Weird Airport / G5 issue

[kkennedy]

Greetings,
Here's a weird one I can't solve. I just installed an airport extreme card in my G5 PM. Network preferences says the card is active and even receives an IP address from the base station or the airport express station in our house. But when I close the side cover, the signals from either station disappear. Open the cover and they come back within 3 seconds. Close the cover and they're gone in 3 seconds. Grounding the signal? Short circuit? Grounding the wireless signal(s)?

Duhhhh... I don't know. Any advice?

 

[froehle]

Antenna?

Did you plug the antenna that originally came with your G5 into the back of the computer?

Airport works a little bit without it (i.e., I can get reception if the base station is close enough), but you'll see a much stronger signal with the antenna in. Hopefully this is enough to solve your problem. The big aluminum box that the G5 sits in is a huge Faraday cage, preventing a lot of the signal strength from leaving the case. That's why it'll work with the side off, but not with the side on.