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Getting Started

How to Connect to Your iPod in Three Easy Steps

Step 1 - You're going to need Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP for this to work.  If you don't have any of these and are planning to upgrade, I'd suggest going to Windows 2000 or Windows XP.  Both are far superior operating systems to Windows 98 SE and Windows ME.  If you have Windows 98, you cannot upgrade to Windows 98 SE, unless you want to pay far too much for one of the upgrade CDs you can buy on eBay (you can't buy them from Microsoft anymore).  If you do have Windows 98 SE, you're going to need the firewire update available here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/wurecommended/s_wufeatured/1394/license.asp.

Step 2 - You're going to need a firewire card.  If you have a laptop, you can buy a PCMCIA firewire card.  Note that none of these cards are powered, which means that when they're connected to your computer, the battery will be draining.  This isn't too big of a deal (I use my iPod with a laptop most of the time), but if it bothers you, just buy a firewire hub.  As for brands, most PCMCIA firewire cards are built the same.  I've had the most luck with the IBM brand firewire (IEEE 1394) PCMCIA card, and I've found them for under $30 on eBay.  If you have a desktop computer, you'll need a PCI firewire card.  Beware that if your desktop motherboard is too old, it may not work with the firewire card (it's just too fast for some old motherboards).  Unfortunately, there's no way to tell if it is too old.  I was able to buy a PCI firewire card for my desktop computer for under $20 on eBay.  Beware that all PCI firewire cards are not built alike (as are the laptop ones).  I'd recommend you get one with a VIA or Western Digital chipset if you can, although mine uses the TI chipset and is fine.  At any rate, the Audigy's firewire port is notorious for having problems, so I'd recommend you not go out and buy one of those if you don't already have one.  If you do, give it a shot.

Step 3 - You're going to need EphPod and MacOpener.  Fortunately, if you're reading this, you've probably already downloaded and run the one installer that contains both of them.  If you haven't, just go to http://www.ephpod.com/, and click on the download button.  You'll get both MacOpener and EphPod in one extremely easy to use installer.  After they're installed, you'll need to restart, and once your computer comes back up, you'll be all set to go.

Now, you can jump immediately to Loading Your First Song, or maybe you'd like to read a little about How the iPod Works, or, if you don't have your music converted to MP3s yet, you should probably go read about Getting your CDs into MP3s.  (The latter link would be an especially good choice if you're using Windows Media Player to make WMA files, or if you're using some program like MusicMatch Jukebox to rip your CDs.  Unfortunately, both of these don't make very high quality audio files.)