Broadband help please

D

Diana63

Registered
I have just purchased an imac and our village has only just got broadband. I have not connected up yet because I need some advice on how to do it.
At present I have a Freeserve/Wanadoo/now Orange Anytime £14.99 a month package for my PC which can be upgraded. However I undestand that as well as needing to order an ethernet cable I may need to download (from where?)drivers for the imac. and that not all Broadband packages will support the imac.
Please can anyone advise.
Thank you. Diana
 
The iMac should work. Plug it in and see!!

Have you got the PC connected?

What type of router / modem came with the freeserve?
 
Diana63 said:
I have just purchased an imac and our village has only just got broadband. I have not connected up yet because I need some advice on how to do it.
At present I have a Freeserve/Wanadoo/now Orange Anytime £14.99 a month package for my PC which can be upgraded. However I undestand that as well as needing to order an ethernet cable I may need to download (from where?)drivers for the imac. and that not all Broadband packages will support the imac.
Please can anyone advise.
Thank you. Diana
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Firstly, you need either a USB modem or an ethernet router. Just about every Mac owner and his dog will recommend an ethernet router over a USB modem (as routers have built in firewalls and are more reliable). In fact, if you purchased the latter, see if you can trade it back for the former.

Failing that, buy an ethernet router (which will come with a cable), such as the MacOS compatiable Netgear DG834, from Macwarehouse.

One advantage of using a well known broadband provider is that they are usually pretty cheap. The downside is that they are inferior to the smaller, less well known broadband providers (in terms of connection speeds, bandwidth and support). I personally recommend Zen (or try this guide).

You may now be tied into a one year contract with Orange Anytime, so you’ll have to stick with them. However, don’t expect much in the way of Mac support from them.

If you have an Ethernet router, simply follow the instructions that come with it. With a bit of patience you’ll find you can get hooked up without needing hours of tech support from Orange, although Orange will need to supply you with some vital technical details that are needed to set up your account.

One good thing about Netgear, i.e. if you get stuck, is that they provide excellent tech support themselves, albeit you have to ring the US (so get a Skype account).

I found the whole setting up process with an ethernet router pretty painless, with the only exception that you will need to use a browser and some ethernet set up routines seem to work better with Internet Explorer than Safari.
 
Thank you. It's up and running now. Can you advise on the best Internet Security for the MAC. I'm unprotected at present and most of the virus checkers and firewalls are for ordinary PCs.
Diana
 
Diana63 said:
Thank you. It's up and running now. Can you advise on the best Internet Security for the MAC. I'm unprotected at present and most of the virus checkers and firewalls are for ordinary PCs.
Diana
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Your Mac already has a built in Firewall, but you need to turn it on (go to System Preferences -> Sharing -> Firewall).

Your router may have an inbuilt firewall. Which router do you use?

You don't need a virus checker for your Mac. However, it is worth downloading ClamXav to ensure you do not pass on any virii to other PC users. Although it's free, If you like it, I would make a donation to the writer.
 
Thank you for that. Also I was told that my scanner a CanoScan N650U would run with a Mac. I have plugged it in but nothing happens. Would I need to run the install CD on the Mac, or can I download an application?
Diana
 
Thank you for your help.
When I purchased the Mac I asked if my Canoscan N650U would be compatible. I was told it would be. What do I need to do to get it up and running? Should I use the original installation CD or can I download from the internet?
Diana
 
I've installed the correct driver for this downloaded from Canon. It's successfully installed in applications but when I click on it, I get a message that Photoshop does not recognise it. Can you help? Diana
 
I thought I just had an ethernet issue (see my postings @8/13, 14 & 15TH). Only sure thing is it's not the ISP. But yesterday my son tried Firefox which he'd downloaded awhile back and BINGO! It's not a tanked e-net port! As mentioned in the 8/13 posting I've done a Archive & Install. Could that have left some cache/preferences/misc. other corruption that keeps Safari & IE from loading & connecting? And what about that odd IP address? Why, if the enet port is OK, doesn't that show a proper address for my ISP. Long and Short of it is — what now? Clean install? (O-o-ooh No-o-o! cried Mr. Bill) and if so, should I go ahead and partition the hard drive — any advantage to that?

Just for future reference I'd still definitely like to know how to run the dsl modem over FireWire —how to set that up etc. (Nothing about FireWire shows up in the Network Preferences pane.) Calling all Tehnos: H-E-E-E-L-LP!!! (But go easy when you do —note the alias). I really appreciate your help, in advance!
 
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