An AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet or Extreme) with AirPort 2.0.4 or later software can accept an incoming dial-up (PPP) connection. This feature is referred to alternatively as "remote access", "PPP Server" and "PPP Dial-in".
The person dialing up can connect to the base station and access:
- The base station itself, via AirPort Admin Utility
- Other computers or devices connected via the LAN port
- Computers connected wirelessly to the base station
- Network or Internet services on the WAN port (Note 1)
Follow these steps to enable this feature:
1. Connect to the base station via AirPort Admin Utility.
2. Click the Network tab.
3. Select the checkbox for "Allow remote access."
4. Click Configure.
After you click Configure, you can set:
- The user name and password of the PPP dial-up user. See Note 2.
- Answer on ring - the number of rings before the base station answers the telephone line. The default is 3.
- Disconnect if idle - the elapsed time of inactivity at which the base station disconnects the PPP user. The default setting is Never.
- Force disconnect after - The elapsed time at which the base station disconnects the PPP user, regardless of activity. This is a useful feature if you want to control the user's session length. The default setting is Never.
Notes
1. Since the base station only has one modem, you cannot be connected to it via dial-up and access any dial-up Internet services at the same time.
2. If you try to update the base station after selecting remote access but without setting a user name, an alert box with this message will appear, "PPP Dial-in requires a user name." Additionally, you cannot update the base station for remote access until you have completed the Password and Verify fields.
3. The AirPort menu on associated clients will contain a new status indication of "PPP Dial-in: Not connected" or "PPP Dial-in: Connected".
4. This feature cannot be used when the base station is configured to connect to the Internet via the modem, AOL, or PPPoE broadband.
5. Only one user name and password can be configured.
6. NAT and DHCP must to be turned on for this feature to work.
7. The IP address of the PPP client cannot be configured manually.
8. The PPP client will have a 255.255.255.255 subnet mask when connected to the base station.
9. AppleTalk and other non-IP protocols are not available over the PPP connection.
10. Another base station cannot be used to dial up a base station with this feature enabled.
11. The maximum connection speed is 33.6 Kbps.
12. Mac OS X Internet Connect will not report max time remaining correctly. This does not occur in Mac OS 9 with Apple Remote Access.
13. When administering the base station via the PPP dial-up connection, you will be disconnected when the base station restarts. This is a normal part of updating the base station's settings.