# Trouble Connecting MacBook to PC's Wireless Base



## MixtureRich (Jan 25, 2007)

Hi,

First of all, thanks for reading. I just received my MacBook today and am trying to connect it to my PC's base station. The wireless is transmitting from my Asus PW5 Deluxe motherboard on the PC. The MacBook is aware of the connection and when I type in the WPA password, it has no trouble connecting. However, I am unable to perform ANY tasks over the internet. I have five bars on the airport icon but there is otherwise no evidence of a successful connection. I formerly had a Mac Mini and was able to connect to the wireless for a while. Then, one day, the exact same probably began to occur with the Mini. My brother has a Windows laptop and has no trouble connecting and utilizing the connection.

I have a class but will be back in two hours. Suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you,
Matt


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## macworks (Feb 5, 2007)

Does your Mac get an IP address assigned to it when it connects to your wireless network? If so, what's the IP address? If it's a 169.XXX.XXX.XXX address, then it's self-assigned -- meaning that the wireless router is not doing DHCP, at least not for your Mac.

My best suggestion, get a real router that's not dependent on a PC running. They aren't that expensive! (just avoid D-Link and LinkSys)


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## pdxubaru (Feb 19, 2007)

macworks said:


> meaning that the wireless router is not doing DHCP, at least not for your Mac.
> 
> My best suggestion, get a real router that's not dependent on a PC running. They aren't that expensive! (just avoid D-Link and LinkSys)



DHCP is a standard.  If it works on a PC, it works on a Mac, unix, linux, FreeBSD...  There is not such thing as a router that is dependent on a PC running.  Maybe older Macs wouldn't work with the router, but that's Apple's fault.

Check to see if you have fixed mappings set in your router.  You may have access control setup, in which case you will need to add your Mac's MAC address.  You may also have run out of IP addresses in your DHCP pool, if you have set that up as well.  There is nothing wrong with your router.  Sometimes a reboot of the router can fix these problems.

APIPA = Automatic Private IP Addressing will start with 169.254.x.x check in system prefs or in terminal by running
ipconfig getifaddr en0

en0 is your wired connection
use en1 if you connect using AirPort


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## nixgeek (Feb 19, 2007)

DO you have a DHCP server running on that PC?  If not, then you have to manually configure the MacBook for an IP address, a subnet mask, a gateway, and the DNS nameservers.  If your PC is running a DHCP service and is giving out IP addresses, then you have to tell the DHCP server to also dish out the DNS nameservers that are being used.  Otherwise, you won't be able to access any website using its URL.

See if you can ping any other computer from the MacBook.  If so, then you're getting an IP and you're able to ping the other computers using their IP address.  This means that the only thing you might be missing is the DNS nameserver entries.


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