Re: Questions from new iMac switcher

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astrovault

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Re: Questions from new iMac switcher

Hey guys, I took delivery of a 20inch core duo imac today (hurray!) after waiting what must have felt like eons...I'm a total apple noob so I have a few questions to ask. Please be nice!

1) Should I do a fresh install of the OS X so that I can customize what I want and what I don't..like the many language packs..just that I'm scared I'll mess something up since I've never done something like this previously..

2) Can someone explain to me what bonjour is?

3) iChat allows you to connect to your AOL account only right?

4) I'm having problems connecting my iMac to the wireless Linksys broadband router. I can only access the internet through the Ethernet cable. All the other PCs in my apartment are able to connect to our wireless without any problems..any help guys?

Thanks in advance!
 
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astrovault said:
Hey guys, I took delivery of a 20inch core duo imac today (hurray!) after waiting what must have felt like eons...I'm a total apple noob so I have a few questions to ask. Please be nice!

1) Should I do a fresh install of the OS X so that I can customize what I want and what I don't..like the many language packs..just that I'm scared I'll mess something up since I've never done something like this previously..

2) Can someone explain to me what bonjour is?

3) iChat allows you to connect to your AOL account only right?

4) I'm having problems connecting my iMac to the wireless Linksys broadband router. I can only access the internet through the Ethernet cable. All the other PCs in my apartment are able to connect to our wireless without any problems..any help guys?

Thanks in advance!

1. Nope. OS X doesn't come with a lot of bloatware. If you can, I do recommend buying a backup drive. You can then clone your internal drive to a backup file on the backup drive for restoring later. You can even clone your entire internal drive to an external drive and use that to boot from just in case your internal drive doesn't boot for whatever reason. Google "Carbon Copy Cloner" for more details.

2. It's basically automatic networking. For example, if you're running iTunes on another computer in your house and enable sharing, other machines running iTunes will automatically pick up the file share. Basically networking as it should be :) Read more here:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bonjour/

With iTunes, it's a handy feature if you store all of your music on one computer and want to share it with another computer easily.

3. Yup. My wife is currently running iChat off her AIM account on her 20" iMac.

4. What model is your router? I'm using a Linksys WRT54GS and it's working just fine. I can walk you through configuration if you need assistance.

Welcome to the club, you're going to love it here! :D
 
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Congrats

I can help with a few, I think!

1) I suppose if you wanted, you could re-install the OS, but I never did. It is very easy to install OS X, in my opinion.

2) I've hears the thing, but really have never used Bonjour and don't really know how it works. Maybe someone will enlighten us both.

3) iChat connects to AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) accounts. It also can use .mac and jabber.

4) I have my iMac connected through wireless to a Linksys WRT54G router, and it was automatic except for the password. Could you tell us what the problem is exactly? Does your network name show up in the Airport menubar item?

EDIT: kaidomac beat me some of my post is now redundant :mac:
 
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astrovault

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kaidomac said:
1. Nope. OS X doesn't come with a lot of bloatware. If you can, I do recommend buying a backup drive. You can then clone your internal drive to a backup file on the backup drive for restoring later. You can even clone your entire internal drive to an external drive and use that to boot from just in case your internal drive doesn't boot for whatever reason. Google "Carbon Copy Cloner" for more details.

2. It's basically automatic networking. For example, if you're running iTunes on another computer in your house and enable sharing, other machines running iTunes will automatically pick up the file share. Basically networking as it should be :) Read more here:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bonjour/

With iTunes, it's a handy feature if you store all of your music on one computer and want to share it with another computer easily.

3. Yup. My wife is currently running iChat off her AIM account on her 20" iMac.

4. What model is your router? I'm using a Linksys WRT54GS and it's working just fine. I can walk you through configuration if you need assistance.

Welcome to the club, you're going to love it here! :D

Thanks for the prompt reply - really appreciate your help!

I'm using a Linksys BEFW11S4. Any thoughts?
 
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claudius753 said:
Congrats

I can help with a few, I think!

1) I suppose if you wanted, you could re-install the OS, but I never did. It is very easy to install OS X, in my opinion.

2) I've hears the thing, but really have never used Bonjour and don't really know how it works. Maybe someone will enlighten us both.

3) iChat connects to AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) accounts. It also can use .mac and jabber.

4) I have my iMac connected through wireless to a Linksys WRT54G router, and it was automatic except for the password. Could you tell us what the problem is exactly? Does your network name show up in the Airport menubar item?

EDIT: kaidomac beat me some of my post is now redundant :mac:

hehe I hate it when that happens to me. one time there were like 4 or 5 posts in before me before I got finished replying!
 
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astrovault

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claudius753 said:
Congrats

I can help with a few, I think!

1) I suppose if you wanted, you could re-install the OS, but I never did. It is very easy to install OS X, in my opinion.

2) I've hears the thing, but really have never used Bonjour and don't really know how it works. Maybe someone will enlighten us both.

3) iChat connects to AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) accounts. It also can use .mac and jabber.

4) I have my iMac connected through wireless to a Linksys WRT54G router, and it was automatic except for the password. Could you tell us what the problem is exactly? Does your network name show up in the Airport menubar item?

EDIT: kaidomac beat me some of my post is now redundant :mac:

Thanks for your reply too. The thing is, my network name doesn't show up at all in the airport menubar... I had to type in the network name and password manually, and it doesn't work.
 
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astrovault said:
Thanks for the prompt reply - really appreciate your help!

I'm using a Linksys BEFW11S4. Any thoughts?

First question, are you running any sort of encryption on your Linksys router, such as WEP or WPA? Apple doesn't like to keep their naming conventions in line with the rest of the world; while WPA-PSK TKIP makes sense to the majority of the world, Apple prefers using "WPA Personal", things like that. Also, what have you tried to connect to your router so far?
 
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astrovault said:
Thanks for your reply too. The thing is, my network name doesn't show up at all in the airport menubar... I had to type in the network name and password manually, and it doesn't work.

Sounds like it might be a distance problem; is there anything blocking the signal from hitting the iMac? Also, as simple as it sounds, have you tried restarting the iMac?
 
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astrovault

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kaidomac said:
First question, are you running any sort of encryption on your Linksys router, such as WEP or WPA? Apple doesn't like to keep their naming conventions in line with the rest of the world; while WPA-PSK TKIP makes sense to the majority of the world, Apple prefers using "WPA Personal", things like that. Also, what have you tried to connect to your router so far?


Hey kaidomac, I checked the details of my wireless network that my PC is connected to..the network is WEP encrypted..is that the cause of the problem? If so, how should I go about reconfiguring it for the PC and the Mac?

I don't think its a distance problem, my iMac sits within 3 meters of the router.
 
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On older Linksys routers, I've known Airport Extreme cards to have issues with WEP encryptions. However, that rarely stops it from simply detecting the existence of the network. You could try disabling the WEP temporarily, but I honestly don't think that should be it, given that it's not coming up at all.
 
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astrovault said:
Hey kaidomac, I checked the details of my wireless network that my PC is connected to..the network is WEP encrypted..is that the cause of the problem? If so, how should I go about reconfiguring it for the PC and the Mac?

I don't think its a distance problem, my iMac sits within 3 meters of the router.

Like Meyvn said, it's weird that you're not seeing it, unless you've disabled the SSID broadcast. Very odd. I know that my G4 Cube's wireless card (802.11b) had some trouble as well, but it was an encryption support thing and I had to downgrade the encryption method I used on my network in order to support it. I'd almost recommend upgrading to a Linksys WRT54GS (about $60 after the rebate) and a dedicated DSL router.
 

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Both my old Airport in my G4 Sawtooth and my AE in the iMac G5 worked great with my older Linksys WAP11 Access point and now with my Linksys WRT54G with 128Bit WEP enabled. Do you have your SSID turned ON on the Linksys? If not it will not show up on the Mac.
 

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