Can I connect my AirMac Extreme like this? (It doesn't seem to work)

Question

Is this the right discussion area? I couldn't find one titled "AirMac Extreme".
Anyway, I got an AirMac Extreme the other day and want to connect it via ethernet to my existing non-wireless router, set a fixed IP address manually (like I do with my iMac, since I have 8 fixed IP addresses) and then use it to provide DHCP services to wireless computers at home (like I do now with Internet sharing from my iMac G5).
First my MBP just couldn't see the base station at all - even though my iMac G5 and PBG4 could. After 2 hours on the phone with Apple they suggested changing the channel. When I changed it to 9 then at least my MBP could see the Base Station and I could set it up with the new Airport Utility. (I am curious why the MBP couldn't see it until I changed the channel while my other two Macs could...)
After I changed the channel and set it up, I can connect to the network I create.
But I can't connect to the Internet.
Apple support was friendly friendly, but the guy seemed sort of clueless. The manual seems to indicate that I can do that sort of setup, but I can't get it to work.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
doug

Answer 1

Is
this the right discussion area? I couldn't find one
titled "AirMac Extreme".
"AirMac" is the term Apple uses in Japan for
"AirPort". You are in the correct area.
Well, that explains that mystery. I live in Tokyo and bought my AirMac Extreme at Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku.
When I changed it to 9 then at least my MBP
could see the Base Station and I could set it up with
the new Airport Utility. (I am curious why the MBP
couldn't see it until I changed the channel while my
other two Macs could...)
If your MacBook Pro was a US model, it can only use
channels 1 to 11. Japanese Mac models can
use channels 1 to 14. When the AirPort
Extreme base station (AEBS) is set to automatic
channel selection it tends to pick a high channel. If
the AEBS was a Japanese model it probably picked
channel 14.
And another mystery. I bought my MBP from the U.S. Apple Store while in the U.S. in December. I wonder why the US models have less channels.
The manual seems to indicate that I can do
that sort of setup, but I can't get it to
work.
The setup you describe sounds fine and should
work.
Do you have any type of MAC
address filtering (access control) enabled on your
non-wireless router? If so, you need to add the
Ethernet MAC address of the AEBS to the list of
allowed clients.
Since you are using fixed IP
addresses, does your ISP record the MAC addresses of
allowed computers? If so, you need to add the
Ethernet MAC address of the AEBS to the list of
allowed clients.
Since you didn't elaborate
much on the failure, it is possible that it is a DNS
issue. To determine this, use the information in KB 106798, Mac OS: Troubleshooting "A
connection failure has occurred", "The specified
server could not be found" or Similar
Messages.
My ISP does not record the MAC addresses of allowed computers. I've re-used some of these fixed IP addresses before with different computers over the last few years.
There is no MAC address filtering on the non-wireless router.
I tried manually adding the DNS server IP addresses to the setup, so that didn't help. Also, in terminal, I couldn't ping an address, and that doesn't make use of the DNS anyway.
I think it must be the setup itself. There are various options I'm not familiar with. Should I have the "bridge off" set or should it be set to "distribute IP addresses", etc...
Thanks!
doug