PC Laptop trying to find the Mac wireless router

[Gracie]

Hello folks. A Mac household has asked me to advise them on how to get their Windows laptop to see their new Apple wireless router. They have some software which is supposed to work the magic, but it hasn't. I do not know too much about Macs and wonder if there is a walkthrough available of what needs to be checked to ensure the Windows machine will connect. Can you help please? All the Macs in the house have connected fine.

[wing987]

MACs and PCs both use the industry standard TCP-IP which would standardize the packets. I had a problem similar at a school district a few years ago. The software did not work for me either, however a simple fix was just to use the built in system on winxp. I do now know vista very well, so I can only hope it is the same for vista. Open the built in program that detects a wireless network, Wireless network connections (NOT one that HP, or DELL install with their own software), when connecting you should enter the WEP key if it is a secure connection. It took a few tries but finally it started talking, in my case.

Keep in mind this may have only worked with the router I was connecting too. I wish you luck! (never liked the problems between mac and pc hardware and software....and I am a PC guru over MAC)

[Gracie]

thanks wing, will try that. We have a mixed setup at home and never get any problems getting onto the web through our Linksys BUT that is via cable and using ethernet. These folk will be using PPPoE or PPPoA as well as tcp I expect as they are adsl.