[Andrew Stephens]

Connecting a PowerMac G5 2.5 dual to a linksys wireless modem router and getting loads of odd issues.

First issue was getting the password to work. Repeated tries varied between "connection timeout" and "invalid password". Tried adding a $, still these two errors.

Going via the network diagnostics results in the same password error. But then the airport actually connects. It gives 5 bars for a few seconds before dropping off to 2 then none.

Reset WLAN to no encryption, G5 hopped on OK but then connection dropped back to zero.

Tried WEP, WPA, WPA-2, same issues. Password error, followed by connection but only via network diagnostics then signal drop off.

Replaced the airport card with a known working one. Now the password seems to have stuck but the network signal issue remains and now if I go through network diagnostics the WLAN fails to show up at all, but is visible via the airport menu item.

Have slung every pref file known to man but no change. Mac is running a clean install of 10.5.7. It's fresh out of the box as it were.

My MacBook Pro, another MacBook Pro and a Lenovo laptop all have no problems with the WLAN at all.

Any ideas?

[ibook_steve]

First thing you need to do is turn off wireless encryption. Get that mess out of the equation. Get a good connection working before worrying about encryption and re-enabling it.

Once you've done that, check to see if you can get a valid IP address from the router. How far is the computer from the router? Any walls or other obstructions in between? Can you get a valid IP address with a direct ethernet connection? Are there a lot of other wireless networks in your area? Try a different wireless channel to see if you can make the connection.

Make sure you are not doing any MAC address filtering on the router, preventing your Airport card(s) from connecting based on their MAC hardware addresses (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx).

Let us know if you need further assistance.

Steve

[Andrew Stephens]

Tried it without encryption. Connection was fine (web working etc) for around 15 seconds then signal strength just fades to nothing. Checked info using alt key on airport menu to find
an RSSI of around -81 and a tansmit rate of -1.

Got valid IP address from router on connection (and when connected via ethernet, which works fine.

Computer is around 3 metres from the wireless antenna, no obstructions. There is one local network other than this one. As a precaution I ran the network (which was on channel 6) on both channel 1 and 11 but no difference at all.

enabled and disabled IPv6 no change

MAC adress filtering is disabled on the router (two other Macs connect no problem, neither of which had ever connected to the network before (as in were not normally used in the house)

I'm stumped. I was sure it was going to be a duff card, but it's not.

[dzp111]

I have a linksys. And that's its name -linksys. It's secured with wpa2 password. Last week, my neighbor bought a linksys but wasn't 'savvy' enough to enter and keep a password. Since then whenever I restarted, my MacBook would pick up her signal instead of mine (I guess it was easier for it to skip the security steps.

Yesterday, I lost my signal. Troubleshooted like crazy but to no avail. I finally called my neighbor and asked if she had finally secured her router. She says yes not too long ago.

The problem? Seemingly? Both routers had the same ssid (linksis). So I hardwired my router and changed the name to linksys2.

Worked fine ever since. Go figure.

[ibook_steve]

I think if there was an SSID conflict, the other machines wouldn't work either, but it is something to check.

Not sure what else to suggest other than trying a different router or seeing if there is a firmware update for this router. You could also just do a factory reset of the router and start from scratch. That may fix the problem.

Steve

[Andrew Stephens]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

I think if there was an SSID conflict, the other machines wouldn't work either, but it is something to check.

Not sure what else to suggest other than trying a different router or seeing if there is a firmware update for this router. You could also just do a factory reset of the router and start from scratch. That may fix the problem.

Steve

Tried settng up a new user to see if the issue was related to the user rather than the system, but no go there either.

The broadband connection is via a line of site transmission (remote country location) so the router is set up a little non standard, making a reset a risky proposition. I don't think this has anything to do with the issue as the other Macs hop on just fine. I have the G5 back in my office atm and will see how it behaves on my office network.
If it's fine I guess i'l just work around it by attaching and AEX off the back of the linksys and putting the G5 on a second apple network.

Cheers for the input

[steve626]

There are myriad things that can be checked out with such a router, as there are many settings that can cause or affect such connection problems. The PowerMac G5, for instance, cannot connect to an n-draft network, so it's important for the router to be setup to all g wireless speeds. There can also be interference issues from the other network you can see (and others that maybe you can't see because the SSID's aren't being broadcast). These can be alleviated by changing the detailed settings on the router (for instance changing from 40 MHz to 40/20 MHz, or 20 MHz -- setting the router on "auto" can result in it trying to optimize the connection which may, under some circumstances, make it vary a lot or become unstable).

Anyway, you don't give any details about the router, but I suggest you explore some of the speed and bandwidth settings.

Another thing that seems odd is that your symptoms changed when you changed the airport card. That seems to indicate that your problem is dependent on the hardware in your computer, which implies perhaps something amiss in the computer.

[Andrew Stephens]

Update

Took the machine back to the office where the fun continued.

First it logged onto the office network (WPA2) fine but the signal fell off as ususal. I changed the card again to a third card at which point it reverted to timing out or incorrect password. So I erased the drive and did a clean install from scratch and now it's not showing any networks visible at all.

Clearly it's a hardware fault.

I now need to look at a USB wireless dongle. Does anyone know of any that work with Macs. I put a spare Philips one I had lying around, which was listed as WIN only, and it's not working. No surprise their.

I'm not paying Sonnet £80 for a PCI card when a WIN one costs under half that (pirates!)
Thanks for the input so far chaps.

cheers

Andrew