Has anyone installed or had experience of the router mentioned above. I may have bought a wrong 'un. It gets mixed reviews. It was inexpensive.
I want to install an iMac 500MHz / 1 GB SDRAM and a Windows XP machine using this router. My ISP is One Tel who have provided a USB modem as well but I won't be using that. The router does have a USB cabability and also 4 network type connections two of which I intend to connect to the mac and pc.
I think I have everything. The router, the cables and such information as I can glean from the internet and the installation CD ( all directed toward Windows) but it looks daunting.
Question One. Cables from the router to the machines...the instructions suggest these should be 'straight through'... versus 'crossed cable' ( twisted pair?) how do I tell? The supplier did sell them to connect from the router to the machines...
Question Two. I understand that with a router there is no software to install. Yes / No?
Question Three. I understand I have to access a website ( who's?) and enter information..is this just a) the ISP's details , b) my username and c) password, or is there more to it?
Question Four. Is the proptocol the same for the Mac OS 10.3.9 as for Windows XP?
Any other pitfalls?
regards
Iain
1) Straight-thru vs. Crossed-cable. 95% of the Cat-5 cables you will come across are straight-thru. This refers to the alignment of the wires and pins. Some cables were "crossed" (namely transmit and recieve) in the old days so you could connect a modem to a router. These days, most new devices can auto-detect the cable type, and act accordingly. As well, if there is an uplink or WAN port on your router, connect that to the modem.
2) There shouldn't be any software to install to just connect the machines to the internet and do some file sharing. Some routers come with configuration software (mainly available exclusively for Windows). You shouldn't have to install a thing.
3) You'll probably have to access the router's firmware via a web browser. Just type in http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where the x's are the address of your router.
4) Yup. It should be DHCP, which is pretty much plug-and-play. Windows XP and OS X usually play nice with DHCP. At most, a reboot might be required.
Happy networking.
Cheers,
The Czar