[RobOnTheCape]

I hooked a neighbors wireless router up and have been using his wirelss to connect to the net while we are in temporary housing. Everything was fine until last week, when for some reason I started getting "error occurred..." and when putting in the correct password it doesn't recognize the pass. However, I have another ibook which connects without a hitch using the same password. Any ideas? The book that will not connect to this specific router will connect to my airport for printing as well as hotspots around the town.

Thanks

[ghporter]

What device is assigning IP addresses? I think you may be experiencing an "expired but not noticed expired" IP address issue. I've run into this with my own systems, and restarting the router that provides IPs fixed it. This is JUST a restart, not a reset-a power cycle for a few seconds handles it just fine.

You could also manually renew your IP (through the Networking Preferences pane) and see if that fixes it before bothering your neighbor to restart his router.

[sohailamir]

Have you searched to check if it is in the radius of the signal otherwise it is the settings on the computer - maybe you need a static IP to connect to it. Another thing you could do is set it to DHCP (If it isn't already) then it will automatically set everything for you to connect to the roughter which sould be broadband to work.

[jbenyik]

You may want to check other posts re Linksys. It seems there are some significant problems depending which model and version of router you have. I am in the same boat..i could only access the admin page of the router with my 10.3OSX on my laptop...running 10.4.8 on my desktop G4. When i upgraded to 10.4 on the PB i lost connection and cant bring up the admin page either.

Hopefully its just a simple restart but read the linsys posts to see if your having the same troubles.

J

[frdmfghtr]

My experience with a Linksys wireless router has been quite crap. I have a WRT54G v6 and I get dropouts with my mid-2005 iBook G4 on a frustratingly frequent basis. Resetting the router (either reset button or power cycle) doesn't fix it, cycling the Airport on the iBook on/off doesn't fix it either...if I fiddle with changing settings long enough to get the connection working, I usually end up with the SAME settings on the router as when I started.

A recent Linksys firmware update was supposed to fix DHCP errors (which it seems to have done) but periodic dropouts still aggravate me.

What's more, I've never had these issues connecting with other wireless routers. In fact, I have a better chance connecting to my neighbor's weak signal than my own strong signal, even though the router is about 20 feet away (line of sight) from the computer. Heck, I've gotten three bars of signal strength when only sitting 5 or 10 feet from the router.

I can't decide it it's the router more at fault or the Airport card in the iBook. Has there been ANY progress in nailing this issue down? I've seen (too) many references to Airport dropouts, not always explicitly referencing Linksys routers.

I switched to a Mac because, compared to my XP laptop, things usually "just work" but this is far too aggravating.

[ghporter]

Since we're providing personal experiences here, I should point out that I have never had any problems with my Linksys gear. However, I have a separate wired router (BFSR41) and wireless access point (WAP54G). This may be a serious issue; putting too many functions in one box may be more than the box can reasonably handle. While I use this configuration mainly because of the timing of when I bought stuff, I recommend it.

[frdmfghtr]

You bring up a good point--sometimes integration is a BAD thing. Certain things should remain separate components, with each component doing what it does very well and independently of the rest of the system.

[RobOnTheCape]

I\We're in our new place now, and am wireless using airport with no problems. I decided it was better to go without wireless a few more days than try to figure out what was up.


Thanks

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by frdmfghtr 

You bring up a good point--sometimes integration is a BAD thing. Certain things should remain separate components, with each component doing what it does very well and independently of the rest of the system.

Indeed. Not only are there fewer things to go wrong when different functions are in different boxes (interaction between the functions is something you cannot evaluate in such consumer-level products), but it makes troubleshooting FAR simpler.

My biggest problems with my setup are that I have yet to post "do this first" instructions so my wife and son can restart the various components in the proper order when there's a problem. We had one just this past week; my wife's iBook would not see the Internet or the rest of the computers. This is one thing I see as a Linksys/Mac interaction: for some reason the router expires IP leases on my wife's iBook without the laptop seeing it for some reason, so it doesn't request a new one. It takes restarting the router to fix this, but since it happens only very infrequently, I consider it a minor concern.

Now, since I happen to have both the time and motivation, I think I'll write up those instructions and post them where they can be seen...