Airport - simultaneous dialup & high speed?

<dotlyc.RemoveThis@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> I have a white Airport base station that has both ethernet and dialup
> phone ports. Currently I'm on a dialup account but would like to move to
> high speed soon. I'd like to keep the dialup account operational while I
> test out the high speed service. I'd prefer not to have to switch settings
> and whatnot back and forth while I'm testing the new service.
> I have an iBook and an eMac. Can I keep one on the dialup service while
> at the same time running the other computer on the high speed service?

Yes, but not through the base station at the same time. Switching the
preferred network port between modem and Ethernet is easy on an eMac or
iBook, but requires a configuration change and restart for the base
station.

In article <1fzjoz7.mj76zh1up6zwgN%neillmassello@earthlink.net>,
neillmassello.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net (Neill Massello) wrote:

> <dotlyc.TakeThisOut@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> > I have a white Airport base station that has both ethernet and dialup
> > phone ports. Currently I'm on a dialup account but would like to move to
> > high speed soon. I'd like to keep the dialup account operational while I
> > test out the high speed service. I'd prefer not to have to switch settings
> > and whatnot back and forth while I'm testing the new service.
> > I have an iBook and an eMac. Can I keep one on the dialup service while
> > at the same time running the other computer on the high speed service?
>
> Yes, but not through the base station at the same time. Switching the
> preferred network port between modem and Ethernet is easy on an eMac or
> iBook, but requires a configuration change and restart for the base
> station.

Okay, networking is not my strong point, so I'm confused. I have the
TCP/IP panel set to "Airport" and "Using DHCP". I change that to the PPP
setting when I'm away from home and have to use the iBook internal modem.
I also have the iBook and eMac networked using an ethernet cable, so
the Appletalk control panel is set to "ethernet built-in."
The base station is now configured to use the modem. I presume that I
would have to change it to the ethernet or PPPoE setting (at least one ISP
I might use requires PPPoE -- not that I have any idea what that is.)
In another message Cathy Stevenson said that "If you are using OS X,
there is no switching configurations as there was in earlier OSes." So it
sounds like I would not have to do the above if/when I move to using OSX.
If I do reconfigure the base station to use ethernet or PPPoE, would
that interfere with the ethernet link that I have set up in Appletalk to
connect the two machines? Would I have to keep switching off my local
network everytime I wanted to connect to the Internet?
Sorry for all the questions, but network configuration has always
flummoxed me and I have zero hands-on experience with high-speed Internet
services. Any help would be *greatly* appreciated.

--
dotlyc.TakeThisOut@sympatico.ca

<dotlyc.TakeThisOut@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Okay, networking is not my strong point, so I'm confused. I have the
> TCP/IP panel set to "Airport" and "Using DHCP". I change that to the PPP
> setting when I'm away from home and have to use the iBook internal modem.
> I also have the iBook and eMac networked using an ethernet cable, so
> the Appletalk control panel is set to "ethernet built-in."
> The base station is now configured to use the modem. I presume that I
> would have to change it to the ethernet or PPPoE setting (at least one ISP
> I might use requires PPPoE -- not that I have any idea what that is.)
> In another message Cathy Stevenson said that "If you are using OS X,
> there is no switching configurations as there was in earlier OSes." So it
> sounds like I would not have to do the above if/when I move to using OSX.

In OS X, TCP/IP can be used simultaneously on all of your network ports,
and you can rank the ports so that they are used by order of preference.
When an application requests a network connection, OS X provides it
through the highest ranking port through which a connection is currently
possible, without the user having to change ports manually.


> If I do reconfigure the base station to use ethernet or PPPoE, would
> that interfere with the ethernet link that I have set up in Appletalk to
> connect the two machines? Would I have to keep switching off my local
> network everytime I wanted to connect to the Internet?

No and no. AppleTalk traffic will coexist peacefully with TCP/IP traffic
on the same network. TCP/IP traffic bound for the Internet will be
routed by the base station from its AirPort network or from its Ethernet
LAN (Local Area Network) port to its WAN (Wide Area Network) port, which
will be connected to the cable or DSL modem. Purely local traffic, such
as your two Macs communicating via AppleTalk, will remain solely on the
LAN side of the base station. The cable or DSL modem will never see that
traffic. You will essentially have two separate networks -- one
including the cable or DSL modem and the other including your Macs --
with the base station selectively passing traffic between the two
networks.


> Sorry for all the questions, but network configuration has always
> flummoxed me and I have zero hands-on experience with high-speed Internet
> services. Any help would be *greatly* appreciated.

Apple's "Designing AirPort Networks 2" manual
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120061> contains
instructions to configure a snow base station and a Mac (OS 9 or OS X)
to use a cable or DSL (including PPPoE) Internet connection.

In article <1fzk83k.11m5b4j1p3fxdsN%neillmassello@earthlink.net>,
neillmassello RemoveThis @earthlink.net (Neill Massello) wrote:

> > Sorry for all the questions, but network configuration has always
> > flummoxed me and I have zero hands-on experience with high-speed Internet
> > services. Any help would be *greatly* appreciated.
>
> Apple's "Designing AirPort Networks 2" manual
> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120061> contains
> instructions to configure a snow base station and a Mac (OS 9 or OS X)
> to use a cable or DSL (including PPPoE) Internet connection.

Thanks for all the useful information. I'll look up the Apple article
as well. Upgrading to OSX and to high-speed Intenet is generating a lot of
homework.

--
dotlyc RemoveThis @sympatico.ca

In article <1fzk83k.11m5b4j1p3fxdsN%neillmassello@earthlink.net>,
neillmassello RemoveThis @earthlink.net (Neill Massello) wrote:

> No and no. AppleTalk traffic will coexist peacefully with TCP/IP traffic
> on the same network. TCP/IP traffic bound for the Internet will be
> routed by the base station from its AirPort network or from its Ethernet
> LAN (Local Area Network) port to its WAN (Wide Area Network) port, which
> will be connected to the cable or DSL modem. Purely local traffic, such
> as your two Macs communicating via AppleTalk, will remain solely on the
> LAN side of the base station. The cable or DSL modem will never see that
> traffic. You will essentially have two separate networks -- one
> including the cable or DSL modem and the other including your Macs --
> with the base station selectively passing traffic between the two
> networks.


Well, I succeeded in getting both Appletalk and TCP/IP working on
the iBook. I tried networking with the eMac via Appletalk/ethernet and
succeeded going in one direction (iBook OSX to eMac OS9. I was able to
mount the eMac hard drive on the iBook. But I couldn't figure out how to
get the eMac to mount the iBook's drive. Is it possible to do this from
the OS9 side if the other machine is OSX? I have been able to get the
connection going in both directions with both machines on OS9.