Original Airport w/WPA

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Original Airport w/WPA

It was suggested I post in this forum, so below is my original post, as well as some additional info.

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I've upgraded to a Netgear WGR614, partially because I wanted to get off of WEP. I configured the router for B/G mode, and to use WPA/WPA2 Personal. My Wii, PS3, and XP laptop can all easily connect using one of these 2 methods.

The problem I'm having is with my Tibook DVI, and Blueberry iBook. Both of these have original 802.11b Airport cards - NOT Airport Extreme. The behavior is identical on both machines. The network is seen, and when attempting to join, I'm prompted for a WPA Personal password. Like many other posts, I'm getting a message that there was an error connecting. I can connect to the Netgear when encryption is disabled or set to WEP. I also tried setting the router to use WPA only (and not WPA2) but that didn't help.

The Powerbook is running 10.4.11, with Airport firmware 9.52. I've tried passwords of differing length, as well as inputting it as hex (using option-click). According to Apple's KB (Article: 107795), WPA is supposedly supported on these cards.

Is there a real fix for this ?
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Adding to that - the router has been updated to the latest firmware, and specifically states in the config WPA-TKIP and WPA2-AES. To clarify, I'm trying to get it working with WPA, not WPA2. I keep reading about how this should work, but it doesn't. Do I have corrupt preferences somewhere ? Are there different 'original' Airport revisions, some of which do not support WPA ? Is there a special menu I need to unlock by pressing apple-option-%-5 while holding the computer upside down ? I have 2 of these cards doing the same thing, and I'm just about to give up.

TiBook 667 DVI, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 768mb 60gb 7200 rpm

Posted on Jan 28, 2008 6:32 PM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

158,076 points

Jan 28, 2008 6:56 PM in response to Firestormf

Adding to that - the router has been updated to the latest firmware, and specifically states in the config WPA-TKIP and WPA2-AES. To clarify, I'm trying to get it working with WPA, not WPA2. I keep reading about how this should work, but it doesn't. Do I have corrupt preferences somewhere ? Are there different 'original' Airport revisions, some of which do not support WPA ?

The original AirPort card will NOT support WPA2, however it does support WPA w/TKIP encryption.

Here are the WPA minimum requirements:
o AirPort Extreme or AirPort clients running Mac OS X 10.3.n
o AirPort for Mac v3.3

If your systems already meet these requirement, then it should be able to connect via WPA. However, the issue may still be the "B/G" mode of your router. Have you tried a "B" only mode, if one is available, to verify if this will allow your Macs to connect. Also does your Netgear have some version of a speedboost mode? If so, and if enabled, you should disable it to see if that will help.

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Answer 2

Firestormf Author

Level 1

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Jan 28, 2008 7:47 PM in response to Tesserax

My system(s) do indeed meet the requirements, assuming Airport Admin Utility 4.2 is the same or better than "AirPort for Mac v3.3". Nothing new shows up in the Software Update Window, anyway.

The router does not have a dedicated B mode - just G or B/G hybrid. There is no speedburst mode or anything proprietary. It runs vanilla B and G. The only option was for WMM, which according to Netgear, "allows wireless traffic to have a range of priorities, depending on the kind of data." It tried disabling it for kicks and it didn't make a difference.

The Macs can connect as long as WPA isn't used. A detail I previously left out - MAC filtering has been disabled; I turned it on and explicitly added the Powerbook, also to no effect.

From what I've read, WPA is pretty standardized between vendors. There shouldn't be an issue with pass phrases and having to use hex like sometimes happens with WEP. A poster in another thread with a 1 gb TiBook claimed she got hers working with a different model of Netgear router, so I doubt it's something different the vendor is doing with WPA. Since all my other clients can connect, I'm more inclined to believe this is an Airport specific thing.

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Answer 3

Firestormf Author

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Feb 17, 2008 1:49 PM in response to Firestormf

I was never successful in getting WPA working with an original airport b card.

I did find a workaround without having to drop down to WEP, though. Macwireless.com is currently selling a PCMCIA G card for about $50. When you plug it in, OS X thinks it's an airport express, so no additional setup is required. There is also a trade in program for older airport cards, so I was able to upgrade my Powerbook to faster, more secure wireless for essentially the cost of shipping. The card physically sticks out about an inch and a half from the card slot but I don't find it intrusive.

Wireless reception is a mixed bag compared to the older card. I had expected an increase due to the Titanium's infamously poor wifi reception. Using iStumbler to compare the cards, signal strength averages about 8% less with the new card. I was getting a consistent 50% noise level with the old card though, whereas the new one is 0%. So I can't really say which one is better other than I have had no connectivity problems so far.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 4

Feb 23, 2008 9:27 AM in response to Firestormf

I just set up my PowerMac G4 Dual 1 Ghz machine with the original Airport "b" card with an Airport Express using WPA. Seems to be working fine. I'm running OSX Tiger 10.4.11

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Answer 5

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Feb 24, 2008 12:57 PM in response to Firestormf

Unclear why you cannot get this to work.

For what it's worth, I will point out that I also have a TiBook 667 DVI with an original Airport card running MacOS 10.4, and it has absolutely no problems connecting to an Airport Extreme N Base Station (running in b/g compatible mode) using WPA.

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Answer 6

Bionique

Level 1

0 points

Apr 1, 2008 8:51 PM in response to Tesserax

Eureka!!!

it work... in my case, i choose the G mode instead of mixt....and it works...

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Answer 7

artboi

Level 1

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Apr 14, 2008 8:31 AM in response to Firestormf

I have the exact same problem. My setup is almost identical to yours. I'm running a Ti G4. My wireless router is a D-link DIR-625.

I wasted an entire day rebooting and trying various password combination all with no success. My laptop was connecting flawlessly up until yesterday. The only thing that I did differently was reset the model as I had forgotten my admin password and needed to get to the port forwarding control for gaming. Very frustrating.

Tech support at D-link is useless.

Have you had any success since your last post?

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Answer 8

artboi

Level 1

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Apr 21, 2008 6:53 AM in response to artboi

I was able to switch my security setting to "g" in the security section of the configuration wizard and that seemed to solve the problem Using a D-Link DIR-625 wireless router.

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