New MAC user   

Please tell me if this is the wrong forum for this.

My daughter has just bought our family's first MAC, a laptop, and I am
a little bit lost.  For reasons I cannot recall (other than that we
had problems with variable addresses, perhaps due to a printer wired
to one wired computer, perhaps due to a network printer), the PCs on
our home network use fixed IP addresses - some connect wirelessly,
some wired, with our router.  I recently purchased a laptop PC which
is normally wired (with a fixed IP address) but, if I travel, I need
to hit the F2 and FN buttons, so that I can change the IP address to
variable.  I know how to do this.

Now, I assume, for this new MACbook laptop, I may need to do something
similar.  Can someone advise me what to do, please?  Right now, it
isn't finding internet access.  It will always be wireless for now,
but when my daughter goes to school, it will use an ethernet cable
mostly.

So, for now:

At home now, wireless with fixed IP adress
Not at home, wireless with variable address

Later, at college:

Wired (in dorm room) or wireless (elsewhere, on campus)

Thanks much
Dean

date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 15:01:09 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Dean

Re: New MAC user   

Dean  wrote:

> Please tell me if this is the wrong forum for this.

Well this is the group for the Mac version of IE, but since it is at
least a Mac question, I can try to answer (a lot of people post here
about IE for Windows and there is very little I can do for them ;-) )

> My daughter has just bought our family's first MAC, a laptop, and I am
> a little bit lost.  For reasons I cannot recall (other than that we
> had problems with variable addresses, perhaps due to a printer wired
> to one wired computer, perhaps due to a network printer), the PCs on
> our home network use fixed IP addresses - some connect wirelessly,
> some wired, with our router.  I recently purchased a laptop PC which
> is normally wired (with a fixed IP address) but, if I travel, I need
> to hit the F2 and FN buttons, so that I can change the IP address to
> variable.  I know how to do this.

In MacOS X, you can create various Locations. You could have one for
home, with the settings you need for the local network there, and
another one for when you travel (DHCP?).
The Localitions are listed in the Apple Menu and you can simply select
there the one you want.

You can setup locations in the System Preferences, in the Network pane.
It's fairly simple.

> Now, I assume, for this new MACbook laptop, I may need to do something
> similar.  Can someone advise me what to do, please?  Right now, it
> isn't finding internet access.  It will always be wireless for now,
> but when my daughter goes to school, it will use an ethernet cable
> mostly.
> 
> So, for now:
> 
> At home now, wireless with fixed IP adress
> Not at home, wireless with variable address
> 
> Later, at college:
> 
> Wired (in dorm room) or wireless (elsewhere, on campus)

You therefore need 3 locations:
At home
Roaming
Dorm

Each location can have specific settings for either wired or wireless
(lets say wired with fixed IP and wireless with dynamic). That's not a
problem.

Corentin


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date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 14:56:23 -0500   author:   Corentin ()