included the modem's user name and password, I might not have needed to call for help in setting it up. The internet side of this is fine.
So far we have been unable to get the wireless to work with either Mac in the house (the only wireless devices we have). With WEP turned on, the password is simply not accepted. If we turn WEP off and go to MAC authentication instead, neither machine can see the network. If we turn off all security everything works fine, but we're not interested in doing that.
Right now our solution is to leave the wireless turned off unless we actively need it, but that's a short-term solution. To his credit, Muhammad said he would research this and call me back tomorrow. (I think he will; he also called earlier today to confirm the modem had arrived.) Muhammad isn't a Mac user (he called back to say "what OS?" and when I said "10.4" he asked if that was sufficient ID), so we'll see what happens. So far what Google is telling me is that other people with iBooks have had this problem.
Wireless is new to me (I've used other people's networks but never administered one). I thought it pretty much just worked out of the box these days, but I guess not.
Muhammad (who I spoke with last week) did not approve of our modem, so he sent us a new combined modem/router (including wireless). It came today; if any paper it shipped with had included the modem's user name and password, I might not have needed to call for help in setting it up. The internet side of this is fine.
So far we have been unable to get the wireless to work with either Mac in the house (the only wireless devices we have). With WEP turned on, the password is simply not accepted. If we turn WEP off and go to MAC authentication instead, neither machine can see the network. If we turn off all security everything works fine, but we're not interested in doing that.
Right now our solution is to leave the wireless turned off unless we actively need it, but that's a short-term solution. To his credit, Muhammad said he would research this and call me back tomorrow. (I think he will; he also called earlier today to confirm the modem had arrived.) Muhammad isn't a Mac user (he called back to say "what OS?" and when I said "10.4" he asked if that was sufficient ID), so we'll see what happens. So far what Google is telling me is that other people with iBooks have had this problem.
Wireless is new to me (I've used other people's networks but never administered one). I thought it pretty much just worked out of the box these days, but I guess not.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2594 - here are the minimum requirements for WPA use.
you're probably okay
If it's an option, jump straight to WPA2. WPA has its own (admittedly simpler) minor incompatibilities and security issues.
For what it's worth, both WEP and MAC authentication can be trivially bypassed by an experienced hacker, but they do still work because they make your access point slightly harder to use than your neighbor's wide-open "Linksys" AP. It's the "I don't need to outrun the bear. I only need to outrun you." (http://boyslife.org/jokes/6953/you-cant-outrun-a-bear/) school of security.
no subject
no subject
I don't know if this will make you feel better or not, but we've been trying to get the wireless, the Tivo, the PC desktop and the PC laptop to play nicely together for almost six months now and we still have problems.
Wireless -- router technology, in particular, is anything but "out of the box" ready.
no subject
no subject
(After consulting with Kevin on this, I've chosen to leave my wireless network unsecured. Wireless security only really protects access to the bandwidth, and if someone steals enough of my bandwidth that I notice, I can secure the network then.)
no subject
no subject
Things worked just fine out of the box with FIOS wireless and Linux- at least until I upgraded my laptop to an unsupported model :-\ .
no subject
no subject
Please post the resolution when you and Muhammad arrive at one. I'm curious!
no subject
Tonight I fired up my iBook to check out my Airport driver as suggested by others -- and it was on the network. I asked Dani to check his, and it was too. We didn't do anything to the router. Is it possible that the Macs required a reboot to use the network? That feels very strange -- I mean, even Windows doesn't tend to require that, and I think of Mac OS as being more plug-and-play. Did the internet fairies come by and sprinkle pixie dust on our router? Are Thursdays special (despite Arthur Dent's protestations)? Beats me.
I haven't investigated WPA yet. That'll be a project for after Shabbat. Right now the iBook is getting software updates, since it hasn't been on the net in a while.
gremlins, actually
no subject
For extra complexity, once you do get wireless up you may need to spend some time fiddling with what channel it's on. I've been trying to find an interference-free one for us for a while now, but there are enough other networks around that there are often collisions. (And in the higher range, collisions with microwave ovens as well.)
no subject
Muhammad told me to use channel 11. I didn't ask why and haven't researched that yet.
no subject
no subject