12-09-2005, 07:24 PM

OK I have a new iMac G5. I am conneted to the land Ethernet. I went to the airport icon at the top of the screen and created a network with a HSCI password. The internet is working fine on my computer. The problem is, my roomate has a new Dell laptop running Windows XP with the built-in wireless. In the netwrk wireless settings screen, we can find my network and he can connect to it and then get an "excellent" signal with all of the green bars. But when he tries to open Internet Explorer it wont let him connect. I also have an older Toshiba laptop (Windows ME) with a D-Link wireless card. My iMac network also shows up on this computer, lets me connect to it with all of the green bars, but when I open mozilla, it says "The page could not be found. Check the name and try again." Is there something that I need to do on my iMac to allow the PC to work properly. I do not understand how on both computers, it can say that we have excellent wireless connections, but not let the internet function. Any advice? I would call Microsoft, but since they have a policy of charging customers for phone help, I guess I am out of luck.

12-09-2005, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by lsutiger123

I would call Microsoft, but since they have a policy of charging customers for phone help, I guess I am out of luck.

Why not call Apple? Maybe they'll help you for free.

Do you have internet sharing enabled on your Apple? Are the laptops sucessfully getting an IP address resolved? What is an HSCI password?

12-09-2005, 07:45 PM

i think I have internet sharing enabled on the mac. i just bought it a few weeks ago and it is my first mac, so i am not too familiar with it. i am not too familiar with IP addresses either. I do not know much about wireless networking, but I am confused as to why it is giving me an excellent connection signal but not letting the internet work. also the HSCI is just the type of password I choose, that should not have anything to do woth it

12-09-2005, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by lsutiger123

i think I have internet sharing enabled on the mac. i just bought it a few weeks ago and it is my first mac, so i am not too familiar with it. i am not too familiar with IP addresses either. I do not know much about wireless networking, but I am confused as to why it is giving me an excellent connection signal but not letting the internet work. also the HSCI is just the type of password I choose, that should not have anything to do woth it

I'm completely new to the Mac scene, but in general, an IP address is much like your street address, it tells everyone where you live and it allows the post office to find you and deliver your mail. With computers the IP address is assigned by a DHCP server which allows you to connect to your local gateway for internet access. It sounds like the HSCI is similar to a WEP key for a traditional wireless router, you can connect, but you cannot obtain an ip address or connect to the gateway to get online. The other thing is, it may be connecting, but there is no DHCP server to assign addresses to your computers. Without an assigned address you won't be able to connect to the outside world.

12-09-2005, 07:55 PM

To check the IP address on your Windows XP machines, go to Start>Run> Type 'CMD'> then at the prompt type 'ipconfig'

12-09-2005, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by mynameis

To check the IP address on your Windows XP machines, go to Start>Run> Type 'CMD'> then at the prompt type 'ipconfig'

Completely correct, the other thing you can do too is make sure that on your windows xp machine, that you don't have your ip addressing set to manually configured.

Go to start>control panel>network connections>right click on your network connection>click properties>click internet protocol (IP) under the general tab and click properties.

To release and obtain a new ip address after you have assured that you are set to receive an ip automatically, click start>run>cmd>ipconfig /release

The to renew type ipconfig /renew

that should at least give you some answers.

12-09-2005, 08:01 PM

On the windows ME machine just click start, run winipcfg and select your networking device.

12-09-2005, 08:14 PM

ok i went to the XP computer and made sure i was not manually configured. heres what i did then:
1)i released the IP address, it gave me 4 zeros for both 'IP address' and 'subnet mask'
2)then i did the renew. after about a minute it said an error has occured and it could not connect to my DHCP server
3)but then i just typed in 'ipconfig' and it gave me numbers this time for 'autoconfiguration IP Address' and 'subnet mask'
I really do not know what to do.

12-09-2005, 08:22 PM

Do you have a router, or are you just using your mac as a wireless AP?

12-09-2005, 08:28 PM

im not using a router. i just went to the airport section and created a network then made my password

12-09-2005, 08:36 PM

I understand what you are trying to do, but I have never heard of an HSCI password. I don't understand what it would do.

12-09-2005, 08:47 PM

Im sorry its no HSCI its ASCII, i can either do a 5digit ASCII password or a 10 digit HEX one.

12-09-2005, 08:48 PM

The AirPort card, which works in most recent Mac models, turns your Mac into a wireless network receiver. You can then connect to a compatible wireless network and share files or an Internet connection as normal.

Two (and only two) Macs with AirPort cards can communicate without a hardware Base Station using the Software Base Station program included with the AirPort card.

12-09-2005, 08:49 PM

I have never tried using the Airport in the Mac like an Access Point but probing around in Tiger is seems to say it will share the internet connection with other computers through the Air Port.

Try turning off WEP completely with no password. See if that works.

12-09-2005, 08:56 PM

is there some way where i can find out the IP address on my mac, then go to the XP computer and tell it to connect to that one. What is the DHCP server and why cant my XP computer connect to that? that seems to be the problem