"Looking for PPPoE host"

1) You need to tell us, in detail, how the iBook, your Powerbook and the Airport base station are connected together and to the Internet.
Since there was mention of PPPoE, I'm guessing that their Internet connection is a DSL connection (using the telephone lines) and hence that they have a DSL modem. What is connected to what? And by what type of wire (Ethernet, USB, etc)

2) With DSL, there is usually the need to use PPPoE. This is something that can be done by the DSL modem (depending on the model), on the Airport base station, or on each individual computer.
It is generally best to do it at the closest point to the Internet connection possible (that makes life simpler). So if the DSL modem can do it, you would configure the DSL modem to do it and then none of the other components would do PPPoE. If you didn't (or couldn't do it on the DSL modem) you could configure the Airport base station to do PPPoE (using Airport Admin) and then computers that are either connected to the "LAN" Ethernet port on the Airport base station or connected wirelessly would not need to do PPPoE. Otherwise all computers would need to be configured (in Network preferences) to do PPPoE.

1. This is, as far as I know, how it is connected. (its somewhat difficult because not only is there a bit of a language barrier, but they are not very technologically apt).

The iBook is connected to a DSL line, which has an ethernet adaptor. The DSL box has a line to connect to a telephone wire (in the wall as well as in the iBook) and a line that connects to the iBook through a USB cord. In order to use the Airport base station, we purchased an ethernet cord to connect from the iBook to the base station.

2. I do remember looking at the Airport Admin, and selecting the "make changes to exisiting station" or something along those lines. But as I recall, when I clicked "continue," there was no response. But, assuming I tried that again and it worked, I would NOT want to connect using PPPoE? What option should I choose?

Hope that makes the situation clearer, thanks a lot.

The iBook is connected to a DSL line, which has an ethernet adaptor. The DSL box has a line to connect to a telephone wire (in the wall as well as in the iBook) and a line that connects to the iBook through a USB cord. In order to use the Airport base station, we purchased an ethernet cord to connect from the iBook to the base station.

You need to go and look at how the Airport base station (ABS) and iBook are hooked up.
But before you do so, read the Airport base station manual so you will be able to recognize which of the two Ethernet ports on it is the WAN port and which is the LAN port.

I'm confused as to what the iBook is connected to. You said it is connected to the DSL line somehow - please tell us exactly what type of wire is connecting these and where is it plugged in. Usually you would connect via the Ethernet port of the iBook to an Ethernet port on a DSL modem.
But then you said that the iBook is also connected to the ABS by Ethernet.
That is strange since the iBook only has one Ethernet port.

And regarding the iBook to ABS connection:
Is the iBook connected to the LAN port on the ABS?
Is there anything connected to the WAN port on the ABS?

Here's the usual way to handle your sort of situation:


DSL modem
|
|
WAN port
Airport Base Station
LAN port
|
|
iBook

where all connections are by Ethernet.

In Airport Admin, it would be set to "distribute IP addresses" (under the Network tab) and to "connect using PPPoE" (under the Internet tab).
When you press the "Update" button in Airport Admin, it will show a progress bar that will take maybe a minute to finish.

And then, since the ABS would be doing PPPoE, you would make sure that the Macs were not using PPPoE (in their Network preferences)

Ok, in regards to the questions:

there is ONE ethernet cord which goes directly from the iBook to the ABS LAN connector.

the DLS box has the following:
1. a USB cord that connects to the iBook
2. (this is the complicated part) The only other thing on the DLS box is a phone cord. This cord goes into what I believe is the ethernet adaptor which is plugged into a type of jack i've never seen before in the wall. (there are three things that are plugged in, on top of one another, into the same jack). One of these other jacks has a telephone cord that then comes directly into the iBook.

I hope that explains why the DSL doesn't have an ethernet port. Does that make sense?

the DLS box has the following:
1. a USB cord that connects to the iBook
2. (this is the complicated part) The only other thing on the DLS box is a phone cord. This cord goes into what I believe is the ethernet adaptor which is plugged into a type of jack i've never seen before in the wall. (there are three things that are plugged in, on top of one another, into the same jack). One of these other jacks has a telephone cord that then comes directly into the iBook.

I hope that explains why the DSL doesn't have an ethernet port. Does that make sense?

Unfortunately, yes it does.
I say unfortunately since it means that the usual way of hooking up the ABS (illustrated in my diagram above) will not work since that way relies on the DSL modem having an Ethernet output.

It seems that "your" DSL modem is one of those accursed USB modems - that need to be hooked up to a computer by USB (and which usually need special driver software running on the computer).
Usually I would advise talking to the ISP and telling them that you want to replace your USB DSL modem with one that connects via Ethernet like God intended. But in your case, that might be too much trouble to put your host family through.

If you are stuck with a USB DSL modem, then it makes things much more complicated since the Internet connection must be via the iBook (that is connected to the USB DSL modem). The only way I can see for you to make it work would be to turn on Internet sharing in the iBook's Sharing preferences (Internet tab) and also make sure that either the iBook's firewall is off, or you put holes in it for the Internet services (e.g. HTTP, Mail, etc) you need the ABS to provide to wireless clients (like your powerbook). I'm not even sure that this will work but I think it should.
But of course this method would mean that the ABS (and hence your powerbook) would only have an Internet connection while the iBook was up and running (not asleep or powered off).

I figured it would be something complicated... so here is my last question.

I tried the firewall/sharing option to no avail. In pursuing some other help options, some said that a certain kindof firmware software causes the same problem, and that you should downgrade to 6.1.1. So, I tried doing that and a new problem arose. The airport base station does not show up as a device. And when I try to put in the IP address manually, it says an error has occured. What i'm assuming is the same problem happens when I try to use the Airport Admin and modifier. No airport device shows up, even when I click the option to rescan the harddrive. Any idea of how I can get it to show up?

Thanks for bearing with me on this bear of a problem.

I tried the firewall/sharing option to no avail

You need to give more details about exactly what you did and what you saw/what happened.
In particular, did the Internet sharing pane indicate that Internet sharing should be working? It usually says something like "you are now sharing your Internet connection over Ethernet".

If the iBook said that Internet sharing was working, then you would need to go into Airport Admin again and make sure that it is not doing PPPoE.
And see if the ABS is getting an IP address from the iBook.

But all of this fiddling is only worth it if you think it is acceptable to only have a connection to the ABS while the iBook is up and running. That wouldn't be acceptable to me.

In pursuing some other help options, some said that a certain kindof firmware software causes the same problem, and that you should downgrade to 6.1.1. So, I tried doing that and a new problem arose. The airport base station does not show up as a device. And when I try to put in the IP address manually, it says an error has occured. What i'm assuming is the same problem happens when I try to use the Airport Admin and modifier. No airport device shows up, even when I click the option to rescan the harddrive. Any idea of how I can get it to show up?

I don't think it was a good idea to downgrade your Airport software. I would recommend upgrading it to the latest available.

Your problem is not with the Airport at all. Your basic problem is how to get the Ethernet connection to work to give the ABS a connection to the Internet (nothing to do with wireless at all). Until you get that working, there is no point trying to use the wireless capabilities of the ABS.

ok... let me try that again. I went into the sharing folder and made sure that personal web is being shared and it did in fact indicate that I would now have to click the "démarrer" button to turn it off. I also changed my option so that I am allegedly sharing my apated ethernet with computers with regular internet. I say "allegedly," because they are definitely activated but not fixing the problem.

And then, I'm not sure that you understood my problem. You said in the last post to go into Airport Admin and change the settings, but when I go into that, I said it does NOT SHOW an ABS at all. It also doesn't show up when I manually type in the IP address, AND, in the system preferences/sharing/internet tab, i see a button that says airport options, but it is gray, meaning I can't click on it. It seems to me that although the ABS has a green light and appears to be working, it is not being recognized by this iBook. (Since I'm using the internet on the iBook, the ethernet is clearly functioning, but I have no idea what's going on with the base.)

hope that clarifies.

ok... let me try that again. I went into the sharing folder and made sure that personal web is being shared and it did in fact indicate that I would now have to click the "démarrer" button to turn it off. I also changed my option so that I am allegedly sharing my apated ethernet with computers with regular internet. I say "allegedly," because they are definitely activated but not fixing the problem.

I don't understand what you said about Personal Web sharing. Personal web sharing is about the Apache web server and you don't in general need that on unless you want to have a web server. But having it on does result in their being a "hole" in the firewall for port 80 (HTTP) which is what you need for Internet connection sharing.

And I've tried to guess, but I can't figure out what you might mean by "apated" (you said "sharing my apated ethernet").

I realize that the best way for you to go if you want to pursue this - and you might not since it is a bit complicated with lots of possible wrong turns and it would be so much simpler if you could somehow get a DSL modem with an Ethernet outlet - would be for you to forget about the ABS for the moment and just hook up your powerbook to the iBook with an Ethernet cable and try to get the Internet connection sharing working that way. It would be much easier to figure out what is happening if you cut the ABS out of the picture for the time being (as a temporary measure while you figure out how to set up the Internet sharing).

And then, I'm not sure that you understood my problem. You said in the last post to go into Airport Admin and change the settings, but when I go into that, I said it does NOT SHOW an ABS at all. It also doesn't show up when I manually type in the IP address

I understood that you had been having some problems in getting Airport Admin to connect to the ABS to configure it but I thought this was due to you having downgraded your Airport software.
Have you never been able to access the configuration of the ABS using Airport Admin?

(By the way, note that as mentioned above, the ABS and Airport Admin is completely irrelevant to your problem until you get the Internet connection sharing working - so I would ignore all Airport stuff for the moment until you get the Internet connection sharing working when your iBook is connected to your powerbook with Ethernet.)

(Since I'm using the internet on the iBook, the ethernet is clearly functioning, but I have no idea what's going on with the base.)

The iBook's Internet connection does not use the Ethernet cable at all (according to what you explained above, the Internet connection is via USB to the DSL modem) so I'm not sure why you are saying that "the ethernet is clearly functioning".

i never actually got the downgraded software to work because in order to, it would have needed to recognize the ABS was there to change the software on, and, it didn't. The first time I installed the ABS, the Airport Admin worked. Now it won't let me change anything, because no ABS shows up.

what i mean by adaptor internet is, in the network preferences, on the internet tab, it says:

share your connection via: adapter ethernet(1)

to computers via: internal ethernet. this is where I mentioned there's an "airport options" button which is gray so I can't click on it.

The personal websharing was the "putting holes in the firewall" like you suggested.

sorry if this is confusing, i'm not a computer expert and i'm trying to explain the best I can.

If it's time to give up, (which it sounds like maybe it is, save for somehow getting the right DLS box from the French company), you can let me know at any time.

If it's time to give up, (which it sounds like maybe it is, save for somehow getting the right DLS box from the French company), you can let me know at any time.

Well, it's up to you.
I don't know if the Internet connection sharing will work due to the USB nature of your Internet connection, but it might. So if you are willing to continue with debugging this with no guarantee that it will be worth it, that's fine. But you also haven't explicitly responded to say that you are okay with the fact that even after getting this all to work, your powerbook will only have an Internet connection while the iBook is up and running. To me that would be such a severe problem as to make this all useless. Have you assured yourself that the iBook's owners will start it up and prevent it from sleeping whenever you want to access the Internet?

If you want to continue, you should do as I suggested above and ignore the ABS for the moment. Connect the iBook and Powerbook with an Ethernet cable and try to get the Internet connection sharing to work between them. Once you have successfully got an Internet connection to the powerbook this way, then you can proceed to try to do the similar thing with the ABS instead.

I think I'm still interested in getting it to work, if possible, because for example, I left the iBook just up and running all day with the internet connected and when I came home, the connection was still good (and no one had touched it meanwhile). so it seems like it'd be worth it.

I also just brought my power book in and put the ehternet cord from the iBook to the power book and couldn't get a connection. I tried checking in the sharing preferences and making sure the firewall was off and my internet sharing is on. Actually, it literally says (you are connected to the internet over Airport, even though I tried with my airport on and off).

What now?

I also just brought my power book in and put the ehternet cord from the iBook to the power book and couldn't get a connection. I tried checking in the sharing preferences and making sure the firewall was off and my internet sharing is on.

If I am to have any chance of helping you with this, you are going to have to be much more careful to explain clearly what you are doing and what you are seeing. Try writing about 10 times as much detail as you have so far. I.e. to the level of: "I opened the Sharing preferences panel on the iBook and went into the "Internet" tab, and I see that it is saying ...."

In particular, in the above you didn't even make it clear which computer (iBook or powerbook) you were talking about.

Actually, it literally says (you are connected to the internet over Airport, even though I tried with my airport on and off).

If it says that you are connected to the Internet over Airport (I'm guessing you mean on the powerbook), that would seem to indicate that the Internet sharing has been set up to happen over Airport. Note that Internet sharing can be over any connection medium other than the one (USB) that is being used by the iBook to connect to the DSL modem. I.e. if both Macs have an Airport card you could do Internet sharing over Airport - you wouldn't even need the ABS in that case - it would be a direct Airport connection between the iBook and the Powerbook.