Mac Airport Problem
 

Hey all,

My Airport used to work great for sharing my internet wirelessly with my ThinkPad running Windows XP. Ever since we upgraded to Leopard, though, I can't make the XP machine connect to the wireless network. The PC shows the Airport network in the wireless networks viewer, but it times out when trying to connect to the network. I've searched pretty tirelessly online trying to find something, but I've had no luck. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it greatly.

Thanks!

Do you have WEP enabled?

Are you using the Airport Utility to configure the Airport or are you using Internet Connection Sharing?

OS X firewall on?

Just internet connection sharing. I don't think I have the firewall turned on. Under airport security of the network I have set up, it says "none."

WEP encryption is on on the Mac, though I've tried it both ways and had no luck either way.

I had some serious problems getting the airport to work with any PC I had...finally gave up and bought a linksys wireless modem ....then got rid of the last remaining PC in the house for a mac lol...still use linksys tho :shrug:

I have a friend at work who is a super mac enthusiast and even he admits that he's had nothing but problems with his Airport. In fact, he set it up to automatically reboot like once a day because it is so bad. Actually, I had the same experience with the first wireless router I bought - a Belkin. I bought a Buffalo brand router for $50 and have had zero issues with it.

I should add that this is an airport extreme card in a g5, not an external airport.

You might check and see if your firewall is turned on, as that may be blocking your internet connection sharing. I've even seen it do that when the firewall is set to allow access for internet sharing. Make sure it's off at least to test it.

Okay. I'll try it when I get home tonight.

Check your Internet Sharing options and make sure the channel is not set to Automatic. Airport devices set to auto can be on channels 1-13. XP boxes can usually only handle channels 1-11. Airports set to auto usually pick channel 13 when set to auto, and it sometimes screws with XP boxes that can't use that channel. Try setting the channel manually to 11.

And I'd turn WEP off during testing. Just to make sure that's not the problem.

Ahh. That's good to know and could definitely be an issue. I'm fairly sure that channel is currently set to automatic.

WEP is off. Firewall is off. Channel is set to 11.

Still no luck. :(

New info:

I tried to launch my airport utility to follow a hunch from the airport utility help. When I do and scan, it doesn't pick up any wireless devices. Shouldn't it be picking up my airport so I can configure it?

I'm not sure that you can have Internet Sharing on and use the Airport Utility at the same time. You might try to turn off Internet Sharing and then run the Airport Utility, see if that makes a difference....

Alright. Turned Internet Sharing off, and it still doesn't pick up the Airport. Doesn't pick it up with either Airport Setup Assistant or Airport Utility. It looks like the Leopard Install horked my Airport somehow. I was about to upgrade RAM anyway, so they're going to get to work on this while they're at it.

When you go to System Profiler and look at the Airport Card, does it show your card and the correct settings or does it say Airport Card Not Found? I've seen a Leopard upgrade lose the Airport card during the process, and it needed an Archive and Install to fix.

Card Locale correct? I've seen a card locale set to UK cause problems.

Everything looks good there, except it says, "Wireless network not available"

Edit: Just went and did "Create Wireless Network" and now it's showing that network. Channel 11, network type is computer to computer network.

Before, I never had to have an actual Wireless Network set up, though. I just did internet sharing. When I do C2C network, that shows up along with the shared wireless connection in the show wireless connections window of the XP Machine. The wireless connection times out. The C2C connection gives me messages about the settings on my XP machine not allowing such things (it's a work machine, and not technically mine. I don't fiddle with it much).

Alright, I'm out for the night before I throw a computer through a window. Good thing we have a Mac store in town. One of my best friends who is also a Mac Store manager in Portland, OR is also coming into town in two weeks for a wedding.

Maaaaaaybe.....

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...orwindows.html