Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

My New Toy(s)

So I get my Taxes done and find that my wife and I are getting a hefty return this year. I decided to celebrate with some new gadgets. My wife has been wanting an iMac for some time now. She really wanted one of the older iBooks in Blue, but since they changed the exterior she was not interested. She did find an Indigo iMac that she really liked, mostly because she thought it was cute.

I head on over to CompUSA and they have several in stock. Price was $749.00 and they agreed to give me the 3Year Platinum Service Plan, which costs $300.00. It was a pretty good deal in my opinion, so I bought it. I know nothing about Macintosh but I am looking forward to learning everything I can. I have been pleased so far. The iMac is a G3 500 with 64MB RAM and OS9 and X.

In addition, I was strolling by the PDA Counter and saw they had an iPaq 3835. Lately, I have really had the urge to try out PPC2002. There seems to be some interesting features that I wanted access to. Cost was $549.00. Unbelievably, the Salesman/TeamLead that was helping me convinced me to buy it. He said to take it home, try it out and he would waive the 15% Restocking Fee if I did not like it. Well, I did just that.

This all happened Thursday. Saturday, I returned the iPaq. I was very excited to have purchased this device. I thought I would love it. I was wrong, sort of. The screen is awesome. The colors are great and the extra real estate is very nice. Adding the WallPaper was a nice personal touch as well. I enjoyed having PocketWord and PocketExcel, but somewhere in there something was missing.

I looked into additional software to enhance the Basic PIM Functionality and actually found some interesting candidates. I then started looking at the different types of expansion available the costs associated with those.

I finally realized my CLIE was what I really wanted. It would have cost me a couple of hundred dollars more to get the iPaq where I wanted it, so I returned it.

As for the iMac, I am really looking forward to learning OS-X. I already ordered 128MB RAM, as it is entirely too slow now. Hopefully, in the near future, I can get myself iBook and with the money I was going to spend on the iPaq.

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

Woo! Hoo! Another Mac owner! When you get your hetwork figured out between your mac and PC, let me know. I bought the router you were talking about and promptly returned it, discovering I know nothing at all about that stuff.
you ned an iPod now

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

The iPod is definately on my list of items to purchase.

As for the Router, it is really very simple.

Were you going to use for home use? If so, would the Network consist of all the same Platform or do you have MAC and Windows.

With me, it is really very simple. I have yet to really get into Networking the machines together. I do some basic File Sharing between my Windows boxes, but that is pretty easy.

Adding the MAC was nothing more than plugging an Ethernet cable into the 10/100 port and booting it up.

If you are using it for home, it really is simple and worth the money. Of course, I pretty much just use the default Router configuration and I have yet to have a problem. The only option I really use is the MAC Address Cloning, which is very simple to configure.

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

Yeah, home use with the iMac and the PC. The instruction book and software were all PC, so I had a hard time following while on the Mac. Maybe I should have tried setting it up on the PC first, then moving it over, I dunno.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

Setting it up should have been pretty basic, as it is all done via Web Interface. This should be the same regardless of what Platform you are using, especially since there is no software to install.

All you have to do is hook up all your cables and then open a Browser and type in the IP Address shown in the manual. Trust me, if I can figure it out, I am sure you can. It has been more than worth $80.00 to me. I have had 03 machines going at the same time all sharing Bandwidth and it has been great.

If you are interested, give it another try. I will be more than happy to help any way I can.

The only limitation to using the Router with the MAC is in the event you wish to update the Firmware. LinkSYS does not provide the software for MAC Users, so you must push the FirmWare via a PC.

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

I got that far, but it never gave me the webpage when I typed the IP address in, i tried it on both machines, too. I mainly wanted it for when my little people get older. My oldest starts kindergarden in August (!!!!!), so it'll probably be a while before that happens, and hopefully then, i'll have a chubby G4 sitting here and this iMac sittin' over there! You use netscape or IE? I never used Netscape before, but am trying it now - there is a lot of stuff not compatible with it, and not that many plug-ins available either. I may have to switch back (and i was ALMOST MS free, too)
Sterling

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

I am using IE on all my machines. As much as I dislike Microsoft for being the Monopoly they are, I absolutely love XP. Truth is, it has nothing to do with it being an MS Product. It is stable, fast, and everything I use works excellent with it. Of course, almost everything I use is made by MS as well, so there you go.

As for the Router. Are you using Cable or DSL? If cable, does your provider require that you use a specific MAC Address? If so, did you make sure you were broadcasting the correct MAC Address through the Router?

The only other setup is making sure TCP/IP is installed and that DNS is setup to automatically obtain an IP Address from the Router. Otherwise, if your desktop is setup to use Static IP, then you would need to enable Static IP on the Router.

Considering you were almost MS Free, what Office Suite are using?

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

I'm using cable (roadrunner). I didn't actually ever get that far. According to the instructions, after I plugged it in, I was supposed to be able to type in the IP address and get the config screen, it always timed out....Being Sterling of Little Patience, I moved on. I got confused with all the numbers I needed, and ended up having to call RR to get my Mac back online.
I use Appleworks for the very limited office stuff I do (for home, at least) I have a couple of spreadsheets and a couple of stories written, that's about it.
I was also speaking of home use - I'm stuck with an aging laptop running NT, Office97 and Lotus Notes at work, oh well.
I wonder who does use Netscape?

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

When you were typing in the IP Address, it should have been 192.168.1.1, is that what you were typing?

The only other thing I can think of is you did not have the cables connected correctly. You have to make sure the cable goes from the Modem to the WAN Port and that the PC/MAC goes into one of the Ports labeled 1 - 4.

As for Netscape, I used to love it. I actually purchased Communicator several years back. After numerous problems and the fact that IE got much better, I finally just said forget it.

AppleWorks seems okay, though we have not used it to much. My wife is a teacher and can Office for X at $199.99, so eventually we will probably install that. I here that Office is awesome on the MAC, so I would really like to try it.

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In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 638

Actually, my router's IP by default is 192.168.0.1 . I would try some IP's around there. You are bound to find it eventually.

BEN

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

quote:

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Originally posted by GSR13
When you were typing in the IP Address, it should have been 192.168.1.1, is that what you were typing?

The only other thing I can think of is you did not have the cables connected correctly. You have to make sure the cable goes from the Modem to the WAN Port and that the PC/MAC goes into one of the Ports labeled 1 - 4.

As for Netscape, I used to love it. I actually purchased Communicator several years back. After numerous problems and the fact that IE got much better, I finally just said forget it.

AppleWorks seems okay, though we have not used it to much. My wife is a teacher and can Office for X at $199.99, so eventually we will probably install that. I here that Office is awesome on the MAC, so I would really like to try it.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 708

Here is a link to MACWorld with instructions on setting up and configuring a LinkSYS Router.

PracticallyNetworked also has a great page for the LinkSYS Router including MAC Instructions.

__________________
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. JOHN 14:2

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

Cool, thanks! Maybe I shouldn't have been so lazy...