[Kate1988]

Okay I know people have asked about this before but I am probably the most computer-illeterate person EVER. I read the other posts and can't understand what a lot of it means sorry. I cannot for the life of me get my wireless working properly. I have a Linksys wireless thing (the technical term I am sure ) Anyways I have had it working for up to a few hours at a time. But it always cuts out. One of 2 things happen 1. I can't get it to connect at all the 4 bars at the top don't light up at all. or 2. All the bars are lit up but I still can't access the website. It comes up "You are not connected to the internet." I've tried Network Diagnositcs about 100 times and it basically never works. I moved the Airport to the top of the list in system preferences and I've rebooted the computer when you press the 4 keys (forget what its called) Anyways yeah I know I sound stupid I am just getting frusterated.

[Big Mac]

Sometimes wireless connections can be flakey, unfortunately. If you can connect fine at certain times you probably have things configured mostly correctly. My computers periodically lose their wireless connections while they still seem to be connected, too. I think it's a pretty common WIFI problem. I thought it was due to interference from other local wireless devices, but changing the WIFI broadcast channel hasn't completed fixed my problem. Anyway, where is the router located? Do other wireless clients work properly?

[Kate1988]

The router is right beside my desktop. All on one desk is my router, cable modem, desktop and laptop because the only time I've gotten any kind of wireless connection was if my laptop is basically in front of the router. I don't lose the connection for like a short period of time I had it this morning but haven't been able to get it back since and I didn't move anything. We don't have anything else that uses wireless - only my macbook. My neighbors have wireless but I think theres is pretty good

[ibook_steve]

Did you or somebody else set up the router?

This should be in the networking forum but try this: Open your System Preferences and go to Network. Double-click the Airport connection and click the TCP/IP tab. The IP address there should be something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x. If it says 169.x.x.x, click the renew DHCP lease button to try to get a valid IP address. In the Airport menu at the top of the screen, do you see the name of your network?

Steve

[analogika]

Are you running the very latest version of OS X?

Check Apple menu --> About this Mac

And if in doubt, run "Software Update" just below that menu command (or from within the "About this Mac" window).

Hook up your machine to the router via an Ethernet cable (no fiddling should be necessary - it should just work) if you can't keep your wireless connection up for long enough to download and install the entire list of updates.

[Kate1988]

steve: My dad set up the router. the IP address starts with 192. so I think thats okay. Yeah I can see my network name - its linksys. Every once and a while that network will work but it always cuts out.

analogika: Yeah I pretty sure its the latest version...I just got to computer about a week ago. It wouldn't upload because I didn't have internet connection. I tried hooking up the ethernet (one that goes from my desktop to the macbook?) and it wouldn't work I think I did something wrong. Could it be the area I am in? I live about 10 minutes from the city?

Thanks for trying to help guys I apperciate it

[ghporter]

There is a consistent thread of wireless problems in some of the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros. I can't put my finger on it right now because there isn't enough data out there-at least not yet.

Kate, if your dad set up your network, but left the network name as its default "linksys," then he's probably left everything else at its default setting as well. Please open a browser, type "192.168.1.1" in the address bar (no quotes, of course) and press Enter. You should get a password prompt-ignore the user name box, type "admin" (again without quotes) in the password box and click on "OK". (Of course if your dad has actually changed the password, I'd like to know about it too.) Now look at the primary Setup page and find where it says what channel your network is on, whether the "SSID Broadcast" is set to "enable" or not, and what the "Mode" setting is (it should be either "B", "G", or "Mixed"). If you'll post those items here, we may be able to at least start helping you out.

And WELCOME to the MacNN Forums!

[Kate1988]

OKay when I go into System preferences under TCP/IP Where its says
IP Address: 192.168.1.100
Router: 192.168.1.1

So are those the numbers that are right? I don't know where the address bar is? sorry haha.
I don't know if this makes any difference but we've had this router for maybe 2 years. We intially used it when my cousin lived with us and was using it for her laptop. So she set it all up on her computer and the password is one she made - but I know the right one obviously. So it hasn't been connected for over a year. We also back then didn't have a modem we used some other kind of internet connection. We right now have the cable in the wall going to the modem, the power cord from modem to wall, a USB going from the modem to the desktop and an ethernet/internet going from the modem to the wireless router. From the router theres an ethernet going from the router to the desktop. Does that sound set up right?
Right now all the bars are lit up and when I do network diagnostics it says that I have an active internet connection but I must have typed in the apple address wrong. But when I get into safari it says "You are not connected to the internet." But when I go into Network status it says "Airport is connected to the network Linksys. You are connected to the internet via airport." Oh and everything would be left to default. My dad only hooked up the actual wireless router but didn't do anything on my computer or this desktop.
Sorry if some of that information isn't relevant - I am just not sure and want to tell you as much as possible. So my one big question is where is the address bar so I can do what ghporter said.

Thanks again

[Timetheus]

The Address bar is the top bar in Safari or Firefox, where you enter websites. So, for example, when on this site it reads "forums.macnn.com," etc. I'm sure you've used many times, but never actually knew what it was called.

As he said, just enter 192.168.1.1 in that bar, and note that no www. or .com is needed, just enter it exactly as it appears above. This allows your Computer to communicate directly w/ the router by taking you to the routers set up page.

As for your setup, it is unnecessary to have the modem hooked to the desktop using USB. The USB port on cable modems is an alternative hook-up for those PCs which do not have ethernet. As yours clearly does, it isn't needed. It may actually be causing some of the problem. I know that my Cable internet provider distinguishes between the USB side of the modem and the ethernet side as if they were different devices (technically they have separate "MAC" addresses). IF the modem is switching between sides than it may interfere with your internet connection.

[amazing]

There's even a report on the UK Macworld about erratic wireless

AirPort (sometimes) grounded - Macworld UK

There was an interesting note on macintouch.com about a possible solution that's probably too complicated in this case, but I'll put it in anyway:

"William Alworth
Hello! I have been having LOTS of problems with the recent Airport Extreme Update 2007-004. The connection to my AE base station (802.11g, not the newest one) has constantly been dropping. I opened up the AE Update package and found what file was altered by it. It's called IO80211Family.kext. It's version number is 1.62. I then opened up the Mac OS X 10.4.10 update and pulled out IO80211Family.kext version 1.6, copied it to /System/Library/Extensions, repaired permissions and restarted. Now everything is right as rain. Basically I rolled back the airport driver to the version that came with 10.4.10. I wonder if the update is better suited to users of the new 802.11n AE base station. Maybe Apple overlooked something there?"

[ghporter]

amazing, this is one reason I'm trying to collect more information; I can't tell if there are people having problems across the board, or just with B/G base stations. That particular fix sounds scriptable, as long as a person has access to the original 10.4.10 update.

[frdmfghtr]

OK, a Linksys router that hasn't been used in a year...that's an important clue.

Over the past year, the program code (called "firmware") that runs inside the Linksys routers was updated because some Macs were having trouble connecting to the router via the wireless connection. I had trouble with my Linksys periodically and it ended up being the firmware.

I'm going to assume for now that you have the same router that I do; I think the Linksys routers will all behave in a similar way.

To gather some more information: on the router, look for a label that will tell you the model and version of the router. On my Linksys router, this information is on the bottom, on a label with a couple of bar codes. The model number will say something like:

Model No. WRT54G ver. 6

Look on the router for this information.

Next, on the desktop computer, start the web browser "Firefox, Safari, whatever you use). As Timetheus said, the address bar is the box where you type in web addresses. In that box, type the following exactly and hit RETURN:

192.168.1.1

A box will pop up asking for a name and password. Like ghporter said, leave the name box empty and enter the password. If your dad changed it, ask him for the password. If he didn't change it, type the following in the password box and hit RETURN:

admin

If everything is good so far, you will be at a web site inside your router. It will say "Linksys" on the top and have a bunch of settings on the page.

Look at the top right corner of the page. There is where you will find the firmware version. You will see some text that looks like this:

Firmware version v1.01.1

You numbers will certainly be different.

That's enough for now...try that, and let us know what you find out.

Good luck!

[Kate1988]

Yeah sorry about "where is the address box?" question I thought you meant it was in the system preferences. I got into that page fine using the admin password.
Filmware Version: v1.02.5
Compact wireless broadband router: WRT54GC
Internet connection type: PPPoE
Username: b1tbzz46
Pasword: just a bunch of stars *****
The one that is selected below that is "keep alive: redial period 30 seconds

Optional Settings: Nothing is filled in

Local IP address 192.168.1.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

DHCP server : Enabled
Sarting IP address: 192.168.1.100
Max. # of DHCP users: 50
Client Lease time: 0
WINs: 0.0.0.0

Yeah Thats everything. Sorry if some of that isn't important. Thanks again for the help you guys

[ghporter]

I forgot that the wireless stuff ("Mode" and such) would be under the Wireless tab... When you get a minute can you find out what it says on that about Mode, channel, and SSID Broadcast? It'll help.

[Kate1988]

Mode: Mixed
Wireless Network Name: Linksys
Wireless Channel: 6 - 2.437GHz
Wireless SSID Broadcast: Enable

[Kate1988]

Under System Preferences in Networking the Airport sign is yellow and says "Airport is connected to the network Linksys" Airpots has a self assigned IP address an may not be able to connect to the internet." Under TCP/IP the IP Address: 169.254.82.98
I tried to renew the IP address but it still keeps coming up with ones that start with 169. Can I put one in manually?

[ghporter]

You can try a manual address (it would be something like 192.168.1.2), but I'm sort of thinking it won't work. You see, if you're "connected to the network," but not getting an address, then something is wrong at the other end-at the router. The most logical cause for this is unlikely-if your dad didn't change the default password or network name, he almost certainly didn't get into the advanced security features to set the router to only allow certain network adapters to connect to it.

It's possible that WPA or WEP security is turned on-typically having security turned on without the right password/key on the client computer makes it look like this. Check the security settings, and if anything is turned on on the router, turn it off (we'll help you set the thing up properly once you can connect and surf through it).

[frdmfghtr]

ghporter, this might come in handy once everything is working...the latest firmware for that router is 1.05.7. The updates don't say anything about fixing Mac wireless connectivity issues, but you might walk kate1988 through that process once all is well.

Linksys.com - Support/Technical Support/Choose a Product/Routers and Access Points/Wireless Routers/WRT54GC/Downloads