General discussion related to Cable Modems, DSL, Wireless, Fiber, Mobile Networks, Wireless ISPs, Satellite, or any other type of high-speed Internet connection, general issues and questions here. Review and discuss ISPs as well (AT&T / SBC, BellSouth, Bright House, CableOne, Charter, Comcast, Covad, Cox, Cablevision / Optimum Online, TMobile, Verizon FIOS, Shaw, Telus, Starlink, etc.)
I've purchased the Linksys cable router, BEFSR41 ver. 2. I followed the installation instructions and it succeeded on my mother in laws computer (Compaq, Windows, ME). Her computer is the main computer with the cable modem which is Road Runner internet access and that's why the router is on hers. The configurations were all good. However, I'm having difficulties with my iMac computer which is connected to the same router. Road Runner does not show on my computer and I'd like that particular connection. Do I need to reconfigure my computer? I'm currently on AOL and liked to keep it that way.
Please assist a.s.a.p. I would really appreciate your assistance for I am desperate to download a lot of free things at a great speed.
You need to configure the iMAC to use TCP/IP and not AppleTalk as it's network protocol.
You can configure the IP on the iMAC either statically or dynamically, this is entirely up to you.
Open the Apple Menu then choose Control Panels | TCP/IP
Verify that the Connect Via field is set to Ethernet
Verify that the Configure field is set to DHCP
If you want to configure the IP statically you will need to configure an IP in the 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.254 range as long as another computer on the network is not sharing the IP you are choosing. You will also have to configure the DNS server addresses, the subnet to 255.255.255.0 and the Default Gateway to 192.168.1.1, which is that of the Linksys router.
Depending on which browser you use on the iMAC you will have to configure either Internet Explorer or Netscape to detect the proxy setting automatically.
You will not be able share files and printers via TCP/IP on the iMAC though. You will need to install SAMBA on the iMAC or use a third party program on the Windows computer like DAVE or PCMACLAN.
The other option for sharing printers on a mixed OS system is to install an HP JetDirect that will assign an IP address to your printer. Running this type of configuration will allow the iMAC to see the printer as a networked device over TCP/IP and allow printing to it.
