New PS3 slim cant connect to older AirPort Base Station

hey all,

just brought home a new 120gig PS3 slim and am having trouble getting it to connect to my Airport Base Station. the PS3 can see my network, but after typing in my WEP password, it cant get an IP. its an older base station and doesnt have the option for WPA/WPA2, only WEP.

here's another problem. whenever i try to type in my entire WEP password (12 characters) i get an error message from the PS3 saying the password can only be 5 or 13 characters (for ASCII), so........ i changed my WEP password to be only 5 characters. BUT after typing in that 5 character password, the PS3 ADDS 3 characters (for a total of 8) for some stupid reason. SO when i change the password to be 8 characters i get the error message saying IT HAS TO BE 5 CHARACTERS!!!! i'm about to go totally insane. any help would be appreciated.

p.s. i have an older g4 tower and newer intel macbook that can connect perfectly fine....

EDIT
PS3 site says that no matter how many characters are in your WEP password, it will always display 8 asterisks.

would a firmware update for my base station maybe work? anyone?

i read that there's a way to just add the MAC address from the PS3 to my list of approved machines on my AirPort. anyone ever done that?

so doing a manual IP and DNS seemed to get closer. it now gets an IP but now i get a DNS error. any help would be appreciated.