wireless problems (saved password?)

[fairnymph]

I just booted my new mac pro which has built in wireless. It detected my wireless network right away and I was browsing the internet. Then it crapped out, I was no longer connected to the network, and attempts to connect result in the error 'cannot connect'.

I have tried turning on and off the airport on the mac pro, and then allowing it to detect again, and then I was prompted to enter a WEP password.

To my knowledge this is not a protected network (it's my mom's airport, but my brother set it up, and I'm the only one at home). My laptop connects fine...anyway I can steal the password if there is one from it? I can't find anything under internet connect/system preferences.

Or is this asking for a password some sort of bug since my mac pro initially connected just fine?

 

[Eraserhead]

First of all login to your router and secure your network with WPA. WEP takes about 1 minute for someone who knows what they are doing to hack, and no security leaves you open to identity theft and all kinds of nasties.

 

[fairnymph]

I know NOTHING about networking. I have no idea how to login to my router.

Beyond that, I live in 7 acres in the woods in semi-rural area; no one is stealing my wireless. The wireless barely works 3 rooms away, let alone outside the house.

 

[Eraserhead]

Beyond that, I live in 7 acres in the woods in semi-rural area; no one is stealing my wireless. The wireless barely works 3 rooms away, let alone outside the house.

OK, well you're probably OK then , the Boston Area location made me thing you lived in the suburbs or something .

 

[fairnymph]

Yeah I moved (used to live in the suburbs with fiberoptic which was the best thing EVER!) down to my mom's, still in Boston area, very generally speaking...Cape Cod.

The bad thing is our wireless sucks, and I have no neighbours to leach from!

 

[Eraserhead]

The bad thing is our wireless sucks, and I have no neighbours to leach from!

What router have you got? Also do you live in an old house with thick (brick) walls?

If the house has thick walls the wireless won't travel very well, as it travels much less well through Solids as Gas.

 

[fairnymph]

It's an Airport Extreme.

The house is 19 years old, wood! I don't know why it sucks so badly. I mean even one room away it's 1-2 bars at best. It's only 3-4 bars if you are within about 5 feet of it.

There is another weird thing, some sort of airport extension, it's like a box that just plugs into an outlet, and is supposed to extend the range of the network, but it doesn't work (though it used to); no one can figure out how to configure it properly.

 

[Eraserhead]

@connector try blowing (with a little spit) onto the connector for the box and also into the hole and see if that helps, that always makes electronics work better.

If your house is wood it seems strange that the signal is *****, especially given it's an Airport Extreme, Apple's routers usually have good signal.

 

[fairnymph]

Do you mean the power connector? Or what? The ethernet/WAN ports?

This stupid airport express (that's what it is called) won't allow me to connect to it.

I want it in the room below the airport extreme, and then I want to connect my desktop via ethernet to the airport express...is that even possible?

 

[Eraserhead]

I thought the airport express was an aerial .

 

[fairnymph]

I got everything working! Turns out I needed to set the network to use WDS, and now I'm connected via ethernet.

modem --(ethernet)---> airport extreme ---(wirelessly)-->airport express ---(ethernet)---> my mac pro

I can connect now via either wireless or ethernet, but it's twice as fast with the ethernet (4.3 vs 2.1 mbps) because I am 3 rooms away from the airport express, which is directly below the airport extreme (down one floor).

I also just upgraded my speed with my ISP. 6 mpbs/320k upload --> 8 mbps/760k upload.

 

[Eraserhead]

I got everything working!

Good, sorry I wasn't much help .