Airport/iBook works, Airport/AlBook doesn't

bunner bob

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Using two laptops in an office setting, on a (ahem) "borrowed" wireless access point - my iBook works great, her 12" AlBook doesn't. Both machines show plenty of bars in the Airport menu item, both show an IP number from the base station. But I can surf the web and get email, she can't. Every setting seems the same - though she is using 10.2 and I have 10.3 - but my machine worked under 10.2 as well.

Oh yeah - she's got Airport Extreme, and I have regular Airport.

Both machines work fine on our home wifi network, and on the neighbors. Just this one network hers doesn't work on.

Any suggestions?

- Bob
 
Do you get an airport signal on the alubook? Could it be you have no authentication on the alubook to access the base station? Ping could work, but you won't get routed. Or wait, do you have access to the lan and so to the ibook of "her"? Try ichats rendezvous. However, I could imagine there is some MAC-filter (filter for MAC adresses) which is very common. Airport extreme is compatible to 802.11b as well, so this can't be the problem
 
bunner bob said:
Using two laptops in an office setting, on a (ahem) "borrowed" wireless access point - my iBook works great, her 12" AlBook doesn't. Both machines show plenty of bars in the Airport menu item, both show an IP number from the base station. But I can surf the web and get email, she can't. Every setting seems the same - though she is using 10.2 and I have 10.3 - but my machine worked under 10.2 as well.

Oh yeah - she's got Airport Extreme, and I have regular Airport.

Both machines work fine on our home wifi network, and on the neighbors. Just this one network hers doesn't work on.

Any suggestions?

Check Network Prefs and see if you have DNS server listed.
Add in a DNS server address if not. Some DHCP servers may not provide all the info needed and hers may not be getting the DNS info. Add in a public DNS server or one from the network you are, ahem, borrowing and try again.

As long as both ahve IP's you are connected to DHCP, so I think it is DNS on hers alone.

Hope this helps,
Mike
 
Can you suggest a public dns server? This field only seems to accept 0-9 and a-f, so I can't enter the alpha name of the host we're using - but perhaps that's not a DNS server anyway. Any idea how I determine what DNS server I should use?

I should mention she can't get email either, though I can. Not sure a DNS server would be at fault then, or perhaps it would be...

- Bob
 
bunner bob said:
Can you suggest a public dns server? This field only seems to accept 0-9 and a-f, so I can't enter the alpha name of the host we're using - but perhaps that's not a DNS server anyway. Any idea how I determine what DNS server I should use?

I should mention she can't get email either, though I can. Not sure a DNS server would be at fault then, or perhaps it would be...

- Bob

Yeah, email uses it, web uses it, everything that uses a domain name has to have some way of resolving the name to the numeric IP address. The DNS server entire are numeric only, otherwise you would need a DNS server to find the DNS server.

I did a Google on Public DNS. Here are some. Enter the number only. Use the one(s) nearest you geographically:
199.166.28.10 (PS0.NS2.VRX.NET) - Apopka, Fl
199.166.31.3 (NS1.QUASAR.NET) - Orlando, FL, USA
204.57.55.100 (NS1.JERKY.NET) - Boston, MA, USA
199.5.157.128 (ASLAN.OPEN-RSC.ORG) - Detroit, MI, USA
These are primary DNS. Meaning they should be listed first. So only pick one. If you want two just in case, pick the closest to you and then pick one next closest.

Hope this helps.
Mike
 
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