OK--I have spent 6 hours on the phone with AppleCare people (5 of them actually--they kept moving me up the chain of specialists) and another hour with AllTel and still no solution.
I have some decent ability with my Mac but am not really "techie" so here goes with the issue and what I've tried, hope someone out there can help.
1st of all, the computers are from 2005 running OS 10.4.11 so is leopard a potential fix to this? Or a bigger kink?
1.) We switched from Sprint mobile broadband card (PX-500) in Feb. This card worked fine in both laptops and the internal airports would broadcast the internet connection between the two and my iPod and our mini. Switched to AllTel now using a USB Huawei EC168 wireless internet card (our phones are with AllTel and Sprint was going to change our limits, hence the switch). At first the USB internet worked exactly the same way...
2.) Internet via internal airport stopped working. We can get internet on the laptop currently connected to the USB card, but it will not broadcast via the internal airport. The USB card works on both laptops when plugged in to the card but they cannot get the broadcast and neither can the iPod. At first, when this happened I could turn off sharing and then turn it back on and *Magically* they could get internet! This little work-around stopped working after about a week. This is the best--AllTel says that "maybe the card *learned* that it wasn't supposed to do that" Seriously? The card 'learned'?
3.) AppleCare people tried everything--we discovered that everything on our Macs is working fine, the computers are communicating and the guy had me Ping (what ever that is--something with sending packets of data) them and it worked fine. I can "see" the computer in my airport status at the top and the levels even adjust for signal strength but NO INTERNET. Same thing on the iPod--I can "see" it but nothing works. Apple declares that it seems to be the fault of the wireless card...(which is LEARNING according to AllTel and which they "cannot support on Mac for the way we are using it") as nothing is wrong with the airports on our computers or the computers themselves.
4.) After searching high and low for other ideas (and to solve a printer sharing issue) we decided to get an AirPort extreme at the local mac-certified repair/dealer. We took in the wireless card and they said it would work with the AirPort extreme's USB port.
5.) I've now spent 4 hrs trying to set up the AirPort extreme to network the 2 laptops (and the mini eventually but that's not anything I've been working with so far) with the Huawei--no luck and frankly I'm not surprised. The Airport keeps blinking amber and I had to reset it twice after the initial attempt because the computer stopped recognizing it. When it asks how to connect to the internet it gives me 2 DSL or Cable options and LAN options or NO internet...none of these seem to be what I need...
Does ANYONE know what the heck I need to do? I'm within minutes of packing up the entire network and carting it to the Genius Bar at the mall and making them try it!
Thanks so much for any small tidbit of insight that can be given. Love my Mac, hating this mess.
I have some decent ability with my Mac but am not really "techie" so here goes with the issue and what I've tried, hope someone out there can help.
1st of all, the computers are from 2005 running OS 10.4.11 so is leopard a potential fix to this? Or a bigger kink?
1.) We switched from Sprint mobile broadband card (PX-500) in Feb. This card worked fine in both laptops and the internal airports would broadcast the internet connection between the two and my iPod and our mini. Switched to AllTel now using a USB Huawei EC168 wireless internet card (our phones are with AllTel and Sprint was going to change our limits, hence the switch). At first the USB internet worked exactly the same way...
2.) Internet via internal airport stopped working. We can get internet on the laptop currently connected to the USB card, but it will not broadcast via the internal airport. The USB card works on both laptops when plugged in to the card but they cannot get the broadcast and neither can the iPod. At first, when this happened I could turn off sharing and then turn it back on and *Magically* they could get internet! This little work-around stopped working after about a week. This is the best--AllTel says that "maybe the card *learned* that it wasn't supposed to do that" Seriously? The card 'learned'?
3.) AppleCare people tried everything--we discovered that everything on our Macs is working fine, the computers are communicating and the guy had me Ping (what ever that is--something with sending packets of data) them and it worked fine. I can "see" the computer in my airport status at the top and the levels even adjust for signal strength but NO INTERNET. Same thing on the iPod--I can "see" it but nothing works. Apple declares that it seems to be the fault of the wireless card...(which is LEARNING according to AllTel and which they "cannot support on Mac for the way we are using it") as nothing is wrong with the airports on our computers or the computers themselves.
4.) After searching high and low for other ideas (and to solve a printer sharing issue) we decided to get an AirPort extreme at the local mac-certified repair/dealer. We took in the wireless card and they said it would work with the AirPort extreme's USB port.
5.) I've now spent 4 hrs trying to set up the AirPort extreme to network the 2 laptops (and the mini eventually but that's not anything I've been working with so far) with the Huawei--no luck and frankly I'm not surprised. The Airport keeps blinking amber and I had to reset it twice after the initial attempt because the computer stopped recognizing it. When it asks how to connect to the internet it gives me 2 DSL or Cable options and LAN options or NO internet...none of these seem to be what I need...
Does ANYONE know what the heck I need to do? I'm within minutes of packing up the entire network and carting it to the Genius Bar at the mall and making them try it!
Thanks so much for any small tidbit of insight that can be given. Love my Mac, hating this mess.
