extreme airport

[girlgeek]

Hello all,

Help.

I have an airport extreme base station and a g3 ibook with an airport card (not extreme). I cannot get past the password stage. Even though the password entered IS correct, a screen tells me it is not.

Is the problem g3 related? Is it OSX related? Works fine with g4 ibook with panther but not with g3 ibook with jaguar.

Any suggestions? Any ideas?

All help appreciated.

GirlGeek

 

[Horrortaxi]

If you reset the base station (hold the reset button for 10 seconds) it will wipe the base stations configuration. You'll start over with no password (no other configurations either, but it only takes a minute to set up).

It's probably an issue on your G3 iBook though. Do you have the latest AirPort software installed? Running 10.2.8?

 

[janey]

hi GirlGeek Nice name.

You could check the settings for both your iBooks and the base station. My guess is that you set the base station so it is only compatible with 802.11g instead of both 802.11b/g.
Otherwise, you might be choosing the wrong settings.
Good luck

 

[iJon]

hi GirlGeek Nice name.

You could check the settings for both your iBooks and the base station. My guess is that you set the base station so it is only compatible with 802.11g instead of both 802.11b/g.
Otherwise, you might be choosing the wrong settings.
Good luck

havnet used that feature but i doubt that is it. he said he cant get past the password part. if it was just on g he shouldn't be able to see it all if i had to guess.

iJon

 

[Veldek]

I had a similar problem some time ago. Updating to the newest software and firmware might help, as I don't have these problems anymore, but I had to reset the base station and start from scratch back then, so it is possible, that you indeed have to do this.

 

[girlgeek]

extreme airport

Thank you all who replied with great answers!

I am now up and running on three computers, soon four (I hope) when my hubby gets back from the office with the g4 PB.

Solution:

Airport firmware 5.1 changed WEP authentication. Only those who can who are configured to use the "shared key" can connect to the airport network. I think this is why the g3 with the airport card cannot connect to the AEBS with the new WEP configuration language only extreme users can understand. So after turning off the encryption, the g3 (jaguar) can join the network.

Great.

But so can everyone else within range... how can I limit this?

girlgeek

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Thank you all who replied with great answers!

I am now up and running on three computers, soon four (I hope) when my hubby gets back from the office with the g4 PB.

Solution:

Airport firmware 5.1 changed WEP authentication. Only those who can who are configured to use the "shared key" can connect to the airport network. I think this is why the g3 with the airport card cannot connect to the AEBS with the new WEP configuration language only extreme users can understand. So after turning off the encryption, the g3 (jaguar) can join the network.

Great.

But so can everyone else within range... how can I limit this?

girlgeek

I don't see any reason why you couldn't use WPA or WEP, even though you have a regular AirPort card. As long as the base station firmware is up-to-date and the AirPort software on ALL Macs connecting to it is up-to-date, it SHOULD work. (Just because it's supposed to work doesn't mean it will! For example, I have a similar setup, and it's the Windows PC that can't connect. All the Macs connect just fine, though.)

 

[janey]

On a sidenote, does windows have wpa support
wep no worky with every single computer of mine...windows has some half-assed implementation on wep
Hmm, i have my iBook G3 on my network, the only one that doesnt support 802.11g, and I've never had any probs whatsoever. Bizarre.
the latest firmware update seems to have screwed up everything of mine though, seeing as how I'm only getting 3 bars on the menubar thing, while sitting about 5 feet away from the base station.

 

[LeeTom]

It's possible to restrict access only to your computers, without using encryption or requiring a password:

To restrict access to your AirPort network:

1. Open AirPort Admin Utility, located in Applications/Utilities.

2. Select your base station and click Configure. Enter the base station password if necessary.

3. Click Show All Settings.

4. Click Access Control, and click Add.

5. Type the AirPort ID (sometimes referred to as the "MAC address") of each computer that will access the wired network.

To find the AirPort ID of a computer, open the Network pane of System Preferences. Choose AirPort from the Show pop-up menu, then click AirPort.

Lee Tom

 

[mooshoo]

LeeTom,

I was interested in this thread too, so I went about digging around the Airport Admin utility. However, I have another problem related to this:

I'm using Dynamic Web; meaning, i just plugged the AE Base to the Cable modem and voila! I'm online. When I go to the Airport utlity, I don't even see my base station. So what do I do in this situation, if I wanted the same restricted access to my network?

15" PBG4 1ghz, 1gigRAM, AE
12" IBook 700 mhz 512RAM, Airport

Thanks!

 

[LeeTom]

mooshoo,

Regardless of what type of Internet connection you have (I'm assuming you mean you have a dynamically assigned IP address), you should be able to administer your base station using the Airport Admin Utility. If it doesn't show up, have you run the Airport Setup Assistant and set a password on the base station yet? If not, you should. If you have, you can click "Other" on the Admin Utility and type in 10.0.1.1

Once you're in, you can follow the directions above and restrict access.

Lee Tom

 

[janey]

LeeTom - yes, i know about the mac filtering thing
but that doesnt work for me, because although it allows all of my computers access, what do i do when friends come over?
waste time, open airport admin utility and enter the mac addresses....bah.

right now my wireless network is unprotected, I'm looking for feasible ways to protect it in such a way that I can still get my computers to all be connected.
the PC is the biggest problem.
i was thinking about this kind of thing
aebs --802.11g--> power mac --wired--> PC desktop
sharing the internet connection via ethernet or firewire
gah this is impossible *frown*

 

[mooshoo]

LeeTom,

I tried to use the Setup Assistant. 1)I clicked on the Set Up and Airport Base Station. 2) I get the rainbow wheel for a little bit, 3) Message: "The Airport Setup Assistant is unable to configure the selected base station." In smaller print " If you are trying to reconfigure an Airport Base Station that has DHCP turned off, use the Airport Admin Utility."

Now, going to the Admin Utility, I click the "other" button, and the window with the 10.0.1.1 shows, and asks for password. Since I don't hvave a password setup yet, I just click enter. Then I get the message: "The Airoport Admin Utility was unable to read the configuration of the selected base station."

hmm. I'm stuck. Any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[mooshoo]

LeeTom,

Actually, I think I've got it now. It turns out that the cable going to the AEBS was plugged into the wrong socket (I had it plugged in to the one on the right; it should've gone into the one shaped like a circle). Then I ran all the setup utilities again, and the station showed up. I've got it setup under 40 bit security, which is okay for home use I think.

Out of curiosity though, is there a way to find out if any other computers are "eavesdropping" on the network? Is there a command in terminal for this? I just want to see how secure it is.

Another point: Once there is a password set up for the network, is it necessary to add the addresses of other computers? Reason I ask is because any computer that wants to access the network needs to have a password to enter anyway, right? Or is it just another layer of security?
Thanks!

 

[LeeTom]

Another point: Once there is a password set up for the network, is it necessary to add the addresses of other computers? Reason I ask is because any computer that wants to access the network needs to have a password to enter anyway, right? Or is it just another layer of security?
Thanks!

moshoo,
Right. If you got the security set up, the access control thing is just another layer of security. In theory, someone could use some tools to crack the password, etc... but the chances of someone taking the time to get into someone's home network are pretty slim. My thought is, if you're worried about that, you got other problems, but that's just me... que sera sera!

Lee Tom

 

[LeeTom]

LeeTom - yes, i know about the mac filtering thing
but that doesnt work for me, because although it allows all of my computers access, what do i do when friends come over?
waste time, open airport admin utility and enter the mac addresses....bah.

right now my wireless network is unprotected, I'm looking for feasible ways to protect it in such a way that I can still get my computers to all be connected.
the PC is the biggest problem.
i was thinking about this kind of thing
aebs --802.11g--> power mac --wired--> PC desktop
sharing the internet connection via ethernet or firewire
gah this is impossible *frown*

übergeek,
Yeah, it is a pain in the ass when friends come over. If you don't want to deal with that, then I suggest using the encryption/password style. Here's something I would try... (I'm not at home, so I can't get the exact info from my base station... but here's the jist of it.)

Go into you airport admin utility, and set a password with 40 or 128 bit WEP encryption (not WPA). Then, you should be able to get a long HEX code from that, like 4FDB3C9AEE9C etc. When you want your laptops to join, select WEP 40/128-bit hex for the wireless security type, and enter the long string. You can't copy and paste, you have to type it out, if I remember right. It seems this way is more compatible across Windows/Mac platforms, because they have different methods of turning passwords into hex codes.

Good luck...
Lee Tom

 

[7on]

Yeah, I need to use the Hex pass to connect to my Linksys.
I suppose regular airport needs the Hex key from AE basestations. Bah. Everyone should ditch the regular password from their products and use nothing but Hex. Anything other than Hex has problems working with other brands that I've seen.

 

[Savage Henry]

It's possible to restrict access only to your computers, without using encryption or requiring a password:

To restrict access to your AirPort network:

1. Open AirPort Admin Utility, located in Applications/Utilities.

2. Select your base station and click Configure. Enter the base station password if necessary.

3. Click Show All Settings.

4. Click Access Control, and click Add.

5. Type the AirPort ID (sometimes referred to as the "MAC address") of each computer that will access the wired network.

To find the AirPort ID of a computer, open the Network pane of System Preferences. Choose AirPort from the Show pop-up menu, then click AirPort.

Lee Tom

FTR - this worked for me.

 

[janey]

many thanks lee tom, i will try that as soon as i can