I apologize in advance for my ineptitude. I recently got an iMac G5 from a coworker and decided to give wireless internet a try. Installed an airport extreme card and a linksys wireless G wrt54g2 router. The router is hooked to my dsl modem with an Ethernet cable to the back of a windows based pc. Set up seemed to go well as my iPhone picked up the network right away. But my mac positioned about 15ft. above the router won't find a network. Everytime I either put the name and password of the network or search for the network it reads "connection timeout." Tried linksys tech support which was a 2 hour long , three technician nightmare. I am at a loss. Any suggestions corrections?
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Time out trying to search/join network.
- Thread starter Baakabak
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So the iMac G5 didn't have WiFi built-in and you added the Airport Extreme card yourself? What kind of networks can the Airport card connect to? Is it 802.11a/b or a/b/g or a/b/g/n?
The only two things I can think of is that either 1.) something is wrong with the Airport card in the G5 (i.e., firmware or something) or 2.) there is a bad setting in the router (i.e., this could be an 802.11 a/b card and you have the router set up as a G only network).
As I said, I'm not very tech savvy, so please bare with me. I wasn't aware there were different airport card types. Is there a way to find this out? The card just came with a packing slip and not much else. I also thought maybe i hadnt installed the card properly. Put it in again and made sure the antenna was snug, but still have the same issue. Says airport is active but not joined to a network.
As for the router I went in and unclicked the g only box. Still same issues.
Thanks for your reply
No problem. Did you buy this from Apple or from somewhere else? I've never had to buy Airport cards as my Mac laptops have always had WiFi, but in the PC world I had to do this a few times. There was 802.11A, then B, then G and now N or draft-N.
To check what kind of card you have you'll have to go to the Network Utility app. I don't know what OS you are running, but in Leopard 10.5 you go to Applications>Utilities>Network Utility>in the "Info" tab, select Network Interface (en1). In the Model field, it should say something like "Wireless Network Adapter (802.11 a/b/g/n).
I'm still thinking this is a driver/firmware issue, just because you are able to see the card and not connect to anything. Also, did you check Software Update (Apple icon in menu bar>Software Update) to see if there are any patches?
To check what kind of card you have you'll have to go to the Network Utility app. I don't know what OS you are running, but in Leopard 10.5 you go to Applications>Utilities>Network Utility>in the "Info" tab, select Network Interface (en1). In the Model field, it should say something like "Wireless Network Adapter (802.11 a/b/g/n).
I'm still thinking this is a driver/firmware issue, just because you are able to see the card and not connect to anything. Also, did you check Software Update (Apple icon in menu bar>Software Update) to see if there are any patches?
Yeah, I bought the computer from a friend when their office got the new batch in.
Plugged it in from the router today and looked for software updates. Dowloaded airport utility and tried it again. Placed it about 2 ft. in front of the router, and it recognized it for a second but the connection failed. Tried to search for network and put in manually several times after that again with the same results( couldn't find a network/ connection timeout.)
followed your instructions and found the card is 802.11 g/b.
Its becoming pretty frustrating.
Thanks again
Yeah. I tried that, same results. Thanks though. The thing that's really driving me crazy is that an iPhone, a foot away from the mac works great.