Lost Ability to Connect to WiFi

Here's an update for anyone that might be interested or have a similar problem. Recycled the wireless router turning on and off WPA security and also restarted the iMac a couple of times. At some point, the iMac connected to the router with WPA on. So, it is an intermittent problem. Talked to an associate at the Apple Store here tonight and he said that they had had some issues with a version of 10.6 connecting to the wireless out of the box. He couldn't remember which one though. I decided to upgrade to 10.6.8. We'll see how this goes. Stay tuned. . . .

OK. Since the last post I upgraded to 10.6.8. Was working fine for awhile. Then two days ago the iMac failed to connect again. The message is "none of your preferred networks is available" even though the network is stored in the network preferences. Haven't been able to get it back even after numerous restarts of the router and computer. All my other devices still connect with no problems. Going to the Apple Store sometime soon.

No. That might be a good idea. The router is ancient by electronics standards, about eight years old. The odd thing is that my 2009 MBP running 10.6.8 also has had no problems connecting, ever. So, I'll look into thi but I don't have much confidence that the router is the culprit.

Thanks for the tips rkaufmann87. Unfortunately, nothing has worked so far. I tried the tips on the CNET site first with no luck, removing preferences and all then I just now upgraded the router firmware. It's an Actiontec GT704WG. Nothing has changed. The Macbook Pro that I'm currently writing on is still connecting fine through wireless and so are the iPods but the iMac isn't. I'll try some of the tricks on CNET again but I'm not having a lot (any) confidence in this approach.

To continue the saga. Haven't been able to connect for awhile. Went to the Apple store tonight and had a genius appointment. From my description of the problem he was inclined to believe nothing is wrong with the iMac. Even though the other devices I own connect and the Macbook Pro runs the same version of the operating system, they have different hardware for the 802.11x and so may react differently to the router. I was going to take it to work tomorrow but when I fired it up tonight and turned Airport on, guess what, it connected.

Earlier in the evening, I had to recycle the router for some unknown reason and its stability during the power on/off cycle is questionable. It sometimes has to be shut off twice to restart, so I am now thinking that our modem/router is a prime suspect. This thinking is in direct opposition to what I have posted earlier.

The intermittent nature of the problem bugs me though. We'll see.

Yes Glo Waves. I pretty sure it's router related. All my other devices connect all the time but the iMac is 'pickier'. Lately, it's stayed connected for 4 days straight now. Intermittent problems are very hard to diagnose correctly. I haven't bought a new DSL modem and router yet but I plan to get a dual simultaneous 2.4/5 GHz router. The N runs at the higher frequency and thereby has less chance of interfering with the B/G side. Also, you can't the full throughput of N without moving to the higher speed. It's nice that the iMac is connected now though. I'm actually typing this on it.

Yes amigon. I think that is your best strategy. Borrow someone else's newer/different router and try it out. I think that you will find that your computer is probably fine. And really, who wants to give up OSX for Windows 7 anyway. It's really just not as well thought out as Apple's system. And it's definitely more secure on the internet and especially the WWW. If ProE and Solidworks were written natively for OSX I wouldn't own Windows anything.