G4 Desktop Sawtooth won't connect to network, laptops in house will

Hello,

We have a Belkin router and our internet service is through Wild Blue Satellite, via Directv. We live in a rural area and our high-speed options are few. The desktop computer and the router (and the Wild Blue/Directv receiver) are all in a 2nd floor upstairs bedroom. The Wild Blue satellite dish is on the roof (duh.)

My iBook G4 laptop, my MacBook and my husband's Dell all connect just FINE to our network and we're able to surf and work online.

My iBook G4 has OS 10.4.11, the same as my desktop with the connection problem. My MacBook has OS 10.5.7, just FYI.

In the recent past, my G4 desktop "Sawtooth" was able to connect wirelessly to my Airport Base Station (now given away and out of the house), and then be online via dial-up. Since we switched to high-speed, I've not been able to get online with the desktop.

The desktop recognizes our network, and I'm able to enter the WPA password. But at that point I receive this error message:

An error occurred joining the selected wireless network. Would you like to try again?

And despite trying several work-arounds, using Airport set-up utility, etc - the same thing results. I am able to choose our network and enter our password, but then the error message comes up.

Thanks for any advice!
Michelle

Is your Belkin router upgraded to the latest firmware? I have noticed with some third party routers (D-Link, Belkin etc) Mac support was a bit sketchy until the latest firmware was installed.

It sounds like something is at issue with either the security setting of the router, or perhaps the firmware of the router itself. It's strange that one machine (your iBook) and the desktop are seeing different results even when they are running the same OS.

Have you tried temporarily using no security on the router to see if 'Sawtooth' can connect at all? Also, have you tried plugging the desktop directly into the router just to verify that connectivity works when eliminating wireless?

The only other thing I could think of would be interference between the devices. Perhaps try shutting everything BUT 'Sawtooth' down and try that.
Again, this is all just to eliminate some of the more obvious causes.

Thank you for the fast reply.

wmprice1240 said:

Is your Belkin router upgraded to the latest firmware?

Click to expand...

I'm a dork and don't know how to check for this. Any help?

wmprice1240 said:

It sounds like something is at issue with either the security setting of the router, or perhaps the firmware of the router itself. It's strange that one machine (your iBook) and the desktop are seeing different results even when they are running the same OS.

Click to expand...

That's what I thought was odd... and I was wondering if my wireless "card" installed in the desktop could be bad? I bought it a few years ago, it didn't come w/the machine. Granted, it worked OK to connect to the Air Port Base Station.

If it is the security setting of the router or firmware, then I don't understand why both my (aging, 2005) iBook can connect easily and the (new to me, 2008) MacBook connects easily... each with different OS's. (And of course my husband's Dell has had no troubles either.) Crazy! I've definitely lost sleep messing around with this, the past month.

wmprice1240 said:

Have you tried temporarily using no security on the router to see if 'Sawtooth' can connect at all? Also, have you tried plugging the desktop directly into the router just to verify that connectivity works when eliminating wireless?

Click to expand...

Haven't tried disabling the security... have to admit I don't know how to do that either. I'm a plug and play kind of gal... a Mac Geek for many things but when it comes to stuff like this... Ugh.

But yes, I did try connecting the desktop directly to the router (via ethernet cable) and that did NOT work... same exact error message. What does that tell you?

Again, I really appreciate your advice. I'll also try shutting off the laptops and see if the desktop can make connection then. Thanks for helping me out; it's great that Mac "people" are so helpful and friendly! (But I'm not surprised, as a life-long Mac person myself.)

Michelle

I'm a dork and don't know how to check for this. Any help?

Click to expand...

Your not a dork at all. The AEBS makes stuff like this quite easy, unfortunately, other vendors haven't really caught on yet First thing to do, get the model number of the router. This is usually as easy as looking at the bottom of the device, most likely you will find the serial number as well.

After doing this, navigate to Belkin's website and navigate to their support section. You should see a link that says something to the effect of 'Downloads' or 'Firmware Upgrades'. If this is anything like Linksys (now Cicso), it will allow you to enter in your model number. At this point you should see if there are any firmware upgrades available.

Note, some routers allows you to do this directly from the device. In contrast to the AEBS, many routers have an HTTP interface to the router and typically you can do something like http://192.168.0.1 or http://10. 0.1.0 and you will be taken to a web page to login. Note, this should be provided via the same page/interface that you used to setup your wireless security.

Either way you accomplish it, you should get the latest firmware file, navigate to the section in your router where it allows for a firmware upgrade and upload the latest firmware file to the device.

Note, I am sorry I can't be more specific on the router itself. I have never used Belkin, but most routers function the same way and provide the same sort of firmware upgrade path.

That's a place for us to start.

In reading your message, I am starting to think it might not be the router at all since it doesn't work when directly connected either. Note, when doing this you should shut off the Airport completely and just use the physical ethernet jack.

ok try this, connect the desktop to an ethernet cable and run updates, all of them. my old powerbook g4 had a similar problem, the old "airport"(802.11b) cards did not support WPA until later on when apple released an update. after you update the system completely it should work. if you are still having problems you can test everything by turning off the security on the router, there should be no issues there, you may have a router new enough to support WPA2 which will differently not work with that card you would have to have an airport extreme card which you cant get for that system.