Re: Mysterious Shared Volume

Well, I'm back.

Somehow the site "locked up" my router. The only place I could actually go
to online was that page itself...the ip for that page was somehow "stuck" in
the router (so it seemed).

A tech from Comcast (my ISP) came by last evening with 15 feet of coax to
connect the router to my lady's PC (her PC is much closer to the
router/cable modem than my Mac). He then reset the router (there's a "reset"
contact hidden in the back of the router), which essentially set it to its
original out-of-the-box manufacturer's settings, and used the CD that came
with it to set it up afresh.

He indicated to me that I wasn't the first person this happened to...his
opinion was that it was a ploy that Netgear uses to try to sell folks online
customer support service (which, coincidentally, was the response I received
from Netgear when I called them via their toll-free number for some help).

BTW: I asked the Comcast tech to set the security to WPA, but he suggested
that we go the "standard" route and set it up under WEP (at least for now).
His reason was simply that he wasn't quite sure if Comcast supported WPA
(apparently, last year -- the last time the issue came up among the tech
folks -- Comcast wasn't supporting WPA in this operating area).

I will be contacting some more senior tech folks at Comcast to find out
what's going on.




In article
dae06dc2-297e-4246-a555-410bd6e36314@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
nicknaym@xxxxxxxxx at nicknaym@xxxxxxxxx wrote on 9/14/08 4:05 AM:

Well, I went to the Netgear site and moused around till I found the
page that enables you to change the router's securiy settings. As I
went trhu about half the page, I decided I wasn't quite comfortable
with what I was doing, so decided to back out of the page. However,
the Back button wouldn't let me, so I went down to the bottom of the
page and clicked the Cancel button. For some reason, nothing seemed to
happen. After repeating that a few times, I eventually just closed
the page.

Since then, however, I've completely lost the ability to connect
wirelessly..According to AirPort, I *am* connected; but my attempts at
retrieving eMail via Entourage as well as my attempts to open any web
page at all say otherwise.

Right now, I'm sending this message via a very old Mac on an equally
very old dialup connection.

I don't know how long I can maintain this manner of access, but I'll
try.

Any suggestions might be easier for me to retrieve if you send them
via email.

Thanks.


David Empson wrote:
Nick Naym <nicknaym@[remove_this].gmail.com> wrote:

In article 1in3prf.13o098k1xm6nswN%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, David Empson at
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 9/10/08 8:41 PM:
You should have your wireless network set up to use WPA security, which
encrypts all data and requires a password to connect to the network.

There is also an older method called WEP which is known to be insecure
and should be avoided if possible. It is also difficult to set up if
mixing brands of equipment due to having to type in passwords as fixed
length hexadecimal numbers (e.g. 26 digits).

My Netgear network is set up with WEP; it was done for me by the ISP tech,
when I first started to use the wireless router. The funny thing about it is
that the "lock" icon never shows up next to the network name in the AirPort
menu (nor in my network prefs); the second "funny" thing is that there is
another Netgear network showing up called "NETGEAR," which I had initially
assumed was mine (for all I know, it may very well be mine as well). It too
doesn't have a "lock"icon next to it.

Leopard's Airport menu shows a padlock for WEP protected networks. If
you can't see one next to the name of your own network, then it isn't
protected and anyone in range can connect to it without restriction.

It sounds like your Netgear router isn't set up correctly.

I just went into network prefs and assigned the same password I had assigned
to my Netgear network to the NETGEAR network (just curious if I could, and
whether it would make a difference). Now the NETGEAR network shows up
*twice* under the Advanced tab of my network prefs -- once with with "WEP
Password" next to it, once without. (My Netgear network always had "WEP
Password" listed next to it under the Advanced tab.)

If you specify an unnecessary password to connect to a network, the
system will probably remember it anyway.

PS: I'd like to follow your WPA suggestion, but I have no idea how to do
that.

You'd have to get into the web configuration pages for your Netgear
router, find the right screen, change the security mode and specify a
password. You should also change the network name (SSID), as "NETGEAR"
is a bit too generic and could get mixed up with another nearby network
which is also using the default name on a Netgear wireless router.

Which model is your Netgear router? I should be able to talk you through
this given a copy of the manual (I have several already), but suggest
doing it by e-mail rather than boring everyone else here with a detailed
discussion.

In your other message, you asked:
BTW: Is the Shared section supposed to show up in the Sidebar when there's
nothing being shared?

It shows you _other_ computers which have something being shared, not
what your own computer is sharing.

1. "Other" computers...located *where*?

Anywhere on the same local network as you. As you are on a wireless
network, this means they are connected to the same wireless network as
you are (or have been recently - sometimes the list takes a little while
to realise a computer has disappeared).

The Shared section in the sidebar also shows your other computers
available via Back to My Mac, if you have a MobileMe account and are
using that feature. These can be anywhere on the Internet.

The third category is other computers you are currently connected to
with Finder, which could be outside your local network. Connections
outside your local network are typically established with the "Connect
to Server" command under the Go menu in Finder. These would have an
eject symbol next to them in the sidebar.

2. My Finder prefs panel has all of the boxes checked in its Sidebar tab.
Under "SHARED," that consists of "Back to My Mac," "Connected Servers," and
"Bonjour Computers." If none of those categories are being used, does the
entire "SHARED" section (including the heading "SHARED") disappear from the
Sidebar?

Yes.

--
David Empson
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

--
iMac (24", 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 320 GB HDD) ? OS X (10.5.4)

.

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