so, at 7pm last night, i was all geeked out - new motorola cable modem from comcast and airport express. my previous setup enabled both our laptops (one mac and one pc) to do the wireless internet thang. the express lets us stream itunes through to the stereo and wirelessly connect to the printer in addition to the internet. i thought everything would be easy enough to set up - i deal with this stuff all the time at work, it's no biggie. hahahahahahaha.
pull everything out, hook it up the way it's supposed to be (coaxial cable to modem - modem ethernet cable to express - printer and stereo cables to express) but nothing was registering. used the airport assistant to set up a secure (wpa2) connection. still nothing. did a soft restart (which means unplugging the power cord) on everything and let them sit for a while before starting back up. the pc connected to the stereo with no problem and internet intermittently. the mac had nothing. at that point it was midnight, so i went to bed discouraged.
10:30 this morning, hopped online to look up solutions while calling comcast. they checked around, rebooted the modem, and said they see a connection, but something was blocking it, unless i hooked up the ethernet cable directly to the pc laptop (bypassing the express). uh, ok. they suggested i take back the modem and get a new one. sounds to me like the modem and express aren't playing together nicely, so i tried something else first...
plugged the ethernet cable back into the express, did a hard reset of the express (took a paperclip and clicked the tiny reset button - something you shouldn't do, unless all hope is lost), then unplugged the modem, gave it a few seconds and plugged it back in. left the security setting alone for the time being (scary wide-open internet connection) and miracle of miracles, the pc is connecting to the internet and stereo wirelessly. now to tackle the mac...
turned the mac on, and wow-whee, it's going on the internet, but still no pop-up menu on itunes to choose the stereo over the computer speakers. m-kay...download the airport utility update (that's only supposed to be with the very newest airport extreme, but i dug deep within the installer and found the application file, thereby overriding the stupid installer that didn't let me install) and set up the wpa2 security again. go back and update the pc for those new settings - the pc is still playing nicely. so, pc all good, secure internet connection, mac is playing happily on the internet - still no @#$*&% itunes. check around the interwebs for anyone with the same problem - ooooh, i have to check under the itunes prefs and make sure to enable it to find speakers with airtunes. DUH - that's a n00b error. check that - and now prince is blaring through my stereo speakers. WOO-HOO!
doesn't make up for the fact that i've spent almost 24 hours with this stupidity and now i'm behind on everything else i needed to get done (bills, taxes, writing, designing banners and t-shirts, laundry, cleaning the backyard, cleaning the house, updating my online writing project). fuckity-fuck-fuck. i need a personal assistant to get some of my shite done for me.
update at 4:52pm - at least i was able to fix the broken off left arrow/home key by taking the one from my old G3 - take that technology!
current mood: annoyed, but trying to get over it so i can get stuff done
current noise: "trust" by prince
pull everything out, hook it up the way it's supposed to be (coaxial cable to modem - modem ethernet cable to express - printer and stereo cables to express) but nothing was registering. used the airport assistant to set up a secure (wpa2) connection. still nothing. did a soft restart (which means unplugging the power cord) on everything and let them sit for a while before starting back up. the pc connected to the stereo with no problem and internet intermittently. the mac had nothing. at that point it was midnight, so i went to bed discouraged.
10:30 this morning, hopped online to look up solutions while calling comcast. they checked around, rebooted the modem, and said they see a connection, but something was blocking it, unless i hooked up the ethernet cable directly to the pc laptop (bypassing the express). uh, ok. they suggested i take back the modem and get a new one. sounds to me like the modem and express aren't playing together nicely, so i tried something else first...
plugged the ethernet cable back into the express, did a hard reset of the express (took a paperclip and clicked the tiny reset button - something you shouldn't do, unless all hope is lost), then unplugged the modem, gave it a few seconds and plugged it back in. left the security setting alone for the time being (scary wide-open internet connection) and miracle of miracles, the pc is connecting to the internet and stereo wirelessly. now to tackle the mac...
turned the mac on, and wow-whee, it's going on the internet, but still no pop-up menu on itunes to choose the stereo over the computer speakers. m-kay...download the airport utility update (that's only supposed to be with the very newest airport extreme, but i dug deep within the installer and found the application file, thereby overriding the stupid installer that didn't let me install) and set up the wpa2 security again. go back and update the pc for those new settings - the pc is still playing nicely. so, pc all good, secure internet connection, mac is playing happily on the internet - still no @#$*&% itunes. check around the interwebs for anyone with the same problem - ooooh, i have to check under the itunes prefs and make sure to enable it to find speakers with airtunes. DUH - that's a n00b error. check that - and now prince is blaring through my stereo speakers. WOO-HOO!
doesn't make up for the fact that i've spent almost 24 hours with this stupidity and now i'm behind on everything else i needed to get done (bills, taxes, writing, designing banners and t-shirts, laundry, cleaning the backyard, cleaning the house, updating my online writing project). fuckity-fuck-fuck. i need a personal assistant to get some of my shite done for me.
update at 4:52pm - at least i was able to fix the broken off left arrow/home key by taking the one from my old G3 - take that technology!
current mood: annoyed, but trying to get over it so i can get stuff done
current noise: "trust" by prince
airport express sounds really cool.
at least you know how to do all that stuff...i'm so not good at eletronics...