help a mac noob with wireless issues

E

eclectrica

Registered
a new roommate just moved in with an ibook g4, and i'm trying to get him set up on my wireless network. i'm trying to set up a new airport connection, and i don't want to affect his automatic wireless detection since he takes the mac outside the house a lot. i'm trying to use the network setup assistant to access my netgear mr814v1. the mac sees the network, but won't take the password i'm giving it. i'mnot even sure whether it wants the passphrase or the wep key.
the machine is an ibook g4, os 10.3.8 with an airport extreme card. if anyone can tell me offhand what i'm doing wrong, or else give me a step-by-step walkthrough on how to set this up, i would really appreciate it. and remember, i'm a complete noob when it comes to mac networking. tia.
 
Set up a new location (apple menu/location/network preferences…) and name it something you'll recognize for your location. Then figure out if you have wep encryption set up for your netgear router and use that for your password. Make sure you write down all the DNS numbers your router requires and enter those in the /network preferences…

Make sure your router is broadcasting at the full "G" spectrum instead of just "B" (about a 10 times speed increase) so you can take advantage of the airport extreme card in the laptop. :)
 
mmm..no. i have wep encryption set up. the router is fine, the wireless connection is fine. the ibook is not accepting the password. what password does it want, anyway? the wep key? the encryption passphrase? neither one works; it says password invalid. please be more specific, i need a complete walkthrough.
 
I was trying to get more details from you… :)

It's not the powerbook that's not accepting the password, it's the router. You have to check the router to see if WEP is indeed set up in the first place. If it is you need to find out what that is by connecting to it using an ethernet cable (or if you wrote it down somewhere when you set up the router).

Then you will only have to enter the password once (if it's a simple WEP code it should be about 7 digits long with more numbers than letters--this is randomly generated by the router when you set up this password.

Do you have access to your router?

Hope this helps.
 
I mean you'll enter the WEP code when you first try to access the router wirelessly and it asks you for a password. Or you can set up the password when you set up your "location".
 
there are two pcs already conencted to the router, one wirelessly and one via ethernet. both work fine. wep is indeed set up. if it is in fact the wep key that the ibook wants when i try to set up the connection, it's not accepting it. i have tried typing it in about 20 times. i have the correct key. please be more specific. what steps, exactly, in what order, exactly do i go through to set up a connection on this thing? why would it not accept the wep key?
 
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