Connect Wireless a Minimac to a Pc Wi-fi Network

apapadopoulos

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I have the following situation : an cable ADSL connection 128/512. A Linksys Compactflash Card 2.4GHz 802.11b, 11Mbps, Model No WCF12-EU plugged into my modem(NOT an AIRport one), creating a wi-fi home network. In a PC/windows XP environment. Several PC's/laptops have no problem connecting to the Wi-fi. The wi-fi network requires a 10-digit arithmetic WEP Key.
I just bought a MiniMac. Airport on the MINImac was on, immediately detected the wi-fi network, recognized its name, recognized that it required a WEP key, asked for the WEP Key to be punched in, showed that it got connected to a "Computer to Computer network", with a full signal strength. But "Internet Connection" failed to connect, Safari browser failed to connect. Do I miss something? Is there a way out, I mean, a way into the Internet for the MiniMac through the above setup?
Alecos
 
Open System Preferences and click on "Network". Choose "Network Settings..." or something similar (I don't have the english version) where it originally says something about "status". It's the second menu from the top in the panel.

In the settings panel you should see the active ports, the ones with a tick in the box. Disable the other ports, so that only the ones you need, are active. In your case that would be Airport. Then click "Apply".

Go back to the menu again, select "Airport", and make any necessary changes in the TCP/IP settings. I would guess that you need to set it to DHCP, and to enter at least one DNS (check the settings in one of your PC's, and if you don't find a reference to a DNS server there, check the info you got from your ISP).

Click "Apply", try opening Safari, enter a URL and see what happens...

BTW: Internet Connection isn't necessary, it's for dial-up users mainly...
 
It took me a while but I finally made it. First, thanks for the instructions.
It turned out that the basic problem was the WEP password: Airport needed a 128bit (26 digit HEX) Password. With the 10-digit one, it recognized it initially and got connected to the "computer to computer network" but then could never open the browser and connect to the Internet.
With the 26 digit HEX (which, thankfully was, supported by my modem), it worked immediately, no problem.

Thanks again.

Alecos
 
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