problems with wifi on imac

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problems with wifi on imac

I inherited my Dad's imac and am having problems with the built in wifi. I got the imac to connect with an old airport express which is connected to a netgear router. The airport icon in the upper right hand corner shows a strong signal yet I can't seem to connect to the internet. My ipad has no issues. When I try to go anywhere on the internet, the browser trys to connect and then times out. When I connect the imac directly to the router, it works fine. So, basically a hard wired ethernet connection works but the airport wifi does not. Any ideas?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 2:26 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 22, 2013 2:29 PM in response to Mark-22

Try the basics first:

Change your router channel number. Most times this works & is all you have to do.

Disconnect & reconnect your modem. unplug it for about 10 seconds. Plug it back in. Do the same for Apple’s routers. Wait for everything to reboot.

System Preferences>Network

Click the Assist Me button.

In the next window that pops up, click the Diagnostic button & do the necessary.

Research Knowledge Base for network problems that pertain to the OS that is currently installed on your computer. See these basic networking KB Articles: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1401 AirPort troubleshooting guide

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628
Wi-Fi: How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712 Using network locations in Mac OS X

Manually provided DNS server addresses are higher priority than DHCP's

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1714 Solutions for connecting to the Internet, setting up a small network, and troubleshooting

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What to do when you can't connect to the Internet

Also, run the Airport Utility app which is located inside the Utilities folder.

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If using a Linksys router, contact LinkSys Customer Support and/or post in their forums.

If using Apple's Airport, please re-post over in one of the AirPort Forums.

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Answer 2

Mark-22 Author

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Oct 22, 2013 2:38 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

I tried the assist me/diagnostics. It said my internet connection appears to be working correctly yet the network status said failed on the last two radio buttons. Those being internet and server. The first 4 are all green.

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Answer 3

Oct 22, 2013 2:43 PM in response to Mark-22

Mark-22 wrote:

I tried the assist me/diagnostics. It said my internet connection appears to be working correctly yet the network status said failed on the last two radio buttons. Those being internet and server. The first 4 are all green.

Read Netgears user manual and/or contact their tech support. Or contact your ISP. Your router & iMac network settings are not in sync w/each other.

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Answer 4

Mark-22 Author

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Oct 22, 2013 2:48 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

If that's the case, why would the imac work just fine when a direct ethernet connection to the router is used?

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Answer 5

Oct 22, 2013 2:52 PM in response to Mark-22

Network wifi & ethernet have different settings. Your problem is w/your wifi settings between your router & your iMac.

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Answer 6

Mark-22 Author

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Oct 22, 2013 3:03 PM in response to Baby-Boomer-USofA

I'm a little confused. My router is not wifi. I have an old Airport express connected to it. I used the airport utility and confirmed all the express settings. My wife's ipad and iphone connect and work just fine with the airport express. My imac connects to the express and shows a strong signal but there is no internet connection. The only thing I can do in the network prefs on the imac is click on airport, choose our wifi network and connect. Am I missing something? You turn wifi on for the ipad and iphone and it automatically finds the network and connects. Shouldn't the imac do the same?

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Answer 7

Mark-22 Author

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Oct 22, 2013 3:16 PM in response to Mark-22

OK, I figured it out. I had set my ethernet connection manually instead of using DHCP and that was what was screwing up the wifi connection. Don't know why that would be but I got the wifi connection working. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 8

Oct 22, 2013 4:42 PM in response to Mark-22

Happy to hear you worked it out. Thanks for reporting back.

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