Why does Internet Sharing on Leopard suck so badly?

[younify]

I love my Mac, and I love that it normally "just works", but on Leopard, internet sharing does not just work.
I'm using a usb wireless modem, and sharing my internet to my wife's G4 laptop via airport.
The settings are correct, via internet sharing etc.... I know they're right because EVENTUALLY we get the ibook to connect, after turning airport on and off twenty times, resetting passwords, turning airport off, restarting....
This is madness!!!
Latest update of Leopard seemed to do nothing...
Can anyone be of any assitance?
Using a Huwei wireless (3G) modem in Australia, provider is three....

 

[26139]

Huh?

Wait, what? You're connecting how with your computer? USB? Ethernet?

 

[gretafour]

Isn't it such a cool idea though? I've never gotten it to work, either. You might consider something like the Linksys WRT54G3G-ST, but for that specific model, your broadband card must be a PC card. Good Luck. Here's the link for the Linksks router:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&cid=1160093298732

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Try using WEP encryption instead of WPA, it could be that the iBook can't connect using WPA encryption if it's too old.

 

[davidwarren]

I was having just this problem today, I was trying to wirelessly share my ethernet connection with an xp laptop. It would eventually connect at 2mb, but couldn't get on the internet.

 

[Eidorian]

Working perfectly for me under Tiger (Ethernet to Wireless) and in Leopard (Wireless to Ethernet).

 

[younify]

Changing encryption length seemed to work

Hey guys,
Right after I posted, I changed the encryption type on the password.
Answer earlier question: sharing USB wireless modem connection, sharing the connection over Airport, to iBook.
I always had plain WEP password selected, but changing the type of password to
WEP 40/128-Bit ASCII
seemed to work straight away
(as opposed to just "WEP Password")

Those settings are as they appear in Tiger, when you connect to the airport. In Leopard, in Internet Sharing Options, obviously have a tick next to:
Enable encryption (using WEP)
and then under the password, change WEP Key Length: to 128 bit.

Just turned it off and on again, to test, and the iBook automatically reconnected... I think that's all it needed...
Thank goodness! Fingers crossed for continued smooth operation....
Sigh of relief!

 

[blouis79]

WEP key generation still sucks. Why is that different manufacturers can implement the theoretically same algorithm and get different answers??

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1344

Obviously, WPA is better.

The solution if you are forced to use WEP to internet share OSX->Windows (in a hotel environment for instance) is to use something like WEP Key Maker to generate the common hex keys which can be entered on both Windows and OSX (preceded by $ on OSX).