UK Mac Wizards

BT HomeHub installation error

Usually this is a breeze if you know anything about networking and are careful with typing in your wireless key.

I did however think I was going a bit potty recently wirelessly networking three Macs and a PC to a BT HomeHub (BT HomeHub2 to be precise). Two of the Macs and the PC took to to the hub straight away, but the third – a G4 Cube running OS X 10.4 Tiger – kept coming up with an error after putting in the key. I tried every encryption permutation available; did it really mean WPA Personal or did it mean WPA2? Even trying to install using the BT CD-ROM, which I usually just put to one side, did not bring any joy – despite its initial enthusiasm on encountering the wireless signal from the hub. This made me realise that my fussing with the Apple networking dialog box had been in vain, because the BT installer ought to know the answer.

To the solution, then, for future reference:
Using one of the other computers that does work with the hub, navigate to the HomeHub’s own webpage (type in the router’s IP address into your browser) put in the admin password (it is on the hub itself) and find your way to its wireless settings. See where it says its signal is B/G/N and change it to B/G. And confirm.

I guess I might have been able to configure the Cube to use the N protocol. Though I doubt it having been inside this particular one I know its Airport card to be the B/G sort.

This may also help with PCs running Windows with a B/G only wireless card.

Not PC vs Mac

Although I love Macs and have consistently enjoyed working with Apple products, I have worked on PCs too. I would always maintain that Macs are in a different league to PCs because of the quality of their design and the beautiful utility of the software they run.

But the distinction has begun to blur for me for several reasons, and it now seems time that I should also offer to support PCs when asked to. I have in any case been doing that for years whenever someone local has asked me to, I just haven’t been prepared to journey across Oxfordshire to help someone with a tired looking Dell running Windows 98. I will continue to refuse encounters of that sort, but a reasonably recent PC running a modern OS should not be beneath me when it or its owner has some trouble.

So clearly PC support is now something I should do more of.

Any reluctance I might feel dwindled recently with news of the latest Mac Mini; just for once I would like to see a really aggressively priced Mac, but the time is not yet, it seems. It isn’t just about a so-called entry-level computer. It is also, as I suggested above, about the family’s second or third computer being affordable. And while I have managed to build well kitted-out PCs for my own two children, I can’t afford to buy both of them an iMac, or even a Mac Mini. It is a missed opportunity for Apple because while my own children are at least acquainted with Macs and OS X, most kids are growing up using PCs, with Microsoft Windows, when they could have been introduced to Mac.

Mailbox locked by other server

This is just a quick post about an error message that you might be getting especially it seems if you are using Tiscali in the UK: “mailbox locked by other server”. I was first made aware of it by a client who thought I had misconfigured her Entourage, as the message started to appear after one of my visits.

In fact it turns out that it means that you are logged into your email from another source, and some mail servers get tetchy about that. So it was my fault: I had set up her iPhone to collect her mail too, and this it seems is enough to trigger the message on some systems.

Huh. 

Macbook battery monitor

If you have one of the new MacBooks or even an older one, you can use this free but comprehensive utility to keep an eye on your battery’s health and performance.

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Also Apple have released a battery update for some MacBook owners.

Check to see if your battery needs it.