Third party wireless routers incompatible with PowerBook airport

Question

Third party wireless routers incompatible with PowerBook airport

Hello there. I'm not having success with my problem so I thought I'd ask if anyone knows anything about incompatible wireless routers. In Mac help under Airport there is a curious statement that some hardware may be incompatible with Airport. As I travel through Chile, I have encountered several public Wi Fi hotspots to which I am unable to connect. I have all the TCP/IP settings entered correctly (IP address, router address, DNS, sub-net mask, everything) yet still unable to connect, including the Wi Fi at my hotel. They have provided me with all the necessary information, entered in the TCP/IP tab in the Network prefs pane, yet still unable to connect. DHCP this is not. I have never encountered this anywhere. I suspect the wireless hardware they use will not communicate with an Apple product. Could this be true? Has anyone run into this?

Thank you,
Michael

PowerBook G4 1.25 Ghz 15 AlBook, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 1.5 Gb RAM

Posted on Mar 17, 2008 3:14 PM

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Answer 1

TopoTone

Level 4

1,356 points

Mar 17, 2008 4:59 PM in response to Michael Force

I think wireless standards are constant, and it's unlikely an 802.11b (or whatever) will be different somewhere else.
The times when I have had trouble connecting, it has been a simple matter of selecting the right encryption setting. If I remember right there are 3 different choices, wpa, and 64 bit or 128. Try all the options and see if you have success.

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Answer 2

Mar 18, 2008 9:23 PM in response to Michael Force

Thanks for your help. I tried all the encryption methods using the password given to me by the hotel and the coffee shops. Wi Fi appeared to be a complete mystery to them, although they seemed to have enough of a clue to suspect the encryption to be WEP. (Wi Fi has only recently arrived to Punta Arenas). I tried all the WEP and LEAP and any WPA, although some of the WPA methods wouldn't accept the password (the "OK" button was grayed out). It's got me stumped.

Cheers,
Michael

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Answer 3

TopoTone

Level 4

1,356 points

Mar 18, 2008 11:03 PM in response to Michael Force

Doesn't appear too easy to figure out. All I can say is that I recently was working with a new wireless system. The configuration required either the 8 character-64 bit encryption, or 16 character-128 bit. The fact that the OK was grayed out, might indicate the password didn't have enough characters for the encryption. I dunno...just guessing....count the password characters and see if they are either 8 or 16. Lemme know if you figure something out.

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2008 7:47 AM in response to TopoTone

Thanks again for your suggestions. Nothing seemed to work, so I gave up. I suspect they are giving me an incorrect password, but am not sure. I'm having better luck using some Wi Fi at a friend's house who knows his password, allowing me to connect. The unable to connect remains a mystery.

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