Unable to join Airport Network

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Unable to join Airport Network

I am being baffled by a network problem.

I have 2 Macs, a MBP 17 inch running Snow Leopard and an old Powerbook G4 running 10.4. Both connect to a no security (ie no password wireless) network at home. "Suddenly" the MBP will not join the wireless network (A DSL model D-Link). Error message when running diagnostics of "Unable to join Airport network.....". The G4 works just fine.

Have tried rebooting both devices ie the MBP and the D-Link. The MBP will work fine with a cable attached to the D-Link but not wirelessly!

Also, the MBP can see the Powerbook in the FINDER under "Shared".

Any ideas?

Thanks
BF

iMac Intel Core Duo Nuclear Reactor, Mac OS X (10.6.1), Nice Big Screen

Posted on Dec 30, 2009 5:09 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 30, 2009 5:42 PM in response to Doctor Spock

This will sometimes work in situations like this:

Open System Preferences on the MBP and click on Network
Click the Airport connection on the left and then click Advanced at the lower right
Click on the name of the network to highlight it and click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to delete the network
Restart your computer and then click the Airport icon at the top of the screen to select and log on to the network again

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Answer 2

Doctor Spock Author

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Dec 30, 2009 6:20 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks Bob, I tried that and it said "connection timeout" when I tried to join the network via the airport symbol on the RH top side of screen.

Here's the weird thing. I just joined a Vista machine the network without any problems. Maybe I should put in a WEP password and see what happens.

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Answer 3

Dec 30, 2009 8:18 PM in response to Doctor Spock

Can you get into the D-Link to see what type of security the network is using? Some WEP networks require a 13 character password. You might experiment by first entering a $ (dollar sign) as the first character when you enter the password.

Example: Normal Password is "password". Enter as "$password" (without the quotation marks).

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Answer 4

Doctor Spock Author

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Dec 30, 2009 10:17 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Yeah, thanks Bob, I got my MBP Safari to talk to D-Link via the http://10.1.1.1 address, put in a WEP password. Saved the changes and restarted the router. When I connect via Airport it asks for a password - I type it in then it times out. Then I went to the Powerbook and the Vista machine and they connected fine. I used my iphone and told it the password and it also worked fine.

I prefixed it on my MBP with $ and without $ - all to no avail. I am starting to think maybe the MBP wants a WPA password for some reason. It worked fine until last night! Very strange indeed. Any more ideas?

What gets me is that one moment it works and the next it is dead as a dodo...

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Answer 5

Dec 31, 2009 6:52 AM in response to Doctor Spock

I would suggest as a test, open System Preferences and click on Accounts and set up another user account. Try to log on with that account.

Try WPA/WPA2 Personal security if you can to see if that makes a difference. WEP is no longer considered secure, but you may need to use it if some of your devices are not compatible with WPA encryption.

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Answer 6

b boy

Level 1

10 points

Dec 31, 2009 8:13 AM in response to Doctor Spock

If you are with SL 10.6.2, this is caused by an update. My new imac can't connect to the wifi network and only does when I restart the router and the connection drops every 30 sec. I have to press the renew dhcp to get something out of it. (1/10 the usual speed)

Can't tell you how frustrating this is. Being a web designer I need this. But my macbook running on 10.5 does the "internet" job right now...

see here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2142725&start=420&tstart=0

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Answer 7

Doctor Spock Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 1, 2010 12:14 AM in response to b boy

Thanks Bob - tried all you suggested but still no connection.

"Black Book Design" - your link was incredibly interesting. Seems to me Apple goofed on several areas wrt SL.

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