Linksys Router, Can't Access Internet

Which Linksys model? Go to System Preferences>Network>Show:Airport>TCP/IP. Are you getting an ip address from the router? (Should be something like 192.168.1.101 or 100...). Does your mom get an ip address? Can her iMac access the internet?

Basics first.... You have a cable/dsl signal coming into a cable/dsl modem, and you've attached the Linksys router to the modem? Not clear what you mean when you say you're attaching the wireless router to your iMac, unless you mean after you've attached the wireless router to the cable/dsl modem and then directly attached the iMac to the router via an ethernet cable?

You might not like my suggestion, but here goes.

I went through three different Linksys routers of the same Model, and Linksys even went so far as to send me one direct from the factory (wondering if the factory direct was any different from the ones stocked on store shelves (sarcasm)).

Unlike you, I was able to set up the router just fine, only my problem was that I would get full speed, and in an hour or so my connection speed would drop, even slower than regular dial-up. Every time I called ?Tech Support?, we would spend hours doing everything to figure out what the problem was. (Never figuring out how we could go from 3000+ Mbps to under 64 Mbps in that hour's time)

I then went and got two more different Linksys routers, different model numbers, with the same results. My desktop, Dell (I know, I know) when connected would do just fine, it was when my PB was connected that the connection would drop.

To make a long and boring story short, I spent the extra money and bought the Airport Extreme Base station, and I have not had any problems since. I have since learned to be cautious to the peripheral's box stating Mac compatibility.

Don't get me wrong, Linksys is probably a good company, with good products, and I know people, even here on this board that have no problems whatsoever with them, but my experience will dictate that I never purchase another product from them, unless I am completely in a PC environment.

My $.02 worth. Good luck.

Dale

Basically there's nothing to change that I am aware of. My Linksys router, WRT54G, was pretty much plug and play. So if you furnish the info I suggested perhaps I can help.

The router is pretty smart, and will sync up with the modem without difficulty.

Since you have internet access, go to www.linksys.com. Click on support, techincal support, and easy answers. Click search by answer id. Here are two you want to look at:

#759 Setting up wireless security
#187 Setting up WPA on WRT54G

If you also search by phrase on 'setting up' and the name of your service provider, ie, might be Verizon for DSL or Comcast for cable. That will bring up a instructions for your service provider.

As Sig stated, the WRT54G is basically plug and play. However, you do need to enable security. 3 recommendations:

1) Disable SSID broadcast. You'll tell your PB the SSID, but others don't need to know it.

2) Protect your wireless information by using WPA Personal security, as WEP can be broken in 15 minutes. Use a long pass phrase which includes special characters like any of those above the numbers on the keyboard. Longer and complex is more secure. I had difficulty with WPA2 personal, as my PB would not connect coming out of sleep, however WPA Personal works fine.

3) Prevent others from sharing your internet connection by enabling mac filtering (use your systems airport id or in the system profiler go to network and use the mac address). That way, you only allow your machine, or others by choice, to use your connection.

That should get your router securely setup. Then on your PB connect by entering the network name (the router SSID), the type of security (WPA Personal), and your pass phrase.

Follow BGreg's advice and also password protect the access to the router. It is factory set at 'admin' but you should change that from the administration area of the router.

I am having a similar problem - can't get my iMac G5 to recognize my newly purchased linksys WRT54G. The router was configured by my company's tech support group so that I could use my company-supplied Dell Latitude D410 laptop wirelessly at home. This part works fine.

But, the iMac Airport network setup will not connect with the linksys router. When I try to get it to connect it asks for a network name (SSID?) and a password (pass phrase?), but when I enter the values given by my IT folks, they are not recognized.

Does anyone have a solution for this problem?

As far as the password is concerned try putting a '$' in front of it. See if that works.

The network name is the SSID in the router. You should be able to see that on your Dell when looking at that particular connection (Sorry, my XP machine is at work, not here).

Yes, thanks, the name I was given by my tech support group was shown on the Dell status bar. It is the same as the SSID name I have been using.

I got the Airport wireless connection working (I'm typing this note using it) by going to the Network Preferences, selecting Assist me, choosing Diagnostics. My network name was not displayed so I selected the hidden network option, and played with the Securtity and password options till I found the correct combination. It turns out that the selecting WEP-Hex for security and using the hexidecimal encryption key (which was fortunately also provided by my IT support group) was the correct combination.

So, now I am able to work wirelessly! Thanks to all for your help with this tricky setup.

Load factory defaults... Maybe you screwed sometinh up with the settings... or my suggestion: use different firmware, not Linksys's, like Alchemy...

Had the same problem between my PowerBook G4, a Belkin F5D7011 WiFi Card and a Linksys WAG54GX2 Router. Now fixed it

Mac OS X supports WEP, WPA, WPA2. But the encryption used varies from those found on non-Apple Wifi kit - (WPA2 Personal works fine with an Apple Airport Base Station).

Hence, "WPA Personal" on the Mac corresponds to plain WPA, with a pre-shared key (PSK) and TKIP encryption, on non-Apple wireless routers.

I was trying to use "WPA2 Personal", and could connect to the router with a strong signal, but no Internet. Changed this to "WPA Personal" and with TKIP encryption, and it works quickly.

The Belkin WiFi card is a "F5D7011" (Ver 1212UK). It uses a Broadcom chipset, which is what the Airport Extreme cards uses. Mac OS recongises it as an Airport Extreme card. So connecting with 802.11g speed.

TTFN,
Rich