Windows won't activate Airport Extreme telephone modem

Greetings!

I am new to Apple products and this forum and only found it while trying to google for an answer to my question (below).

I am trying to set up a Windows (7) computer with an Airport Extreme that has the built in telephone modem. This is for my 85 year-old father who can't get broadband in his rural home.

The manual for the Airport Extreme says that the request for the internet over the wireless connection should activate the telephone modem to dial the ISP. However, it doesn't, whether I use IE, Firefox, or Chrome.

My questions:

(1) How do you set up a Windows computer to work with the Airport Extreme (AE) to connect to the dial-up ISP (via the wireless connection to the AE)?

(2) If no one knows the answer here, is there any other forum that might be able to help me with this question?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give!

[Note, I have already found Apple documentation that says that you can't initiate a telephone modem connection through an AE via a WIRED connection. That leaves only wireless, which is what I want anyway.]

Is this a new Airport Extreme Base Station that you bought? I just read through the on line PDF manual for it.

The modem referred to in the Airport Extreme manual is a broadband modem (cable or DSL) not a dial up modem. There is no way that the AE can wirelessly activate your Windows Machine's built in dial up modem. Where in the manual did you read that it can do that?

chscag said:

Is this a new Airport Extreme Base Station that you bought? I just read through the on line PDF manual for it.

The modem referred to in the Airport Extreme manual is a broadband modem (cable or DSL) not a dial up modem. There is no way that the AE can wirelessly activate your Windows Machine's built in dial up modem. Where in the manual did you read that it can do that?

Click to expand...

Thank you for asking that question to clarify.

No, my Airport Extreme is an older model that I bought on eBay. It is 802.11 b/g. I'm guessing that it is circa 2003 or 2004.

It is NOT one of the newer square "n" models.

It is the shape of a slightly melted white chocolate Hershey kiss, approximately 6-7 inches in diameter. It looks a little bit like a small "flying saucer." On the back it has ports marked for LAN, WAN, telephone, and antenna (for an optional external antenna).

Here (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/AirPortExtremeBaseStationSetupGuide.pdf) is the manual for that Airport Extreme..

So you should be plugging in the RJ11 cable to the wall telephone jack and using the Airport Assistant to possibly enter the relevant ISP information so that it can dial out and establish the connection.

Where does the Windows machine enter the picture here??

Raz0rEdge said:

Here (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/AirPortExtremeBaseStationSetupGuide.pdf) is the manual for that Airport Extreme..

So you should be plugging in the RJ11 cable to the wall telephone jack and using the Airport Assistant to possibly enter the relevant ISP information so that it can dial out and establish the connection.

Where does the Windows machine enter the picture here??

Click to expand...

From what I understand, Airport Assistant is a program for Apple computers. Neither my father, nor I have Apple computers. We both have Windows 7 and Windows XP computers.

Instead of Airport Assistant, I am using Windows Airport Utility 5.6.1 (the earlier versions of which, I believe, were called Windows Airport Admin Utility).

Through Airport Utility I have configured the Airport Extreme Base Station with the local telephone number, user name, and password for the ISP, and connected it to the phone line with an RJ11 cord.

The problem is that after configuring the ISP settings, the internal modem is supposed to "activate" and call the ISP when a wireless computer on the Airport network requests an internet site. This isn't happening when I try IE, Firefox, or Chrome to try to access the internet.

I can control the AE Base Station with the Utility program, so I know that I have a working wireless connection, but I can't get the modem to dial out.

Pages 6,7, and 12 of the (AE Base Station) manual reference the telephone modem, and tell where to plug it in, but that is about all.

The Base Station manual directs Windows users to a "Designing Airport Networks for Windows" manual, but the only version of this manual that I could find is for version 10.5, and although it gives instructions for DSL, cable, or existing ethernet networks, it doesn't give any instructions that I could find for telephone modem. I suspect there was an older version of this document which would have been from the 2003 era when my AE Base Station was manufactured, and should therefore give instructions for the telephone modem option, but I haven't been able to find it.

Through the Airport Utility can you dial into your ISP? I the Non modem version of your router so can't comment on that part. As long as you can make it connect, that maybe in Windows what you have to do. Will search and see if I run into anything.

BTW, the reason I keep mentioning that I am using the wireless connection to try to initiate the modem call to the ISP, is because I found this article on the Apple support site. It says that wired ethernet connected clients CAN'T trigger a modem call. The modem calls have to be triggered by a wireless client.

AirPort: Wired client cannot initiate base station modem dialing

dtravis7 said:

Through the Airport Utility can you dial into your ISP? I the Non modem version of your router so can't comment on that part. As long as you can make it connect, that maybe in Windows what you have to do. Will search and see if I run into anything.

Click to expand...

I don't know if I can dial the ISP through the Utility program. I am at home now (with broadband and a VOIP phone), and will have to wait until I go to my office with a standard phone line to try it out.

Thanks for your help searching. Either I'm looking in the wrong places, or Apple doesn't give many instructions for the telephone modem connection.

I would love to see a 2003 version of the "Designing Airport Networks for Windows" manual.

I also just realized that the hard copy manual that came with my AE Base Station is different from the pdf manual mentioned in Raz0rEdge's post above. My manual has a few more sentences about the telephone modem, such as:

p. 11 "If you connect to the Internet using the internal modem, the base station can provide Internet access to computers connected to both Ethernet ports (WAN and LAN)."

p. 16 [Under "Connecting to the Internet," after the paragraph about Ethernet, DSL, or cable modem, is another paragraph about dialup.]

"If you use a dialup connection, the AirPort Extreme Base Station establishes an Internet connection automatically when any computer on the Airport network opens an application that requires an Internet connection. The AirPort Extreme Base Station does not have an internal speaker, so you do not hear the modem dial when the base station is connecting to the Internet with the modem."

Any other forums that might shed light on Windows-Airport problem?

So far, no one on this forum seems to be familiar with how to solve this problem. Are there any other Mac forums where there might be someone who knows how to solve this problem? Thanks!

I told you, I have a feeling it only works with Macs in that way. Older Apple Airport base stations were very limited and are tied to the OS and an App.

Another truth is that thing is very old. No one here uses one. I have the one without the modem I use for a WiFi Access Point, but that is about it.

Have you tried searching google? Most forums have all their posts indexed on google.

Virtually no one in the vicinity of a major metropolitan in this country uses dial-up ISP anymore, if people don't have Cable or FiOS, they definitely have DSL access. That being the case, the few areas that are still stuck with dial-up modems end up using not only the modems/routers from that era, but usually computers that go along with that. It's just the sad fact that trying to mix and match old and new technology is seldom going to result in a harmonious situation..

I'm actually wondering why you bothered to pick up an Airport to begin with since it was primarily going to be connected to a Windows computer. You would've had much better luck just grabbing a USB modem that you could directly connect to the Windows 7 PC and have Windows do the Dial Up Networking (DUN) for you, something it's quite capable to do and manage for you automatically..