Need help: iMac, AE card, Linksys router

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ProphetSix

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OK, so one of the VP's at my work got his daughter a new 15" flat panel iMac. He has a cable modem hooked up to a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless 802.11B router. He's currently sharing this with 2 windows laptops. He wanted to get a wireless connection to the new iMac, so he also got an Airport Extreme card for it. When he couldn't get it to work, he called me and had me look at it.

I've dealt with networking, wired and wireless, on the windows side, but this is my first trip into Airport networking. I have his SSID and WEP encryption key (128-bit, and yes, I verified that it's correct), but I can't get the iMac to connect. Whenever I pull up the Airport Setup Assistant, it looks for an Airport Network with an Airport Base Station. He doesn't have one. I tried putting in the SSID and WEP in the place for the Base Station name and password. Still no go. I got the thing sitting 10 feet from the Linksys, so I know it's not a wireless range issue. The 2 laptops are having no problems getting a connection. What am I doing wrong here? Do I need to bypass the Airport Setup and enter this info somewhere directly into the network properties? I can skip the DHCP and assign a manual IP if necessary.

The iMac is running 10.2.7 right now, but I'm going to get him to upgrade to 10.3 soon. I double-checked the AE card. It's supposed to work with 3rd-party 802.11b and g network AP's.

Thanks.
 
Sorry I am no help here, but I thought I would use your post rather than post a somewhat redundant similar post. I was wondering if I could use an airport card in an iMac to have it connect to a Netgear wireless router. Sounds like what you are trying to do here. It should work shouldn't it? Tell you what, I work with a total networking Mac geek - I'll ask him about both our issues and get back here tomorrow!
 
ProphetSix said:
OK, so one of the VP's at my work got his daughter a new 15" flat panel iMac. He has a cable modem hooked up to a Linksys BEFW11S4 wireless 802.11B router. He's currently sharing this with 2 windows laptops. He wanted to get a wireless connection to the new iMac, so he also got an Airport Extreme card for it. When he couldn't get it to work, he called me and had me look at it.

I've dealt with networking, wired and wireless, on the windows side, but this is my first trip into Airport networking. I have his SSID and WEP encryption key (128-bit, and yes, I verified that it's correct), but I can't get the iMac to connect. Whenever I pull up the Airport Setup Assistant, it looks for an Airport Network with an Airport Base Station. He doesn't have one. I tried putting in the SSID and WEP in the place for the Base Station name and password. Still no go. I got the thing sitting 10 feet from the Linksys, so I know it's not a wireless range issue. The 2 laptops are having no problems getting a connection. What am I doing wrong here? Do I need to bypass the Airport Setup and enter this info somewhere directly into the network properties? I can skip the DHCP and assign a manual IP if necessary.

The iMac is running 10.2.7 right now, but I'm going to get him to upgrade to 10.3 soon. I double-checked the AE card. It's supposed to work with 3rd-party 802.11b and g network AP's.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If the iMac isn't even seeing the wireless network, try picking another channel on the router. The first time I tried accessing a wireless network with my Powerbook it drove me nuts; wouldn't see the network. Once I changed channels, no problem. I also found that I had to put in the hex characters for WEP; I couldn't use the ASCII password. Don't forget to check the box to "Add this to the keychain", or else he will have to input that hex string everytime he wants to connect. Good luck. Oh, and don't forget to change the channel on his other two laptops!

Marc
 
mslifkin said:
If the iMac isn't even seeing the wireless network, try picking another channel on the router. The first time I tried accessing a wireless network with my Powerbook it drove me nuts; wouldn't see the network. Once I changed channels, no problem. I also found that I had to put in the hex characters for WEP; I couldn't use the ASCII password. Don't forget to check the box to "Add this to the keychain", or else he will have to input that hex string everytime he wants to connect. Good luck. Oh, and don't forget to change the channel on his other two laptops!

Marc
Click to expand...

OK. Thanks for the info. I was entering the hex characters into the password field (damn 128-key string!). I'll try the "$" in front of it.

So, if I change the wireless AP channel, I should see the AP listed, right? I have SSID broadcasting turned off. Do I need it on to connect? If so, once I've connected and entered the info, does it need to stay on? (I'm not too worried if I have to leave SSID on, he's pretty remote.) And, am I doing this right; entering the SSID into the network name and the hex WEP key into the password field?

Thanks again.
 
ProphetSix said:
OK. Thanks for the info. I was entering the hex characters into the password field (damn 128-key string!). I'll try the "$" in front of it.

So, if I change the wireless AP channel, I should see the AP listed, right? I have SSID broadcasting turned off. Do I need it on to connect? If so, once I've connected and entered the info, does it need to stay on? (I'm not too worried if I have to leave SSID on, he's pretty remote.) And, am I doing this right; entering the SSID into the network name and the hex WEP key into the password field?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Yes, you should see the name of the access point. I don't think you have to have SSID broadcasting turned on to connect, it just makes it easier, as you can just select the access point and not have to input the name. Once you establish the connection you can probably disable the broadcast. Having 128 bit WEP enabled will prevent the casual user from connecting. As far as the hex WEP code, it doesn't go in the password field. If you click on the down arrow you'll see other choices; you want the 128 WEP hex code. Then just input the 13 pairs of hex characters, and you should be all set. I can't recall the exact name of the field, and I just tried looking on my Powerbook, but it's already set up. Hope this helps.

Marc
 
Would this help at all?:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021121060144214

"Much to my surprise, the Airport card refused to login to the access point when I used my set password; instead I had to use the 128bit hex key from the page of the administration Tool on the Netgear router. In the Apple Airport dialog box, you do not select "Password" from the drop down, you select "128bit-hex" and after doing that, it works flawlessly."
 
Thanks karavite, that article was most helpful. I especially like the last comment: "I am thinking that Apple should let us know about this DURING the airport setup..."

I prolly won't get a chance to test all of this info until this weekend, but I'll post results of what happened.
 
ProphetSix said:
Thanks karavite, that article was most helpful. I especially like the last comment: "I am thinking that Apple should let us know about this DURING the airport setup..."
Click to expand...

Yea, that would have been a little helpful!!! Oh well, Apple is usually quite good about these kind of things, but I find that the times I am often about to pull my hair out are when one tiny little bit of info. is left out.
 
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