PowerMac G4 with new airport card installed, can't connect to Network

Question

Level 1

0 points

PowerMac G4 with new airport card installed, can't connect to Network

Okay,
I've been helping a friend from a distance. She has a PowerMac G4 running 10.4.11.
She installed an airport card in the Powermac so she could connect with her airport base station.
The bars are greyed out. I had her go into network preferences and change from ethernet to airport, but she gets that revolving message about the preferences having been changed over and over. I had her force quite out of system preferences.
Shouldn't the card just work and allow her to join a network?
Should she zap the pram?
I'm not sure what base station she has, but she is using that with a fairly recent mac book.

Thanks for any help you can give us!
Anne Z

Mac Pro,G4 400,iBook466, Mac OS X (10.6.2), Have upgraded all the above models

Posted on Feb 6, 2010 7:41 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,702 points

Feb 8, 2010 8:15 AM in response to AnneZ

Hi Anne,

Refer to this earlier post. The actions listed there seem to fix the "network preferences have been changed by another application" message.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2076311&tstart=60

Reply

Answer 2

Motorwiz

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2010 6:51 PM in response to AnneZ

One thing you might try is clicking on the Airport logo at the top of the screen. Then when the network login comes up see if it's able to find the home base for your friend's network. When it finds the network and you try to connect it may ask for a WPA password. WEP is possible but for some reason when you reboot the system forgets the login and you have to do it every time. Not the same for WPA. Try that and maybe the wireless server can be set up for WPA2 which is what I'm using.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 11, 2010 7:54 PM in response to AnneZ

Download & install the freeware utility, MacStumbler, at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8035
It can verify that the wireless is working.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

Reply

Answer 4

AnneZ Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2010 8:43 PM in response to AnneZ

Yes, that got my friend out of that cycle.
Now, the airport card is not finding the base station.
Any ideas?

Reply

Answer 5

AnneZ Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2010 8:57 PM in response to AnneZ

MacStumbler was helpful.

My friend has a macbook on her home network. Sitting right next to the powerMac G4 with the new airport card (which shows up in the more info) she can get the macbook online, but the G4 shows no bars, and no networks show up to choose from.
Is there a setting we are missing. she has airport selected in network configurations.
hmm.
I'm stumped right now.
Anne Z

Reply

Answer 6

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,702 points

Feb 12, 2010 9:47 AM in response to AnneZ

I'm no wireless expert, but I believe the slower wireless "b" protocol that the original Airport cards used could not support the same kind of encryption available on later "g" and "n" routers. Your friend could try turning off encryption on the wireless router temporarily; if that gets the G4 online, encryption compatibility could well be the issue.

You might also surf through the Tiger OS Networking forum here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=755

Reply