11-02-2008, 04:55 AM

I've been on a Mac for 12 years now, why is the wireless stuff so difficult all of a sudden?

Here's my situation, my friend has a iMac 3.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, and she just got Time Capsule and AppleTV. She's on TWC's Road Runner cable modem, and I've jumped the ethernet cable to use the Time Capsule as a router and WiFi to feed the AppleTV and AirTunes in the other rooms wirelessly.

Here's the question, can Time Capsule act as wireless router for AppleTV and AirTunes, plus be the back up HD for Time Machine? I already got the Airtunes working well with the iMac, but I couldn't get the AppleTV on the wireless network? In fact, it didn't even come up in the iTunes area and I did select look for AppleTV's?

After two hours, I even lost the TWC box feed for normal internet? It's crazy, I'm usually pretty good with sort of thing, but I've hit a brick wall, anyone have any ideas? I appreciate your time for just reading, thanks.

11-02-2008, 09:16 AM

I've never used Apple TV, but I do have a Time Capsule, and it's specifically designed to become your primary wireless router and also backup your HD.

11-02-2008, 03:45 PM

I thought so. Once you use Time Capsule as the wireless router, do you have to shut off the airport in the iMac as it was the previous wireless network? I realize everything should be talking to each other, but there's just too many settings in her setup, I need to establish a main wireless hub and I want that to be Time Capsule.

11-02-2008, 08:38 PM

I might be misunderstanding your question, but the Airport in the Mac is essentially the wireless card which the Mac uses to connect to the TC. If you turn it off, the iMac will have no wireless capabilities at all.

11-02-2008, 10:01 PM

Thanks for your time Jay, I appreciate it. I'm actually using a ethernet cable to the Time Capsule since it's more reliable and quicker, what I can't seem to get on the wireless network is the AppleTV, it won't show up in the iTunes window under search for AppleTV's? It's about 20ft between a common wall. Is the Time Capsule wireless system stronger, quicker and more reliable than the iMac wireless network?

I got some serious reading to do, the whole wireless system is throwing me off as it's new to me. The whole network section in the System preferences should be reworked, it's just not user friendly. Advanced users have no issues it seems, but for the newbie, it's not straight forward. At home I use safari to access the setup menu for my Belkin router, but at her place the Time Capsule is the router, how do I access that? I brought up the Airport assistant and it shows Airtunes and Time Capsule both with green lights, but no AppleTV?

In my MacPro at my house, I have one ethernet cable going from the RR cable box, to the Belkin router, then to one port on the Mac Pro, and yet under the network preferences is shows three ethernet connections with different IP address'? What's that all about?

11-02-2008, 10:23 PM

The Airport utility is used to access all the settings on your TC. After opening it, click on the TC logo on the left side of the window to access it's settings.

I've never used AppleTV, but I found a brief tutorial on it. It seems that there is a PIN code that you need to obtain on the AppleTV (using your television) before it will connect to iTunes.

HOWTO: Setting up Apple TV - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Don't know if this info will be of any use, but I was curious about the setup myself.

11-03-2008, 04:01 PM

Ah excellent, thank you. The problem with this tutorial is that it's basic, however very well done. The problem is the AppleTV wireless network setup. I have to find the network first, then enter the WEP key, what if you don't know what it is? So I tried to create a new wireless network and had issues from there, not evening assigning a WEP password, just leaving it open, and it still couldn't find it only 20ft away. That's why I was wondering if Time Capsule would be stronger of a signal than the iMac?

Oh, just to add, I've been successful with hooking up AppleTV at another clients before, it was a snap too! His setup is blazing fast and very responsive, however the HDMI video connection kept turning PINK on his system, so now it's hooked up via component which is more stable. Apple doesn't know what to do about that? I tried 3 brands of HDMI, 1.3A and back, but no go, it randomly turns PINK. Crazy?