[carolinecatfood]

I have a 7 year old g4 powerbook- running OS 10.4.11.

I've never had issues joining a network until I moved to a duplex that is made out of rocks. My landlord has upgraded his router to one that will bust through rock walls, and my roommate's newer computer (OS 10.5.6) seems to be responding well- usually its got full reception.

My laptop, however, will not even join the network, perpetually thwarted by "Errors joining the network". Even when I can get my landlord to turn the router/modem on and off, the signal is still to weak to use (without getting angry). The Genius at the mac store informed me that perhaps my computer is too old to properly use a weak signal, and recommended a newer device to pick up and relay the signal.

So I bought an airport express. I plugged it in and it flashed amber. But at least both the old and new computers could see it in their airport networks... until I used Airport Utility to set it up: upon completing the settings, neither computer can find the airport express. restarting the computer doesn't help things, which is pretty much where my knowledge of troubleshooting ends.

So, now I have no internet on my computer, and the $100 airport is sitting uselessly on the power strip, still blinking amber, despite my resetting it with it's reset button. What should I do? Is my computer just too old? maybe the airport card is faulty, and then I bought a lemon airport express? Maybe moving into a stone hole was not the most technologically friendly decision?

Thanks,
c