# AirPort doesn't work with all ISP's...?



## steve roche (May 19, 2008)

Hi

i just moved, and brought my Airport and laptop with me, to a new place, and it won't work. I have a different internet provider, I'm in Mexico (stop laughing!), and I have re-set and re-configured everything
until I am blue in the face. Last I heard I needed to call my new cable 
company to get the IP address of their DNS Server (I said to stop laughing!) so i can enter it in my computer's Sys Prefs. More Likely
it's the fact that the cable company here in Mexico (I'm warning you..
stop it right now!)
doesn't give a rat's *** about Apple or Mac, and that maybe I need to fish my old D-link wireless out of storage and use it instead. But the AirPort Extreme is supposed to figure out everything automatically... 
Plus it's a real chick magnet. (joke)

Has anyone else had problems with AirPort, especially in other countries
than the US...? 

sr


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## steve roche (May 19, 2008)

For any of you who care, this is a common issue with some cable companies. They recognize only your computer, not any additional things (like wireless router) you might want to add later. You have to 'clone' your MAC address so it is the same as the 
cable company's cable modem. I don't know how to do this. Tonight i will unplug everything for 24 hours, set up the AirPort, and start up the cable modem with it. In the old days, it would have 'timed out' and a fresh signal would later be recognized.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

I have always had to manually configure my Macs to work with internet, even with modems and routers. There was a time I had to call Qwest, and this is after I told them I was using a Mac when I signed up, and they sent me the "Mac" kit, and after 30 min on the phone with tech support, I finally had to demand, and I did ask nicely earlier, that he give me the DNS and gateway IP addresses so that I could enter them in manually. Once I did, my Mac connected, and all was well. The software and their script didn't fix a thing. Until Macs become more mainstream, this will be something we have to deal with.


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## steve roche (May 19, 2008)

When you are talking about the "IP address", do you mean the 
Ethernet or MAC IP address? Because I thought that was something 
the cable company snatched from my own computer, and so now they provide
service to this computer only, and ignore the wireless modem,
or my other laptop, or a friend's X-box, etc. Are we talking about the same thing?

I thought I had to give my NEW address (that of the AirPort Base Station) to the cable provider, rather than get an address from them.

DNS addresses are blank on the Mac, but the Ethernet works anyway.

(my BIG mistake was not having the Wireless router plugged in on 
the day that Cable came to install.. so they ID'd only my laptop
to get service). Other people in my area have said they have Macs,
so it's no longer a Mac service issue.

One thing.. This newer AirPort extreme is the most user-unfriendly thing I have seen in years, and I am losing all respect for Macs in general. With any other brand router I could paste in the IP/ethernet/MAC address I like, to match my system, and not bother the cable company. But not the AirPort... they have deleted this option, so I have to go begging the corporate cable company to
come see the new wireless set-up, and then answer their questions
about how many people live here, how many accounts, etc..

SO unlike the Apple I grew up with. I'm afraid we are losing Apple.
It's become more corporate than Microsoft)

I'm going today to get my old D Link router back, set it up, clone in the desired IP address (that of my laptop), get my system working, throw away the AirPort Extreme, and have some
control over my life!

I truly hope hackers are working on this AirPort Extreme problem,
and will find a way around it! 

s


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

I've never used an AirPort station, so I can't comment on them.

IP addresses are like street adresses, with a web page, or your computer, being the houses. Everyone has one, and they are just a number. You type a name into your browser, and that goes to your ISP's DNS, which converts it to a IP address. If your computer doesn't know where the DNS is, then it can't find anything on the web, unless you know the IP address to every page you goto. If the ISP is set up correctly, they broadcast the DNS info once you have logged in. A basic high speed internet setup involves a modem and the computer. The modem contacts the ISP with your account info, and the ISP then gives it an IP address, and the DNS addresses. On an one computer setup one of two things happen, the modem passes that info to the computer, and basiclly become invisable, or it retains that info for itself and askes like a server giving your computer the info it asks for. In that second setup, the ISP only sees the modem, and the modem has given the computer a different IP address. If you want to add more computer, you need a router, which the AirPort is. What you do is plug the router into the LAN port of the modem, and the modem into the WAN port of the router. This makes the modem think that the router is just one computer. Now you set the router to be a DHCP server, and to recieve an IP address from the modem. Make sure that the IP subnet that the router is getting from the modem is different then the one it gives to computer connected to it. If you don't, they'll step on eachothers toes, and you can't surf the web well. For more info on how to do this, goto the networking forum here. I think this may be what is happening to you, the modem and AirPort are trying to be in the same subnet, with the same IP address, and they are getting lost and the Mac is just a hopeless bystander. Like I said, I've never used an AirPort, so I don't know how to change it's settings, but I understand that the AirPort setup app and Wizard are in the Utilities folder of the Mac.


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## steve roche (May 19, 2008)

*Re: AirPort doesn't work..*

It's fixed, now, although I had to lose the Apple.. Still, you said:


"What you do is plug the router into the LAN port of the modem, and the modem into the WAN port of the router. This makes the modem think that the router is just one computer." 

The basic cable modem has only one port.. not labelled, probably LAN.
Same modem I've seen with 2 different internet providers. (Motorola)
It got plugged into WAN on the router.

The Apple is non-adjustable, that is known. Can't alter it's MAC/ip address. Mac buyers have been howling about this over the internet.

The D-link router CAN be altered (it has a 'clone MAC address')
button, and presto! it's done. Re-start everything and now
I'm sitting across the room, wireless. I am so glad I picked it up last month in Los Angeles at a yard sale... the only smart thing I've done all year. It was $20.

The DNS seems to be automatic; I have seen blanks where the DNS
servers need an address (in my Prefs page) but it still surfs anyway.
The Apple Base Station (at my old house) also worked well without enterting DNS addresses.
So I figure i won't mess with that. It all works now, and I am happy with D-link. I can't imagine why I needed to buy that Apple Base station, except that Apple fans told me I should.



The Moral: if you're stuck with an Apple Wireless, and you move or change ISP's ... have it all set up before you call your new internet service provider to come hook you up. My mistake was setting the wireless up two days after my cable installation, so it
wasn't recognized. But Apple won't let you adjust it by yourself.
It's address is fixed at the factory. (google: cloning MAC address on AirPort Extreme). No more cloning, folks! Gotta call your cable and ask their permission!

( strange, though.. the Apple is up and working now, across town,
in a house with a TelMex internet hookup.. it started right up)

But I have TeleCable/cybermasta, and the apple wouldn't work here.

Apple computers-- great. No viruses. Everyone in Mexico has Windows, and everyone is de-virusing and de-fragmenting every day here. It's really insane. But Apple messed up with the latest AirPort
wireless equipment. (What if the FM stations on your new car radio were pre-set by Time-Warner or Comcast, and you couldn't re-set them yourself? Wouldn't that drive you nuts? 


anyway, thanks for the insight

sr

san miguel de allende, 
central mexico


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