Airport Connection Problems

Hey guys!! After my PC laptop gave up the ghost after less than 2 years and having countless other problems with PC's I have owned I finally switched over and picked up an iBook (14" 1.33 Mhz, 512 RAM, Combo Drive).

When I got it I had no problems. It automatically connected to my wireless network and I was on the internet in a matter of minutes. Then all of a sudden yesterday it started saying it could not access web pages. After digging a little deeper my airport card info says I have an assigned IP address and that I may not be able to access the internet.

How do I get it back to the way it was? I guess I need to remove that IP address but I have no idea how. It did it all for me the first time.

I am typing this on my PC desktop and I am dying to get back to my iBook. After fixing this is there anyway to prevent it from happening again?

any computer that connects to the internet will have an ip address, so I dont think thats the problem. have you tried any basic os x troubleshooting, like resetting pram? have you recently (since the problem started) installed any new software or hardware? does the menubar show any connection? has anyone else used the ibook lately that could've accidentally changed your settings?

I get my internet connection through the router so I think setting it to a static IP is similar to setting a hard wired dial up connection, right? I could be totally off base about that.

"have you tried any basic os x troubleshooting, like resetting pram?"

No and in fact I know nothing of this pram of which you speak. I was going by the little info box that the airport card gave me that said the IP had been set and I may not be able to access the internet.

"have you recently (since the problem started) installed any new software or hardware?"

The only things I have installed have been the Firefox browser and the Macromedia MX Suite. There was no problem after either of those things were installed. I did download an extension for Firefox and it wasn't long after that when the internet connection was lost. I removed the extension but I doubt that is the problem.

"does the menubar show any connection?"

My menubar shows that the airport card is activated and working but I am not sure what else to look for.

"has anyone else used the ibook lately that could've accidentally changed your settings?"

No. I am the only one using it and as a matter of fact I had been using it earlier that night with no problem. I walked away for awhile and when I came back the iBook was sleeping. When I wole it up it did have an alert box that asked me if I wanted to shut it done ot put it to sleep. I have never had that pop up before. Then when I tried to access the internet it was not accessible through either Firefox or Safari.

to reset pram, shut down your mac, while starting up, hold down command+option+P+R until you hear the mac startup 'chime' 3 times, then release the keys and allow it to start up all the way.

i got this problem yesterday. and i simply rebooted and it connected.

Try opening System Preferences and selectin Network. Select your AirPort configuration, and click "Renew DHCP Lease."

It's possible that the IP address your laptop was assigned is no longer available.

I talked to the Apple support and they said that the IP address or DHCP address changed within the router or something like that. They told me to go to the router web page and it should reset but because I get no internet I can't do that. The IP address is has now (which starts with 169.----) is apparently not a valid IP address. I ahve to figure out how to fix that. I will try the renew button.

What does "pram" mean?

And what does resetting it actually do?

Sorry guys... super tech savvy (pc's), but not down with the Apple lingo yet.

Thanks,

VNL.

parameter ram, saves stuff like settings, some caches, among other things. read the link above.

Thanks guys... so according to that article, your suggestion to reset the PRAM wouldn't help, right? It says that in OS X, network settings aren't stored in PRAM.

NO, that didn't help. It was a router issue not a MAC issue and it was corrected with a short call to linksys, I thought there was a problem with the iBook settings but it sinply wasn't getting the correct info from the router. Thanks for all of the help.

BTW I love this MAC and wish I had switched a long time ago. Apple support was wonderful as well. Quick, friendly and very knowledgable.

Hey Johnny... what did Linksys end up telling you to do? What was the solution?