[wetstuff]

I need dialup at home because there's nothing else available .. and I want to be wire-free. So can I simply plug one of those USB modems into the new Airport Extreme to get a wire-free connection? Thanks...

Jim

[Simon]

No. The AP wouldn't know how to drive that modem. The USB Port on APs and TCs is for printers and storage only.

[wetstuff]

Ohhhhhhh... I didn't want to hear that, but thanks. I got one of the early ones with a modem but got it second hand w/o a password and the work arounds seem too complicated. I've spent a couple of hours messing with it... Buggers.

Thanks Simon.

Jim

[Cold Warrior]

You can easily reset ('soft reset') an airport base station -- even one of the older models -- to set your own password.

[wetstuff]

CW: I've printed out the instructions for the both the hard and soft resets .. I've even dnld the model-specific utility for Graphite and Snow .. Where the real hangup comes: After I make the handshake on a soft reset .. I then go to the AP Utility ...and it is unable to see the base station - it sees nothing in the scan, so I cannot mod it to suit my dialup needs. ...and the next time I attempt to connect - I am asked for some fancy coded pwd. Very frustrating.

Jim

[Cold Warrior]

Are you trying to see it over wifi after the reset? If so, that doesn't work well. Connect to it over ethernet from your Mac to the airport base station's WAN port.

[wetstuff]

I'll try that again. ...unable to report back for 24hrs. Thanks.

Jim