PCI Airport Extreme won't connect to home WIFI

Question

Level 1

0 points

PCI Airport Extreme won't connect to home WIFI

Here is my problem:

I have a Power Mac G5 and we have a home network using a Linksys router & modem hooked to a windows PC. I cannot get Power Mac to work with home LAN w/ WEP password. I have a generic PCI Airport Extreme card I bought on eBay. (shows as 3rd party wireless)

The airport card gives me full bars on the menu. And if I go to Network Preferences, I can choose join networks and my neighbors WIFI show up (locked). When I enter network name & password, it marks it as invalid. I know its correct because I have a Pismo with the old airport card and it works. My brother has his windows PC & laptop and those are both wireless.

I already tried removing the preference list, but not sure if I got all the ones that might need to be removed. Wired ethernet works fine, I'm using it to connect to internet.

TIA

Power Mac G5 1.8GHz DP rev. 2, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 3GB RAM / 160GB & 80GB HD / DVD / OSX 10.5.8

Posted on Oct 3, 2009 7:10 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 9, 2009 11:09 AM in response to natgab

The airport card gives me full bars on the menu. And if I go to Network Preferences, I can choose join networks and my neighbors WIFI show up (locked).

It not quite clear if yours shows up!?

Reply

Answer 2

natgab Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2009 11:19 PM in response to BDAqua

In the join networks, I only get my neighbor's wifi. I click the add network tab, and then type in my network name & password. But after i enter the information, it will not let me save. It gives me error.

I have tried to erase the Pref. files but I am not sure if I got the right ones.

Reply

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 13, 2009 11:37 PM in response to natgab

See if this helps...

Go to System Preferences

Click Network

Highlight AirPort and click Configure...

Choose “By default, join: Preferred networks”

Select your access point.

Remove your access point with the minus ➖ button.

Launch your keychain access in Utilities and delete your access point keychain entry.

Reboot

Go back to the “By default, join:” page and click the plus ➕ this time to add your access point. Enter the correct password, save, reboot.

If that doesn;t do it...

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions.

Trash these files, rebot & setup everything again...

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconnect.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/ByHost/com.apple.PrefPane.Network.<12digitHexNumber> .plist

Or...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.networkConnect.<12digit HexNumber>.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.networkConnect.<etherne t MAC address>.plist
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist

Reply

Answer 4

natgab Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 16, 2009 11:52 PM in response to BDAqua

I realized I had tried the keychain delete before posting, but forgot to list it.

I just did the 2nd option. The safe boot, repair permissions & delete the listed pref. files. But one thing, I did not have these:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/ByHost/com.apple.PrefPane.Network.<12digitHexNumber> .plist

Still, I keep getting " password invalid "?

Could it possibly be my card? It is a generic card.

Reply

Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 17, 2009 11:20 AM in response to natgab

I can't imagine a Card old enough not to support WEP, which is quite old & can be broken into in under a minute these days, but do you know the Brand/Model of the card?

Is the WEP PW HEX or ASCII? How many characters is it?

Have you tried putting a Dollar Sign ($) in front of it, or enclosing in Quotes if an ASCII one?

Reply

Answer 6

natgab Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 25, 2009 2:01 PM in response to BDAqua

My card only says " third party airport card ", and like I said it is a cheap ebay card. It came in an OEM white box. It might just be a illegal Broadcom clone, that was not done right?

I guess I will have to stick to wired internet. It's a desktop so its no big deal. Just wanted to get a second internet connection so I could use the wired one for my iMac running Debian Linux. But i think I will just dual boot on the Power Mac G5 instead.

Reply

Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 25, 2009 2:16 PM in response to natgab

I have these and they work fine for Wifi... WEP, WPA, & WPA2...

http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_XLR8YourMac.cfm?ID=11491&Item=NWTMXP802GU2

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Asus/WL167G/

Reply

Answer 8

Oct 28, 2009 12:36 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi is your router broadcasting it's SSID. If it is set to 'Hide SSID:' then you can't connect as it can't see it.

Check your wifi routers settings, my 'Hide SSID:' is under the routers wireless advance settings.

Hope this helps

Reply