Dear Guru Babb,I am located in India and have a Broad Band connection at home. I have been studying up all about WiFi and the wonderful world of wireless connectivity for my home. However there are a few queries I have which have me confused. Simply because I am new to this area.I have been told by the local ISP that I cannot install a wireless router for my home because he will not release the MAC number. As per my limited understanding how can the service provider make such a statement since he in anycase is just suppossed to supply me an internet broadband connection. Oh before I proceed further, the system used here is that the service provider ahs a fibre optic cable from his location right upto the outside of my home. Here he has installed a converter and from a switch he routes one cable Cat 6 cable inot my house for my PC. He uses the other spare ports to give connections to neighbours. So in essence as far as I am concerned I get my internet by a line.Now if I connect a suitable wireless Router to the cable running inot my PC, and ofcourse set it up I should be able to get wifi connectivity to my wireless enabled gadgets. THE iPac and the iPod. My son has his laptop also Wi Fi enabled so he can also use the wirelss signal. Distances from the location of the Router to the likely places where I will use the gadgets is just 10 to 20 meters with about 2/3 walls intervening.Now comes my problem. The Service provider states that I will not be able to log on to my connection as he ahs the MAC Number locked to my PC. Further he will not let me use the WiFi device.One of my solutions is keep the PC with its wired link ON 24/7 or when ever I want to work wirelessly. Second is to give a proxy address to the Router and fix up my PC with a wireless card. The service provider states that I will misuse his connection to "favour' my neighbours. The nearest neighbour is at least 50 to 75 meters from my home and I read that 'power' of the router signal can be sort of tuned down.My son is a software developer and engineer and he is in Australia and right now in India and he advised me that apparently the sevice provider is ignorent about software locks, firewalls, etc.From what I have read up on MAC numbers the Linksys WRT54G series also available i n India is user friendly ideal for home networkers like me and can also be easily setup. How do I get around the problem of keeping my PC switched on all day or night, keep it from going into sleep mode and totally eliminate the PC and just use the wirless device (s) as I please. I am aware that the non wireless devices i.e. both my PCs will have to have wireless cards installed and the whole local WAN set up and networked. Also what about my pesky service provider who has wagered that I will never be a ble to network wirelessly without his help. I do not l ike people who challange. Incidentlly I am ex army, a low level computer geek :) and retired but knowledgeable enough to enjoy all the new devices acvailable to the home user.my email is magnus492001@yahoo.comThanksSukhwant Singh
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