Airport Internet not working on iBook G4

Silvershadow,


Here are some things you can try to get it working again.


1. Your router/wireless or wireless device, should have a button on it to reset it to factory defaults. It is usually the size of a pin hole. On mine, I have to use a needle to push it in and reset my Belkin wireless router.

2. This is what I would start with, reset it to factory. If the interface is web based which most of the consumer ones are, I would plug it directly into your laptop via a ethernet cable and go to the web interface (the web interface is accessed via a IP number that you plug into the web browser window, they are sometimes stamped on the back of the device, if not the web can give you the number) and reset all the security features, like password, ect...

3. Then try and connect, if that does not work, you can try this.

4. Open Disk Utilities and run disk permission repair on the Laptop. Then see if that fixes the problem. If that does not work, I would take it to the next and final level.

5. Hook up an external drive to your laptop. Backup all your important files, like your document folder and any other files you want to keep. Go into the main library and user library and back up your mail folders in both of these so you can restore them again after the reinstall.

6. Insert the operating system disk. Hit install, on the restart, whenever I am having to do a clean install and it has been a while, I like to zero out the hard drive. You don't have to do this step if you don't want too. If you do decide to zero out the drive, on the second or third screen go to the menu at the top of the page. You will see utilities, scroll down to disk utilities and select that. When it comes up go to the erase pane. Click on the options tab and select zero out the hard drive.

7. This will take a while so, go grab yourself a cup of coffee or go watch TV for a while.

8. When it is done, close the window and follow the instructions to finish installing the operating system.

9. When it reboots go through all the Apple Setup windows.

10. In the Apple Setup process it should ask you what network you want to connect too. If it recognized your airport card it should give you your wireless network as a choice, select that and type your password.

11. If you don't see your network, just choose that you are not ready to connect to the network and continue the installation.

12. Once you go through all this, and the Apple Setup window saw your wireless network and it is working good, update your laptop with the latest Apple Updates.


Last, I would recommend you getting Mac Freeze http://www.faronics.com/html/DFMac.asp for the future. That way you can install software and see if it works good before having it be part of your system.

If your wireless network was not set up when you went through the Apple Configuration on the reinstall, let me know.

Good Luck

You don't need an external hard if you don't have many things to Back up. Mozy, https://mozy.com/registration/free Will give you 2 gigs of Backup for free. If you need more, they have unlimited for $4.95 month.


The routers IP is in the systems preferences under network/ethernet and then on the right side you will see the routers IP unless it is pulling the IP from your wireless hub in the garage.

Also, I was not sure that your wireless hub was a dumb device, that is why I said work from that but it is your router you want to reset.

It seems to me and I could be wrong that you are just starting out with computers based on some of your responses. If you can figure out how to follow these instructions, you should be able to restore your computer to the condition it was in when you first bought it. This will wipe any of the stuff that you have installed that is causing you wireless connection problems.

The router's interface to set it's rules up is accessed via an IP address through the browser. You should be able to get that IP number from your system preferences under router unless, it is pull from the wireless unit in the garage. If not, go online and type the name brand and model of your router and ask for the IP number for your routers browser interface. You should come back with that number.

Reseting the router is easy, it is that pin hole pressed in and held for a short period of time. The manufacturer can give you exact details on how long to hold it, etc... When you plug the ethernet cable into the router from your computer PC or Mac, type the number for the router in the web browser, when the interface comes up, set the password again since you reset the router and other security features for your wireless web.

Once this is done, follow the steps 6 through to clean and re-install the operating system from the steps above.

This should fix the problem.