Mac and Eircom netopia router

culabula

Hi -I'm trying to help a friend set up her brand-new Eircom Netopia wireless router with her brand-new MacBook and it's a tad frustrating. I'm in Belfast and she's in Cork and it's being done down the phone.

The problem is the connection appears to be working but no pages are loading. Are there any issues that I should be aware of? Should it be connected by ethernet the first time? Is there anything that needs ticked in system preferences/network/airport?

chrislad

I've used on 3 eircom routers, no issues at all so I doubt it's the router.

Try 192.168.1.254 to see if you're actually connected to the router. If nothing comes up, you may have entered the WEP key incorrectly.

culabula

I think that she entered the WEP key correctly as Airport connected and she's getting a full five bars.

I beginning to suspect that Eircom haven't actually thrown the switch yet.

bigred

As above; fire up your web browser and put in 192.168.1.254 - you'll get the router control panel. You should see 'DSL' = 'Available' and 'Eircom Broadband' = 'Connected'. If the first isnt up then the line isnt enabled yet.

culabula

Thanks indeed: the lady in question is claiming no response to either that or indeed to 192.168.1.1

At a distance I'm flummoxed.

PhilipMarlowe

I'd suggest plugging directly into the router by ethernet to eliminate wireless issues first (probably turn airport off for good measure )
In system preferences > network > show built-in ethernet > make sure in TCP/IP that either use DHCP is selected or if manual, use 192.168.1.100 or something
Then try connect to 192.168.1.254 and you should see the status page for the router.
Good luck

culabula

Licksy wrote: »

I'd suggest plugging directly into the router by ethernet to eliminate wireless issues first (probably turn airport off for good measure )
In system preferences > network > show built-in ethernet > make sure in TCP/IP that either use DHCP is selected or if manual, use 192.168.1.100 or something
Then try connect to 192.168.1.254 and you should see the status page for the router.
Good luck

Thanks -we've done most of that. I take it there are no settings/drivers/installation specific to Eircom/Mac that I should be aware of? It's fairly straightforward to set up?

She reports the DSL light is constantly flashing which tells me that the service is not yet enabled but that in itself should not prevent us reaching the router's control panel?

formatman

its works out the box with a Mac
just don't use the USB cable


Use WPA encryption not WEP

connect just one network cable into any of the 4 ports and the other into the MAC

open safari , cancel the page loading and put in 192.168.1.254 and report back

formatman

She reports the DSL light is constantly flashing which tells me that the service is not yet enabled but that in itself should not prevent us reaching the router's control panel?[/QUOTE]

Ths could be down to filtering or not using the main phone line ,

but has
nothing to do with being able to access 192.168.1.254

culabula

formatman wrote: »

its works out the box with a Mac
just don't use the USB cable


Use WPA encryption not WEP

connect just one network cable into any of the 4 ports and the other into the MAC

open safari , cancel the page loading and put in 192.168.1.254 and report back

It's what I would have expected but unfortunately I am dealing with a total newbie in this domain and someone down the phone at a considerable distance from me (and I have to say, she's doing very well).

However, each time she tries a 192 address -nothing happens. The password box is not presented.

At this point, she has had to input the WEP key as supplied by Eircom -I don't want to complicate anything any further until we have a successful connection by introducing WPA into the fray. We can enable remote Management once we're up and running and I'll configure it for her.

culabula

formatman wrote: »

She reports the DSL light is constantly flashing which tells me that the service is not yet enabled but that in itself should not prevent us reaching the router's control panel?

Ths could be down to filtering or not using the main phone line ,

but has
nothing to do with being able to access 192.168.1.254[/QUOTE]


Agreed. Unfortunately, nothing is coming up.

formatman

reset the eircom router

should get rid of prompting for the WEP key

turn off wireless once you have access to the control panel via ethernet

and when DSL works then enable a WPA wireless connection for her remotely

culabula

formatman wrote: »

reset the eircom router

should get rid of prompting for the WEP key

turn off wireless once you have access to the control panel via ethernet

and when DSL works then enable a WPA wireless connection for her remotely

I will, it's my intention, once it's all working. And change the SSID too.

How is it reset? Is there a button on the back? Unfortunately I have no diagram here.

formatman

should be a pin hole size reset button on back

culabula

formatman wrote: »

should be a pin hole size reset button on back

Thanks, we'll try that.

ZENER

Stupid question, where is she typing in the 192. . . number ? Does she know to put it in the URL field and not the Google search on the right side of the URL entry point.

If she's connected to the Eircom router by cable one of the 4 ethernet lights on the router will be lit corresponding to the socket she is connected to at the rear - they are numbered 1 - 4 - are any of them lit ?

In the <MacHD>/Applications/Utilities folder there is an app called Network Utility. When it's open select the "info" tab, it displays the state of the various adaptors in the Mac. en1 is the Airport Card (usually) fw1 is firewire and en0 is the internal ethernet adaptor. Ask her to read back what each says to determine whether she has any connection to the router.

ZEN

culabula

Ah, she's grand, she is putting into the address bar. We'll give it another lash in the morning.

triple h

Sorry to be getting away from helping the OP, very very sorry.

But i have the same router as the OP's friend. I got a letter from eircom this week telling me i can change my WEP for security reasons. but when i went to the eircom site it only applies to windows computers. Are mac forgotten about or are they really that safe.
This had to do with the way someone can use your internet connection to do bad stuff on the net and use your internet connection without you knowing, and the letter was telling me how to change it.
I can type out the letter for you tomorrow if you want to see what they wrote to me.

xebec

Again, not a solution to the OP's problem, more a point of information. I checked while at home over the weekend, and I couldn't access the netopia router through firefox but had no problems doing it with safari.

Type 17

triple h wrote: »

Sorry to be getting away from helping the OP, very very sorry.

But i have the same router as the OP's friend. I got a letter from eircom this week telling me i can change my WEP for security reasons. but when i went to the eircom site it only applies to windows computers. Are mac forgotten about or are they really that safe.
This had to do with the way someone can use your internet connection to do bad stuff on the net and use your internet connection without you knowing, and the letter was telling me how to change it.
I can type out the letter for you tomorrow if you want to see what they wrote to me.

This page tells you how to change the WEP key using your browser (doesn't matter if you computer is Windows, Mac or anything else, once it has a browser.

Two points about the info in the letter:

1. It doesn't matter if you have a Mac or a PC, you need to improve the security of the Eircom router, as it is the vulnerable item, not your computer.

2. Eircom's advice to just change your WEP key is poor - changing the WEP key means that instead of a casual user being able to access your WLAN/Broadband service in about 20 seconds, it will take a slightly more tech-savvy person about 5 minutes to do it! You should actually change the WLAN encryption method to WPA - see this page from Eircom (again, only a browser on any type of computer is required)

Back on-topic:

Given the strange results that you're seeing (or being told about on the phone!), I'd get her to go to Network in the System Prefs
Go to Network Port Configurations in the lower drop-down menu
Un-tick everthing except Built-in Ethernet
Click on Apply Now button
Check the Ethernet cable is properly connected
Wait a few seconds if the cable is just plugged in and then go to network status in the lower drop-down menu
Ask her what it says in the network status entry (should be mentioning a 192.168.1.x IP address)
Get her to open Safari and type 192.168.1.254 into the address bar (remind her not to use www and to expect it to resolve with http:// in front of it.

If it still doesn't work, let us know what results are being seen...

culabula

Well for some reason she managed to get in tonight after leaving it alone for 24 hours. All we know for now is that she has definitely not been turned on yet by Eircom (is anyone?).

Thanks to all....

irondragons

Nevermind