G5 + Airport Extreme Card = No Network?!

Hello,

I have searched for this particular set of problems but found no answers:

I just got a G5 2.0 Dual, and a new Airport Extreme Card that I installed last night. I popped the CDROM that came with the AE card and installed the software also.

I have wireless running through my Motorola SBG900 Wireless cable modem/router. Have been running that network for years at home. I have a Windows laptop at the office upstairs and that sees my network along with 3-4 others from the neighborhood.

Well, the G5 sees the AE card but it does not see any networks. There are no networks seen in any of the pulldown menus when I try to connect. Not just my own, but it also sees none of the neighborhood network cources. I have tried to add my network, chosen "Others...." and typed in my case-sensitive network name and entered my password (with and without $ in front), and I keep getting "Airport has trouble connecting to this network" or some message like that.

My network is using WEP, but I have also turned that off to see....still cannot connect.

I have opened my G5 case multiple times, made sure that the antenna is connected firmly, and the card is inserted fully (and if G5 sees it it's not the card connection).

My questions are:

1. Is it still a signal strength problem? On my laptop in the same office I see 4/5 bars, 3/5 bars for my network and other nearby networks. I would think the G5 and AE card wouldn't have problem seeing them.

2. Is there such a thing as a broken antenna? It's fully inserted to the card....

3. I have turned off my network's security completely and it still does not show up. I would think that if it's just the security issues the network would still be detected just not able to be logged into. And the G5 would detect other networks also.

4. If somehow this G5/AE card combo cannot detect any wireless network, getting an Airport Extreme Base Station and hooking it up to my modem/router would not help, would it?

Thanks so much for your help.

Identical problem

I am having the exact same problem. Running a DIR 655 Dlink router.
My XP laptop can connect, my vista main desktop can see it and connect wirelessly, and the main xp desktop is connected to it through ethernet cable, but my G5 can't see any networks in the airport software.

I just upgraded to Leopard, didnt make a difference. SO far i've tried the following based on other posts.

Reset the router.
Power cycled the cable modem. Reinstalled the router on the desktop ethernet connection so it would broadcast again.
Reconnected the other desktop wirelessly

Configured the router as follows.
No security
CHanged from N to G, and then B...nothing worked so switched back to auto N G B

changed the threshold to 2306 from default 2346 (this was a tip i found someplace on the internet...still didn't work)

After all of this i just reset the router to deafult again, reinstalled on the local computer and set broadcast to no security

All the Pcs can see and connect. The mac saw it for one second, then dropped it. Now i can't see the network at all on my mac. I'm losing my mind so someone please help us!

kriss41,

I did a little more research and it turns out that later G5s like the dual and the quad cannot use the Airport Extremem card even though there is a slot for it.

It needs a completely different kit: both wireless and bluetooth, and it goes into the PCI-E slot.

It is listed as a "Mac installed, non-customer-installed" part, and when I called Apple today they say "We don't even know where to get it."

The "IT" goes by the code of ma252g/a, and if you search for that you will see many, many people owning G5 also have problems and are confused by this twist.

Finally, it is available for purchase and there are forums with photo instructions on how to install it (text in German) if you search for ma252g/a .... and it costs $210.

Hope this helps. There are also PCI cards by non-Apple parties (search macsales.com) but I don't think they work as well as having the Airport card from Apple because it probably will be controlled by non-Airport software so user interface is not as smooth?! But that might be my only hope of ever seeing the Internet.

A vital part for Internet connection is no longer available from Apple itself: such a silly problem for supposedly the last and the greatest of the G5s....

thanks very much, I was doing some research and saw this issue as well. Kind of dumb to have made a slot for the card if it isn't capable of using the hardware.

Anyway i fixed the issue myself, I took the wired route by switching the coax cables for the signal in the basement. Sad part is i no longer get satellite over that cable anymore but at least all my systems are online.

Cheers and thanks for the help!