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Mac Forum / General / Networking / December 2005AirPort Extreme not working well with LinkSys WRT54GS
Hello All, I just spent the entire day trying to get a new airport extreme card (for iBook G4 on OS 10.3.9) working with our WRT54GS router. After much work, I am only able to connect with 1 bar of bandwidth power, which soon drops to none. This is with no security (open), via DHCP. Anyone know the magic settings/setup to make these pieces work together? We are about to just go ahead and buy an Airport base, which seems to me a waste of money. Thoughts? -KJ > Hello All, > > I just spent the entire day trying to get a new airport extreme card > (for iBook G4 on OS 10.3.9) working with our WRT54GS router. After much > work, I am only able to connect with 1 bar of bandwidth power, which > soon drops to none. This is with no security (open), via DHCP. you don't say how far apart the ibook and base station are. assuming they are reasonably close (i.e. you can see both of them at the same time), you should be getting *much* more than one bar. my first guess is the antenna cable in the ibook is not properly connected to the airport extreme card. you might also try taking the ibook to a public wireless hotspot and see how well it does there. > Anyone know the magic settings/setup to make these pieces work > together? We are about to just go ahead and buy an Airport base, which > seems to me a waste of money. there are no magic settings. the linksys wrt-54gs is a standard 802.11g router and should work fine. > I just spent the entire day trying to get a new airport extreme card > (for iBook G4 on OS 10.3.9) working with our WRT54GS router. After much [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > together? We are about to just go ahead and buy an Airport base, which > seems to me a waste of money. You need to determine whether the Airport card isn't working specifically with the router or isn't working generally. Try taking the iBook to a public Wifi hotspot and see if it works well there. Then we can proceed from there.  SignatureMike Rosenberg <http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida <http://www.cafepress.com/macconsult,macconsult4> Mac-themed T-shirts <http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart Will do today and then report back. Thanks -KJ OK, went to a WIFI hotspot in town, SSID of hotspot never shows up in the menu icon (0 bars). I guess I'll check the antenna cable. If that's OK, what should I do next? > OK, went to a WIFI hotspot in town, SSID of hotspot never shows up in > the menu icon (0 bars). I guess I'll check the antenna cable. If that's > OK, what should I do next? What you need to try is remove the Airport Extreme card from the iBook, disconnect the antenna, then put it all back in and see if it works. If it does, great, problem solved. If it doesn't, well, unfortunately you have no way of knowing if the problem is the card or the antenna cable. One of my clients had this problem, and I swapped his new Airport Extreme card with the one in my own iBook. The problem followed the card--my card was fine in his iBook, his card got next to no signal in mine--so we knew he had to get the card replaced. There's no way of knowing without trying something like this if you're in the same situation. Where did you buy the card? Was it local or did you have it shipped? If it was local, you'd probably be best off bringing your iBook and the card in and see if you can get them to do some experimentation. SignatureMike Rosenberg <http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida <http://www.cafepress.com/macconsult,macconsult4> Mac-themed T-shirts <http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart OK, I did as you recommended, and it's working much faster. Web page load time is better, but it still takes around 5 seconds for the nytimes.com home page to load. However, different places in the house get varying reception. Sitting next to the router, I get 4 bars, and, while downloading the realplayer setup, I got 450KB download speeds (very nice). I actually get 5 bars two rooms away from the router, but only 4 sitting next to it. Anyhow, I would call this problem solved. We are using WPA-TKIP, with no SSID broadcast, and manual IP address, and all are working. Of course, I must thank you all for making this happen! BTW, does using the "use interference robustness" feature degrade speed? > OK, I did as you recommended, and it's working much faster. Great! It sounds like the antenna cable may not have been fully seated in the card. SignatureMike Rosenberg <http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida <http://www.cafepress.com/macconsult,macconsult4> Mac-themed T-shirts <http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart Yes, it looks like the hardware issue was solved. However, when I ran CNet's bandwidth tester, I got the following results: PC with Belkin wirless PCI card: 1065.8 kbps iBook G4 with AirPort Extreme card: 132.9 kbps These machines are equidistant from the router! When I take the iBook into the basement, there is no bandwidth at all. What would you suggest for a next step in troubleshooting? > What would you suggest for a next step in troubleshooting? Is there any possibility of swapping your Airport Express card with another one for testing purposes? SignatureMike Rosenberg <http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida <http://www.cafepress.com/macconsult,macconsult4> Mac-themed T-shirts <http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart I wish there were. I don't know any other mac folks, unfortunately. Is such bandwidth typical? > I wish there were. I don't know any other mac folks, unfortunately. Is > such bandwidth typical? I just did the CNET bandwidth test here and got 1077.4 kbps (with DSL service that has a maximum of 1.5 Mbps), so your PC compares well with my Mac, but your iBook's connection is very slow. SignatureMike Rosenberg <http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida <http://www.cafepress.com/macconsult,macconsult4> Mac-themed T-shirts <http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart > I wish there were. I don't know any other mac folks, unfortunately. Is > such bandwidth typical? Do you live near an Apple Store? (Sorry if you already said you don't; I'm jumping in this thread late.) Maybe you could run the test there and the Geniuses will let you try out a different Airport card to see if that makes a difference. - geoff I ended up returning the card to where I bought it. Are there any non-Apple brand wirless G devices for the iBook g4? |
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