# netgear network problem



## Elliotjnewman (Feb 6, 2006)

using a netgear router, everything works on the windows side of things, but when I try and connect my mac it doesnt work.

I goto the airport icon to the top right menu bar, and select netgear as my network (so my airport does see there is a network) it then gives me a window with options of what type of network, which is wep, I then type the password in and I get an message saying something along the lines "there was an error trying to connect to the network "netgear" "

its the same password that the windows machine connects with, so I just dont understand why my mac is not connecting...

G5 OSX 10.4.4
2 gigs ram


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## bbolin (Feb 6, 2006)

I use netgear WGR614.

As I recall I had some problems getting airport to work with my mac-mini.

I've only configured wireless to work with my mac once.  There should be options for it to work either 64 or 128 bit encryption.

Also I seem to recall something about Ascii and hex

Think I used 128bit and hex


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## powermac (Feb 7, 2006)

If I recall correctly, and search the forum for it. 
A solution was to use the lowest encryption for the password. Additionally, I read on the forum some time ago, about putting a "$" before the password on the Mac was another work around.


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 7, 2006)

ok, so whats the method of working out the lowest encription of the password then? The password is something like 2B23D3233 or something like that (at work so dont have the exact one)...

- E.


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## bbolin (Feb 7, 2006)

I can't be "something like" it has to be exact.

Login to the router.  There should be a dialog box where you can enter a passphrase.  Something in words like your mothers maiden name.

Click when finished.  An encryption key will be generated for you.  Write it down.

That key needs to be entered in your airport setup.

I would go with 128bit encryption.  The router should have a checkoff box for this.  Mark it before you generate the key.

As I said I don't recall exactly the setup for airport.  But think there was an option for ascii or hex.  Also for 64bit and 128bit.

Use 128bit and hex.

Hope this helps


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 8, 2006)

I said "something like that" because I am at work and dont have the exact password, of course when I get home I use the exact password! 

anyway, I tried the $ sign in front of the password and that worked, I am now connected to the netgear network, however, I cant get a connection to the internet, I get the following message in my network preferences:

Airport is connected to the network netgear. Airport has a self assigned ip address and may not be able to connect to the internet.


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## bbolin (Feb 8, 2006)

Open a terminal session to get to a shell.

Run "ifconfig" without the quotes
My wifi interface is "en1" your milage may very
Can you ping the ip address assigned to you

Run "netstat -nr" without the quotes.  
What is your default gateway.  Can you ping the ip address of your netgear router.

Does dns work

From the shell run

dig cnn.com

It should come back with some entries.

If you can't ping you can't get there
If you can't resolve domain names you can't get there

Try those things.  

Verify your netgear is handing out all the dhcp stuff.


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 9, 2006)

bbolin - did you want me to copy the entries I got back from those shell commands?

I tried them all but don't really know what I am supposed to do with the results...

I had a play with manually editing my ip/tcp tab in preferences, I looked at the network settings of the windows machine that is connected to the internet and copied the ip address, and made the last digit of my ip address unique to that machine. Now I still could not get onto the internet but now my airport summary says that I am connected to the internet, when before it said I was not. Also Safari now says "connecting" when I try and load a page, instead of instantly coming back with an error, though, after about 5 mins of "connecting" it does give up...

So it looks like something has changed by me putting in the ip address manually...


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## bbolin (Feb 9, 2006)

Just because your system sees the wireless dosn't mean you can connect to it.

You said something about adding a "$" to your wep key.  That dosen't sound correct to me at all.

I don't allways trust the pretty GUI stuff.  I go straight to the heart of things. 

Did ya ever try to stop a service on a windoze box that says its running but isn't ?


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 10, 2006)

yeah, I thought it was wierd too. Though when I put it in it accepted my password! Maybe I will post the password in this thread and somebody can figure out the different encriptions of it, be it 64bit, 128bit etc... Yeah, I think you may be right about the $ sign thing.

I dont trust the gui either, and I know the terminal gives you more detail but I wouldnt know how to comprehend the results I get from those commands you told me... unless I posted them here and you could then see them...


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## bbolin (Feb 10, 2006)

I guess you could call them passwords.

64bit or 128bit

I would think guessing exactly 128 would be harder then 64


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## powermac (Feb 11, 2006)

Tried to search the forum for that thread I got that information from, about putting the $ leading the password. Here is a Apple page with that discussion: 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106424
Check out the Hexadecimal section about the leading $  

In any event, my understanding is that between Mac and netgear, the encryption appears to be an issue. Solutions I have read that worked are, using no password for the network, or using the lowest possible encryption.


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 14, 2006)

ok, so how do I figure out the lowest possible encription?

- here is the password (Im not concerned about the security)

2e8dee3c32

I have a feeling that putting the leading $ is not working, and kind of tricks the password to work, so I would like now to try different encription levels...


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## powermac (Feb 14, 2006)

For a 40 bit WEP network, always choose a 5-character password.
For a 128 bit WEP network, always choose a 13-character password

The leading $ is not tricking the computer. It states that what follows it should be treated as Hexadecimal values versus ASCII. 

Apple's airport software converts plain language into hexadecimal values, while most third party hardware do not.


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## bbolin (Feb 14, 2006)

Elliotjnewman said:
			
		

> ok, so how do I figure out the lowest possible encription?
> 
> - here is the password (Im not concerned about the security)
> 
> ...



Boy wish I had more neighbors like you.  I could get rid of this expensive Comcast cable modem and use theirs.  

Netgear settings
Wireless settings
SSID netgear
Region united states
Channel 11
Mode g and b
Enable wireless AP
Allow broadcast of name (ssid)
Authentication type automatic
encryption strenght 128bit

Put your passphrase in the dialog box then click to have it generated for you.

Your passphrase is anything you want.

Here is my key.  Don't tell anybody -

49d68437b1ffb0db3fdf2d4a93

On my mac-mini
System preferences
click networks
highlight netgear and press enter
network name is netgear
wireless security wep password
password *********************

It is intresting when I look at wireless security types

wep password
wep 40/128 - bit hex
wep 40/128 - bit ascii


Looks like I'm using wep password

This is working for me.  Hope this helps.


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 14, 2006)

ok, I have now gone through the documentation about how to join an encripted wireless network from apples site and I am still not getting any joy.

netgear seems to be happy with the password, whether I put in the $ sign when using the wep password, or whether I enter the password without the $ sign in the WEP 40/128-bit hex password, airport says it is connected to netgear. I enter the password as $2e8dee3c32 for wep and for wep 40/128-bit hex I enter it the same but without the $.

but I just cant get onto the internet still. in my network preferences I am still seeing the message about my ip addres is self assigned and I cant connect to the internet. I have tried to use DHCP with manual address under the tcp/ip tab of the airport settings and I have entered 192.168.16.36 ( I checked the windows computer that can connect and its ip address is 192.168.16.37) 

After I have done this my network summary says that I can connect to the internet   -   but I still cant! arrgghh

really going mad now.


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## bbolin (Feb 14, 2006)

Let slow down for a minute

You have this working with a windoze box correct?  If so go to the windoze box

Start
Run
type in "cmd" and click OK

This should open a dos dialog box.  Type in "ipconfig /all"

I want to verify your access point is giving you an

IP
Default gw
dns servers

Don't type in the quotes shown above


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## bbolin (Feb 14, 2006)

Sorry I missed your post above this.  So your windows is getting
192.168.16.0/24 network.

Did you set the dhcp scope of this on your netgear router ?

Mine came defaulted to use 192.168.0.0


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 14, 2006)

hi bbolin, yeah the windows machine is using ip 192.168.16.37

what do you mean by:

Did you set the dhcp scope of this on your netgear router ?

I havent made any adjustments to the netgear router.

shall I still try those commands?


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## bbolin (Feb 14, 2006)

A scope in a dhcp server are its setting

network
netmask
gw
dns servers

When you http into your netgear router

Look at wireless settings security encryption wep key.  That is your key to connect to the access point.  Are you putting that in the airport settings.


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## Elliotjnewman (Feb 14, 2006)

im really sorry if I am being thick bbolin, but how do I http into the netgear router?


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