I really fusked up...
So I got my mother an Apple TV for Christmas. She lives most of North America away, and unfortunately I can't be there to help her configure it. Tonight she did it herself and called to tell me that she was in the process of downloading her first movie, and she added that the movie would be ready to play in 35 minutes. I thought that was strange as it usually takes me only a minute or two-- but then, I've been pretty disenchanted with her ISP before, as we have had difficulty on a number of occasions video chatting and screen sharing (I don't have any problems with anyone else with whom I communicate in that manner). But 35 minutes? No way, I thought. Something had to be wrong.
We began a screen share. I told her to fire up iTunes. I was surprised to see that the Apple TV didn't appear in the devices pane. I hit the prefs/Apple TV and checked the box to look for all Apple TVs. Nothing.
So I told her to go to the Apple TV and hit settings/comptuers. Nothing appeared. Very strange I thought. Then I noticed that she was getting only one bar on the Airport menu. Weird, I thought since the Time Capsule that I bought her for her birthday earlier this year was sitting right next to her iMac. I asked her to click on the icon, and she did to find that she was connected to the internet via a Linksys router! Well there's the problem with slow D/L, I thought-- and probably every other issue we've had over the last year trying to communicate! She was unwittingly on her neighbor's network! Then it occurred to me that she had configured her Apple TV to work with that network. That's exactly what she had done.
So I told her that she needed to change networks and that she was going to have to reconfigure her Apple TV. It wasn't as painful as I had feared, but it wasn't easy either. Nothing is easy for her when it comes to technology. A bet a lot of people here have parents like that. Some just misses the boat on tech and are having a really hard time playing catchup.
Anyway.... We got the computer and the ATV likewise configured and the device showed up in the left hand pane of iTunes as it should. But it wasn't syncing. I quit iTunes and restarted it. Nothing. Finally, I got the following message:
"The Apple TV is not responding.
Check that any firewall software running on this
computer has been set to allow communication on port 3689."
This is waaaaay over my head.
Then I got really stupid. Rather than stick to the issue at hand, it occurred to me that her neighbor wasn't on a protected network and neither was she. And i thought that I was up for the task of remedying her problem.
Into the Airport Utility I went (by this time we were screen sharing again). Clicking on the Wireless Tab, I saw that Wireless Mode was "off." Huh?
So I clicked onto the summery tab, then clicked on "Create a wireless Network." It was my intention to create one-- this time password protected. Everything went well... entered a proper eight digit password and saved it in the keychain. When the job seemed complete, the Time Capsule restarted. While it did, we got booted from iChat, and during this time I kept thinking about Apollo 13 when they were on the communication blackout during their journey on the other side of the moon.
Only this time, after the emergence, there was no communication (other than the phone). No internet at all. No she has no email. No iChat. No ability to surf the web. No Apple TV. Nothing.
What a great son I am, eh?
I told her that she was going to have to call Apple in the morning and that due to the fact that this happened during the installation of a new ATV the support should be free. God I hope I am right.
I've password protected my network before. I've helped a couple of friends do it too. But when you do something only once every three or four years, it's hard to become "good at it." On this night, I definitely wasn't good at it.
What should she do? What would you do?
We began a screen share. I told her to fire up iTunes. I was surprised to see that the Apple TV didn't appear in the devices pane. I hit the prefs/Apple TV and checked the box to look for all Apple TVs. Nothing.
So I told her to go to the Apple TV and hit settings/comptuers. Nothing appeared. Very strange I thought. Then I noticed that she was getting only one bar on the Airport menu. Weird, I thought since the Time Capsule that I bought her for her birthday earlier this year was sitting right next to her iMac. I asked her to click on the icon, and she did to find that she was connected to the internet via a Linksys router! Well there's the problem with slow D/L, I thought-- and probably every other issue we've had over the last year trying to communicate! She was unwittingly on her neighbor's network! Then it occurred to me that she had configured her Apple TV to work with that network. That's exactly what she had done.
So I told her that she needed to change networks and that she was going to have to reconfigure her Apple TV. It wasn't as painful as I had feared, but it wasn't easy either. Nothing is easy for her when it comes to technology. A bet a lot of people here have parents like that. Some just misses the boat on tech and are having a really hard time playing catchup.
Anyway.... We got the computer and the ATV likewise configured and the device showed up in the left hand pane of iTunes as it should. But it wasn't syncing. I quit iTunes and restarted it. Nothing. Finally, I got the following message:
"The Apple TV is not responding.
Check that any firewall software running on this
computer has been set to allow communication on port 3689."
This is waaaaay over my head.
Then I got really stupid. Rather than stick to the issue at hand, it occurred to me that her neighbor wasn't on a protected network and neither was she. And i thought that I was up for the task of remedying her problem.
Into the Airport Utility I went (by this time we were screen sharing again). Clicking on the Wireless Tab, I saw that Wireless Mode was "off." Huh?
So I clicked onto the summery tab, then clicked on "Create a wireless Network." It was my intention to create one-- this time password protected. Everything went well... entered a proper eight digit password and saved it in the keychain. When the job seemed complete, the Time Capsule restarted. While it did, we got booted from iChat, and during this time I kept thinking about Apollo 13 when they were on the communication blackout during their journey on the other side of the moon.
Only this time, after the emergence, there was no communication (other than the phone). No internet at all. No she has no email. No iChat. No ability to surf the web. No Apple TV. Nothing.
What a great son I am, eh?
I told her that she was going to have to call Apple in the morning and that due to the fact that this happened during the installation of a new ATV the support should be free. God I hope I am right.
I've password protected my network before. I've helped a couple of friends do it too. But when you do something only once every three or four years, it's hard to become "good at it." On this night, I definitely wasn't good at it.
What should she do? What would you do?
Comments
Best thing is for her to call Apple to assist with setting up the Airport and AppleTV.
All the best.
The most difficult part is the Internet Service Providers' cable/DSL modem. Because you have to turn the firewall off on that or it screws up a lot of things.