Using a "Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer" on a Mac - trouble shooting
Have you recently purchased a 'Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer' for your little one, for Christmas this year? Thought locating it was the biggest problem...unfortunately for some this is just the start of the problem. Your next one is going to be downloading those free Apps and registering the LeapPad through a downloadable application called 'Connect'
First of all, open it BEFORE Christmas and set it up as it is not a 5 minute job (if it doesn't work ie "Connect is unable to communicate with the LeapPad", it may take several hours!) and once your little one has it in their sticky paws, they want it to work NOW!
I would suggest you go to the Leapfrog site and download Connect from the site, don't use the discs. From both mine and others experience, you end up removing the software installation and downloading from the site anyway!
Next, if you have any antivirus software installed and Firewall, you need to disable them whilst you register the LeapPad and download the free Apps - don't forget to enable them when you have finished. Even with a Mac, you need to turn the Firewall off to do this as the settings on your Mac will prevent the LeapPad connection.
If you are using a Mac, even turning off the Firewall, this may not be enough to enable Connect to run as you may still need to manually set up your IP Address. So this is how you can do this, it's easy when you know how :o)....:
You will need to manually set up your ip address by following the steps below:
To set a static IP address on a Mac, please follow the instruction below:
1. Turn on the LeapPad and connect it to the computer
2. Open System Preferences by clicking on the icon in the dock.
3. Go to the "Network" control panel under the "Internet & Network" category.
4. Select your ethernet connection (LeapFrog) from the list of available connections on the left side of the control panel window. Then click "Advanced" in the lower-right corner of the window.
5. Click on the "TCP/IP" tab at the top of the control panel window.
6. Choose "Manually" from the drop-down list at the top of the window.
7. Enter the static IP address, subnet mask, and Router numbers as follows:
IP Address: 169.254.99.100
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 169.254.99.100
8. Click "OK" to save your settings and connect through the static IP address.
I have added this on this forum as I bought my LeapPad back in August, following the Tesco's offer and know loads more of you guys did. I thought I'd share this as it might save you the hours and hours of swearing, troubleshoot Googling, swearing and several glasses of wine whilst you feel this urge to pick it up and chuck it hard against the wall!
Have fun and if you do have any problems, PM me and I will try and help as I tried setting my LeapPad up on both a Mac and a normal PC and both drove me mad but I found several fixes along the way and at last, it's all done :o)
All Comments (18)
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pam
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When you download 'Connect' either from the disc supplied or the software of Leapfrog's website, all that is doing is allowing you to register the LeapPad and download the free apps. The software asks whether it is for a Mac or PC. It may be that you both want to have the software on your systems as you can buy further 'apps' from Leapfrog and then both you and your daughter can buy them off the site. As I have used both PC and Mac to set up the LeapPad, both are now interchangeable.
The only thing you need to do when registering the LeapPad is to tell your daughter the details of the account name and password you set up on the Leapfrog site. That way, once your grandson has the LeapPad at his home, it can be connected (via Connect software) to your daughter's Mac. (She may need to follow the instructions I listed on this ^above^ to manually set up her IP Address - or if she has a newer Mac, it may work OK by just turning off the Firewall (turn it back on when finished ;)
Just a tip with the PC, make sure any antivirus is turned off as well as the Firewall. I work in IT and it goes completely against the grain but this was what interfered with the PC's ability and other people seem to have had the same problem. (Again, just make sure it's all turned back on again when you finish)
I hope this helps but please let me know if you have any problems.
Have a wonderful Christmas and fabulous 2012.
Ellie
I've tried doing everything you suggested here but it still doesn't connect. Any other suggestions/tips?
Thanks.
The only other thing, without seeing what your system is actually doing is to check your screen resolution - it needs to be the same configuration that Leapfrog box states.
Both the Firewall and Antivirus need to be turned off.
You can email Leapfrog for bespoke technical queries: at leapfrogaccounts@em.leapfrog.com, they can send you an application which will copy the Leapfrog programme files and .ZIP them so that you can send them for technical analysis. It takes a couple of days but they will then tell you, step by step, what you need to do and then you wont have any further issues with it.
Hope that helps and Happy Christmas.
I look forward to hearing from you !
A very stressed mum of an impatient 3 year old ! :-)