Mac networking woes

shadyMrPatch · 02-12-2007, 02:56 PM

Afternoon all, hope you can help with this - i'm going mad!

Here's the deal - I am a PC user - my gf has a Mac and we want to be able to get her on my wiFi network.

Airport cards are expensive (£60) so I thought i'd be clever and get a wifi bridge in the hope that I'd be able to set it up to bridge from the Mac's ethernet port to the router/AP. Seemed like a good idea.

So I picked up a cheap Netgear ME102 off ebay - its only 11b but @ £20 thats more than fast enough (and faster that the ADSL line which ever way you look at it).

It arrived today and after popping down to maplin to pick up the relevant USB connectors and a crossover cable I plugged it in and... nothing. Basically its not working.

Now although I consider myself reasonably knowlegeable about computers I'll admit my knowlege of network topography is weak so I'm after some help - I'm sure it can be done with the kit i've got but I don't know how.

So here is the layout I want.

ADSL line connects to the Linksys WAD354G router.
Various PC equipment connects either wirelessly or via wires (this is all fine).
Mac attached via ME102 connects wirelessly to router.

Unfortunatly I have no idea how to get the bridge working. Here are my current settings:

Name and SSID are set to Linksys (same as my router - I read that these need to be the same)
IP is fixed value and gateway address is set to that of the router (no DHCP)
Encryption is off (removed encryption from my router to match for the time)
Long Preamble is on.
'Operational Mode' is set to 'Point to Point wireless bridge' with the Router's MAC address entered.
SSID broadcast is disabled.
See the end of this post for the bridge setup screens.

This is just what I've worked out as I don't really know what I'm doing and I can't find any useful information to help me.

The ME102 does appear to be working as when its set to an 'Access Point' I can see the SSID being braodcast (when setup) and can connect to it.

Currently I've got it attached to a PC so I can test (none of the software works on Mac so I'm getting it setup here then I'll attach it to the Mac when its working).

The bridge won't ping when attached to the PC - either when assigned a fixed IP or on DHCP (either attempts to aquire the IP address continually or you get the bad IP address if set to fixed).

However If I run the bridge straight into the router its pingable.

so two major issues really.

1) How do I setup the bridge so I can connect to the bridge.
2) How do I then setup the bridge to be in 'bridge mode' and connect into the router - thus giving a network connection. How do i actually get it to connect to the Router?

ME102 Setup screens
general.jpg
IP_setting.jpg
encryption.jpg
Op_Setting1.jpg
Op_Setting2.jpg

02-12-2007, 02:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
shadyMrPatch Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP SP2	Mac networking woes Afternoon all, hope you can help with this - i'm going mad! Here's the deal - I am a PC user - my gf has a Mac and we want to be able to get her on my wiFi network. Airport cards are expensive (£60) so I thought i'd be clever and get a wifi bridge in the hope that I'd be able to set it up to bridge from the Mac's ethernet port to the router/AP. Seemed like a good idea. So I picked up a cheap Netgear ME102 off ebay - its only 11b but @ £20 thats more than fast enough (and faster that the ADSL line which ever way you look at it). It arrived today and after popping down to maplin to pick up the relevant USB connectors and a crossover cable I plugged it in and... nothing. Basically its not working. Now although I consider myself reasonably knowlegeable about computers I'll admit my knowlege of network topography is weak so I'm after some help - I'm sure it can be done with the kit i've got but I don't know how. So here is the layout I want. ADSL line connects to the Linksys WAD354G router. Various PC equipment connects either wirelessly or via wires (this is all fine). Mac attached via ME102 connects wirelessly to router. Unfortunatly I have no idea how to get the bridge working. Here are my current settings: Name and SSID are set to Linksys (same as my router - I read that these need to be the same) IP is fixed value and gateway address is set to that of the router (no DHCP) Encryption is off (removed encryption from my router to match for the time) Long Preamble is on. 'Operational Mode' is set to 'Point to Point wireless bridge' with the Router's MAC address entered. SSID broadcast is disabled. See the end of this post for the bridge setup screens. This is just what I've worked out as I don't really know what I'm doing and I can't find any useful information to help me. The ME102 does appear to be working as when its set to an 'Access Point' I can see the SSID being braodcast (when setup) and can connect to it. Currently I've got it attached to a PC so I can test (none of the software works on Mac so I'm getting it setup here then I'll attach it to the Mac when its working). The bridge won't ping when attached to the PC - either when assigned a fixed IP or on DHCP (either attempts to aquire the IP address continually or you get the bad IP address if set to fixed). However If I run the bridge straight into the router its pingable. so two major issues really. 1) How do I setup the bridge so I can connect to the bridge. 2) How do I then setup the bridge to be in 'bridge mode' and connect into the router - thus giving a network connection. How do i actually get it to connect to the Router? ME102 Setup screens general.jpg IP_setting.jpg encryption.jpg Op_Setting1.jpg Op_Setting2.jpg