ralphjohns.co.uk/

Historical Document

These pages have sat here since 2008 with no update. In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Messages. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

I will make attempts to renew and refresh Links to either the most current site or use the Way Back Machine Archive so that people can at least look at what was used. I will make Edit Notes on this and on those where I can find no link to replace the older one as I go through the document.

Modem and Routers

iChat In Pictures >> You are in Folder 8_Modem:Router >> and it's Sub Folder Linksys Router >> Page: Static Routing (internet side)

1[5]

1 Router Setup Static Routing

02-10-2006

Ok. So we move onto Routers

This is the first of the pages from my Linksys router. You can see top left it is a WRK54G. This is a wireless router that comes packaged with a PC card for Notebooks. Essentially it is the same as a WRT54G.

What is not shown in any of these pictures is the fact that they are Web Pages stored on the device.

Many Linksys Routers and Modems follow this layout in their pages even if they do not have all the features.

I have overlaid some arrows just to highlight the page that we are on:- Setup > Basic Setup. Each word or phrase in these two rows are in fact links that I used to describe as "tabs", when previously talking about them on the Apple Discussion Pages.

On to the lower sections. The modem involved in my LAN at this time could route and do DHCP as could this router. I was trying to avoid overlapping Subnets so the link "upwards" towards the internet via the modem was set to Static routing. So the modem had DHCP turned Off and then these settings were made in the Linksys.

This picture only shows part (top) of this Linksys page. The lower half is the next one in this series.

You can see that this section is labled "Internet Setup" on the left. On your device it may say WAN. Basically these are the settings "up" the link towards the internet.

In the top drop down level with the section title it says "Static IP". This is how I am set up. There are other choices in this drop down. The reasons why are on page 4.

The boxes below describe the IPs needed for this to work. The first is the IP I want this device to have in relation to the Modem.

The next is the Subnet Mask. You do not have to worry about what this does it just needs to match that of the Modem.
Following that is the IP of the "Default Gateway" which is the IP of the modem. On the Mac System Preferences > Network > TCP/IP screen for the similar place it is called "Router" at the third red arrow.

There then follows three rows of boxes to enter DNS server information into. DNS servers are the ones that convert the names you put into a Web Browser to the IP numbers that the pages you want to go to are on. Basically they hold the server names suchs as Apple.com and point you to the IP address (17.254.3.183 in Apple's case).

MOst ISPs have their own DNS servers and they tend to be auto filled on the Modem so lines 1 and 2 here are those. I have also listed in 3 the Modem itself. There are also certain "Public DNS servers" about.

The Optional entries are for certain types of the connection methods in the top drop down. If this device were a modem you might need to put your ISP login info in these boxes.

My front page, as shown here also has the setting for the "MTU rate". If you are having problems try the figure 1492 like I have. It has to do with the packet size and the default of 1500 does not always work.

Next:- DHCP Server Settings

Upward Arrow saying Top Top of page

Created with JAlbum 4.0.6

© 2005 Ralph Johns: Edited 24/9/2005, 5/5/2006
Updated September 2006
Updated October 2008. Reviewed and Updated to HTML 5 October 2024

Information Block

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 5.x.x
Mostly this is kept as an Historical Document. Some small tense changes have been made but the content is by and large untouched.

It has a mixture of basic info and problem solving help.

The sections below will change for Specifics about info on the page on view

Options to This Page

To the right you can resize or colour the page as well as choose one of three Fonts.

About This Page

A Picture about where to set Static Routing (where to turn Off DHCP).

The page describes pointing the Router to the Modem which in this case can also route and entering in the DNS server info from the Modem and possibly using a Public one.

At the bottom is a setting for the MTU rate (Maximum Transmission Unit). It's about the size of Data Packets and sometimes reducing it slightly seems to help (we are talking about when lots of the internet was a lot slower).

Compatibility

Much of this page has been altered to be as HTML 5 compatible as possible. This may cause issues with any of the Browser below.

I have tested in Safari 18.1, Firefox 130.x and 131.0, Vivaldi 6.9.3447.48 and iCab 6.2.3 (All Mac Browsers) I don't have access to a PC let alone multiple browsers to test on.

Previously confirmed to work with Win/IE 5.5 and later (should work in 5.0, but not confirmed), Firefox 2, Safari 3, Opera 9, iCab 3.02 and later, Mac/IE 5, Netscape 6 and later

Old browsers (IE version 4 or earlier, Netscape 4 or earlier) may only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.