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Wireless Connection iBook G4 Problems

D

Demonian

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 10, 2008
3
0
Hi,

I have a iBook G4 running OSX 10.3.9

I have Sky Broadband with a Netgear wireless router

Recently brought a Mac Compatible USB wireless dongle.

I can connect to the sky broadband network wirelessly but for some reason everytime I open my browser it says.. 'cannot find server blah blah blah' and cannot see web pages?

I know all the hardware works because i can connect using my iBook with the wireless USB at work, and the browser shows the webpages. so that all seems to work fine.

back at home my flatmate has a pc laptop and has no problems connecting wirelessly.

another strange thing is that at home it sometimes takes ages to detect the sky network before i connect to it? and when it does pick it up i can take up to 5 minutes before it actually decides to connect to the network.

baffled!

any help would be a god send

cheers.:(
 
First off is your wireless network using security encyption, WEP or WPA?

If it is you need to enter the security key to connect properly. Without the key it will connect but you will not be able to actually use the network.

In "System Preferences" click on "Network" then open "Airport/Wireless card" and remove your network from the preferred network list. Then click on your Airport symbol on the upper right Finder menu next to your clock and turn Airport off. Then go to keychain in your "Utilities" folder located in "Applications" and delete the entry for your network, if any is stored.

Then proceed to turn airport on in the finder menu. Select your network and it will ask you for the networks security key if your network is protected.

The next step would be to look in your routers manual to access it from your roomates laptop and see if MAC address filtering is turned on. This can also prevent access. You would then either manually enter your Macs MAC address or temporarily turn off MAC filtering and then add your Macbook before turning it back on.

If this still does not work when you are connected what IP address are you getting in "System Preferences" -> "Network" -> "Airport/Wireless Card" -> "TCP/IP". It should be something like 192.168.y.xxx. y being 0-9 and xxx being any number typically 100-199.

Some other questions
Who makes your USB wireless?
Does it use your network pane in System Preferences or is their a separate pane for it maybe even a seperate program entirely?
Can you access the router configuration from your browser when connected by typing its address in the address bar, typically 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1?
 
Thanks for this..

Pretty sure it doesn't use WEP or WPA encryption, it says in the manual to choose TKIP. and i havn't come accress any more passwords/keys/stuff

Don't think i have the airport wireless tab in my network settings as i'm using a different wireless thing from airport, the link bellow will show you what i'm using. Came with Realtek drivers. (i'm at work right now but i'll check when i get home)

http://www.bluescale.co.uk/Shop/lap...1g_usb_dongle_mac_compatible_wireless_usb.asp

The MAC address sounds interesting i havn't tried that yet, how do i check if it's turned on? i did notice the address when i was looking at my flatmates settings on his pc laptop and it is printed on the router. Any idea how i manually enter my macs MAC address? would i have to do that through my flatmates pc? or alternatively how do i turn it off and add my macbook?

Think i'm getting the correct IP address, it's either 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.0.3 usually, the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 i think, and the router address is 192.168.0.1 i think.

my usb wireless uses a separate program entirely, it's fairly simple. i'll take some screen shots when i get a chance.

I think i tried typing the router address in the address bar and again nothing happened, just 'cannot connect to server'. bit i'll try again.

it's really weird because i'm sure it has a hard time finding the network, then when it does finally pick it up it takes ages before it actually does anything, usually i'll walk away from it for a while and cme back to find it saying that it's connected, and theres the signal strenth bar and everything. yet at my work it seemed to just connect quite easily.

Thanks for helping.
 
Well I do use a Netgear router but the configuration screens may differ between models. You will need to access the user manual from Netgears website for your specific router if this is of no help. Anyways the MAC address filter is in "advanced" -> "wireless settings" -> "setup access list". If "turn on access control" is not checked then Mac address filtering is not being used. Also of note in "Setup" -> "wireless settings" you can check your routers security options and what the security key is, if any.

If you notice on the right hand side the Netgear gives you some information about what the different options do and how to use them.
1.jpg
2.jpg

Even if you can not access your router by wireless, you should still be able to by physically connecting to it by Ethernet in one of the LAN ports, remove the Wireless card when doing this just so your laptop tries using Ethernet first. Most likely your routers IP address has not changed so once connected try typing 192.168.0.1 into your browsers address bar. Then it will ask for a user name and password. If you do not know the password try the defaults "User Name: Admin" "Password: password or 1234".
use%20for%20all%20crossover%20cables.jpg

Also, that page for your USB adapter does not give me much information. I need to know whom is its manufacturer and what the model number is. It may just have poorly written drivers and connection program. There may be updates for it or better alternative drivers depending on the chipset it uses.



Some other areas of interest:
In "Maintenance" -> "Set Password" you can change the routers password for logging onto your router to change its settings, i.e. when you type its address into your browser not for everyday internet use.

In "Advanced" -> "LAN IP Setup" you can give computers using your network alot static IP addresses. For me this has normally made my network stabler.
 
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