Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with connection and mac

Keep the remote connection from disconnecting

modoriculous — Wed, 18 May 2011 04:38:04 -0800

How do I keep my remote connection open if I'm away from my computer? I remote in sometimes to a computer where my company is located. To do this I use a VPN connection and password, and then use Remote Desktop for Mac to connect from my Mac to the PC at the office.

The problem is, if I am doing something on my actual Mac computer or step away for a few minutes the connection gets broken. The Remote session screen turns black with the hourglass symbol and then goes away, requiring me to re-enter my PW into Remote Desktop to connect again. (VPN connection is fine)

Is there a setting on the office PC or my Mac that I can lengthen the period of time before it disconnects because of inactivity?

Connect Four? No, just one.

BlahLaLa — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:49:55 -0800

Please -- please! -- help me troubleshoot a vexing wireless connectivity problem. Just to put this front and center: I am not knowledgeable about computers. Hello, smart people. Thank you in advance for helping little old me.

Here's the deal:
I have a desktop (Mac Mini) that is connected -- wired -- to my modem and Airport Extreme. I have a PowerBook G4 that connects wirelessly to the network via the Airport Extreme. Until this afternoon when it suddenly stopped.

Some facts about this situation:

-- The PowerBook does view other networks (my neighbors') and will connect to them. It just doesn't seem to "see" my own network now.

--The Airport Extreme has a green light. The connection is working fine on the wired computer.

-- Prior to this problem I hadn't installed any software, done any updates, etc.

-- I have no other wireless devices around the house to check the wireless connection.

Could you please explain in plain and possibly babyish language, what steps I could take to troubleshoot this?

Need help setting up AirPort on my Mac

Joseppi — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:52:14 -0800

I'm trying to set up an AirPort on my Mac and I'm having some issues. It's asking for OS X 10.4 and I'm running 10.5 but it still doesn't work. Any clue as to why this is happening? I'm trying to set up an AirPort on my Mac and I'm having some issues. When I try and install the software I get a message that says, "You cannot install AirPort on this volume. The version of Mac OS X on this volume is not supported." It's asking for volume 10.4 and I'm on 10.5. This is beyond frustrating as this is supposed to be such a simple process. Does anyone know what my issue might be?

Why does my Airport connection drop every evening at the same time?

meerkatty — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:41:43 -0800

Every night this week my Macbook has stopped connecting to my Airport. Why? How can I fix this? Original Airport base station, circa 2002. Macbook.

Never had a problem with this equipment and have been using this same Airport in this same apartment for seven years. Now this week my connection to the Airport stops working around the same time every evening but resumes working a few hours later. Not an internet problem as I can connect via cable.

What's going on? And you should talk to me like I'm complete idiot. I can work computers by plugging them in and that's about it.

Speed suck

zenpop — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:26:54 -0800

Recent Mac software update crippled my online speed/connection. The other day I allowed the Software Updater to run on my iMac. Included in the OSX update was some sort of Airport tweaking as well. Now my connection to the internet has slowed considerably. I've posted 'help' questions on Apple's website and MacFixit. No one answers. I've rebooted both the computer and the cable modem, and router. Nada.

Anyone here have any suggestions? Can I 'undo' the update that happened to Airport in that update? (No, I don't run Time Machine on my computer).

Thanks

How to get my iBook to see the internet?

bilabial — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:31:38 -0800

My wireless router and my iBook G4 aren't playing nice. Our iBook G3 connects wirelessly without fail. This started not very long after we moved to the new apartment: my airport icon shows a full signal connection, or sometimes minus one bar, but when I try to load a page the result is a page that says I am not connected to the internet. When I turn off the airport and then turn it back on, sometimes it will be able to load the page. Lately that doesn't work, so I move onto the step of restarting the router and the modem. This isn't working lately either. So, sometimes it lets me on and bumps me off randomly whlie other times it won't let me online at all.

The router is a NetGear MR814v2, which the Apple store Genius Bar people say isn't the best model. They suggest I turn to a Linksys.

We have an iBook G3 that never has any problem getting online or staying online wirelessly. The fun part is that we have an ancient (five years old) Gateway that we plug into the router for downloading. At first, it seemed that the iBook G4 would get bumped when the Gateway went online, pointing maybe to an IP conflict. All three machines have their own IPs assigned, however. Now the Gateway is not necessarily downloading, or even on/connected to the router when we have this difficulty getting or staying online with the G4.

Do I really need to trash this router, or is there something else that can be done so I can go back to reclining on the sofa with my computer? (I'm tethered to a table that is just the wrong height for computer work and a new table is out of the question for quite some time.)

Firewire to SCSI

aladfar — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 09:49:42 -0800

An excellent SCSI negative scanner seeks connection with firewire based Mac running OS X. What's a peripheral to do? I've a feeling this may have been asked before, but a search through the archives didn't reveal anything. I've found a few adapters via Google, but they look to be a bit clunky. If someone has had a good experience with a solid piece of hardware, I'd appreciate hearing about it!

Connecting a Mac Powerbook to a Windows 98 computer

dobbs — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 13:13:18 -0800

Connecting a Mac Powerbook (Panther) to a Windows 98 box. Help, please. --> First off, sorry for like my third question in about a week. :(

I have done google searches and searches on macmentor.org and other places but I can't find a step-by-step guide to connecting my Powerbook to my Win98 box via ethernet. I also searched at Apple and thought I found something and then when I followed the instructions, they didn't work (the Apple site mentions clicking things that simply aren't there--then I noticed it was 10.2 so maybe that's the diff).

I simply want to get my mp3 files off of my windows 98 box so I can then throw the thing in the trash. I've had the PB for close to a year and haven't been able to figure this out yet.

I have: one powerbook, one win 98 box with 50 gb of mp3s on it, two ethernet cables (I believe one is "normal" and one is "crossover" though I don't know what the hell that means).

Can anyone explain this to me or provide a link that tells me what I have to do on each of the computers so I can listen to my wonderful mp3s?