I need some airport help please

Howdy.

My Linksys 802.11G router has been acting flaky lately so I have connected my G4 tower directly to my cable modem via ethernet. I have an airport card installed in the tower and I have turned on internet sharing. My idea is to share the working connection that my tower has with my powerbook via its airport extreme card. My powerbook's airport menu shows that it is connected to my tower's airport and shows a tiny bit of network activity (I have menu meters installed). I am not able to do anything with the connection with the powerbook though. I cant surf, ichat wont connect, and email doesnt work. The tower is connected to the cable modem just fine, I am able to surf, ichat and email normally. Any help appreciated. I would rather be connected in this way and avoid buying an airport base station. I am currently logged onto msn, ichat/aim and yahoo. Anyone bored this evening and want to help me troubleshoot? or just post suggestions.

thanks!
bill

specs:
Powermac G4 FW800 MDD, dual 1.25ghz, 1.25gb ram, OS 10.3.8, Airport Extreme card installed.
Powerbook G4 17", 1.67ghz, 1.5gb ram, OS 10.3.8, Airport Extreme card

hmm, if I understand correctly, the g4 tower is the hub/access point, the pb gets no connection, in network preferences, is it set to use the ap card? also, have you tried network utility on the pb, have you checked the router setting via the pb by inserting the routyers ip into safari's url field as you should have when you first set it up?

Macman said:

hmm, if I understand correctly, the g4 tower is the hub/access point, the pb gets no connection, in network preferences, is it set to use the ap card? also, have you tried network utility on the pb, have you checked the router setting via the pb by inserting the routyers ip into safari's url field as you should have when you first set it up?

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yes, I am attempting all this without using my router. I have the cable modem plugged directly into the tower via ethernet. I am then attempting to share that connection via airport with my powerbook. My powerbook sees this little "network" but can't seem to use it. I have tower's internet sharing turned on and it set to share the ethernet's connection via airport. rather puzzling.

thanks!

bill

a quick troubleshooting method would to be to share everything out. if you can surf, stop sharing things one by one, checking for connection after each stop. when the connection stops, share what ever stopped the connection and check to make sure none of the other shares stop the connection. when finished, share out everything that stopped the connection and stop the ones that didnt. hope this helps and hope you can understand.

Dylan

ps i tried this with a friend that has a pc notebook and it worked after i went through he previously stated process

wkw said:

yes, I am attempting all this without using my router. I have the cable modem plugged directly into the tower via ethernet. I am then attempting to share that connection via airport with my powerbook. My powerbook sees this little "network" but can't seem to use it. I have tower's internet sharing turned on and it set to share the ethernet's connection via airport. rather puzzling.

thanks!

bill

Click to expand...

the airport card will only work using a router of some kind, the tower has no antenna and will broadcast no signal, if you are getting any sign of a connection, its most likely from a neighbors wireless connection, not the tower. and what dylan said may help if I'm not understanding you correctly, the purpose of the router is to rout the connection to the laptop, so its necessary to use the router.
it's simple really, like saying your going to drive somewhere, and having no wheels, it's not gonna work.