Endless problem: ibook and linksys wrt54g

J

jinenjo

Registered
Hello,

I've consulted with my friend and he thinks this is a firmware problem, I've nowhere else to turn. Please help if you can! I'll try and describe the problem as thoroughly as possible:

Essentially, the airport card 802.11b doesn't find any signal being broadcast by the Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I've confirmed, that it is indeed broadcasting, with the linksys tech support.

I'm running OS X 10.4.11 on a G3 iBook. On the Linksys "web" page 192.186.1.1, I've configured the wireless setting network mode to "b only". However, neither b only nor "mixed" works. Nothing shows up on the network lists on the system preferences, and by the airport icon at the top of my desktop. Network status says AirPort is turned on but not connect to a network.

Finally, I've tried almost all manner of configurations with the airport card in the TCP/IP tab:

Manually; using DHCP with manual address; and using DHCP.

I must add, I'm not that savvy with Macs, yet I appear to be at a loss.

Any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks in advance.
-Lear
 
What version of Mac OS X are you running? Also, are you sure that your iBook's AirPort card is functioning properly?

If It's any consolation, I've had endless nightmares with Linksys (WRT54G and WRT150N) and AirPort: dropped connections, 100 % packet loss for 10 seconds for no reason, failure to authenticate even when no authentication (security) credentials are required. Very bizarre.

PS I'm not sure in which versions of Mac OS X this is implemented, but try running this command in the Terminal (found in Applications > Utilities), and, if you have it, paste the output in a reply.
Code: 
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -s
You should get something like this:
Code: 
                           SSID BSSID             RSSI CHANNEL SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
                           Rogue 00:1c:10:1a:e9:74 -90  11      WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP) 
                      kamikaze99 00:0f:66:5a:16:20 -92  9       WEP
                            lucy 00:1d:7e:46:b8:10 -67  11      WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP)
Let us know if your network appears in that list.
 
Thanks a lot, Michael. What you suggested looks helpful. I'll try it this weekend and get back to you. I'm running 10.4.11 (as stated in my original post, yet well hidden--heh, heh).

Do you still use a Linksys router then? Or did you just get something else?

Cheers,
LB
 
jinenjo, I did notice that you were running 10.4; what I meant was simply that I'm not sure if that command is implemented in versions anterior to 10.5 because I only discovered it in 10.5. I recklessly misphrased that above due to serious lack of sleep. :)

Last night I returned my WRT150N and have continued to use my WRT54G v6, though I've disabled the wireless radio and am using my AirPort Express exclusively for the time being (as a bridge, so it still passes out static DHCP mappings and portmappings from ther router). I'll use that for a few days to see if it works or if I still get dropped connections. That way I'll find the problem (my iBook or Linksys, or, more likely, Linksys + AirPort).

As a side-note: my university's wifi always works perfectly for hours, so I'm leaning away from my iBook's AirPort being defective.
 
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