It appears that Maccie object of worship Apple never bothered to test Leopard and AirPort together
- From: Tommy <tom_elam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:57:24 -0800
A few tips from MacFixIT (and yes Maccies, as always I'm just trying
to help you)
Here's a collection of various suggestions from our readers about how
to cure troubles with an AirPort network on Leopard. While we're
waiting for Leopard System Update 10.5.1 (any day now, we hope!),
which may contain fixes for this and other problems, you might like to
try some of these approaches, in your copious free time.
Some users are having trouble logging on to a network that has a WEP
password. For example:
After installing Leopard, I've been unable to log into my home
network. I have a Snow Airport base station, but when I try to join
the network, I get a window that says my network requires a WEP
password. Typing in my password results in a message that says
"incompatible security". No go. But I can go to System Preferences,
select "network", select Airport, click on "assist me", and run the
diagnostics. Six or eight keystrokes later, I'm online.
Notice that in that case, logging on is possible through the Assist Me
dialog.
Another reader suggests that WEP connection problems can be
ameliorated by changing the password, and in particular, by changing
it to a 128-bit hex key:
We are an ISP and have many different wireless DSL modems out in the
field. We have had problems since Leopard with trying to connect to
certain of the routers that were using WEP rather than WPA. This
happens when there is an old PC in the house and it doesn't support
WPA, so we have to go with WEP. We have generally gone with 64 bit WEP
(10 chars) as with Windows you have to type it in twice, and getting
people to type in 10 chars the same twice is a challenge. 128 bit WEP
requires 26 chars, and getting anybody to type that in twice correctly
is almost impossible.
However - it appears that we will have to do go to 128. After hours of
troubleshooting on my own and with Apple, it appears that with certain
DSL modems, there is a problem with using less than 128 bit hex keys.
I have confirmed this on the Zoom X6 modem, yet the Actiontec modems
work fine with the 64 bit keys.
Just so you know - both of these modems work fine with Tiger.
If the wireless connection works but is not reestablished properly
after waking from sleep, a solution might be as simple as toggling the
AirPort card off and then on again. On my own machine, I have found
this a useful approach. The only problems I'm currently having are
centered around Bonjour: the two computers on my network will not see
each other after one of them has been sleeping. I use the button in
the Network preference pane (not the little icon in the menu bar) to
turn the AirPort card off and then on, and this seems to be a reliable
cure. The text in the Network preference pane describing whether I'm
connected to the Internet does not always update properly, so I just
ignore it.
One reader who completely lost connection with his AirPort base
station was able to solve the problem by reinstalling Leopard, doing a
clean install.
After upgrading to Leopard I cannot get my AirPort Extreme to mount
nor can I get into the Airport Utility to make changes or record the
data from the AirPort Utility. I can still access the internet on
AirPort from my tower on the other side of the house.
The same reader later reported that reinstalling Leopard fixed that.
Another idea that comes up now and then is to edit your Network
preferences, rendering your current AirPort service inactive and
making a new AirPort service, or even making a completely new
Location.
I found a solution (someone posted it to the Apple Discussions
previously and I found it with a google search on the error message I
was receiving in the console log):
Go to Network in System Preferences.
Select AirPort and under the gear dropdown choose Make Service
Inactive.
Hit the plus and add a new AirPort service (Airport 2 or whatever).
In the Advanced tab add the name of the wireless network you wish to
join.
Hit Apply.
After a few moments, the new service found my network. I deleted the
"original" Airport service and renamed the new one to Airport."
This basically worked for me, although what I did was Duplicate the
Airport service, because making a new one didn't work. I then
rebooted, deleted the original Airport service, and rebooted again,
and then it all was fine.
And it is certainly true that in the past, I have found simply making
a new Location often solves AirPort connection problems.
When using the above solution (making a new AirPort service or a new
Location), consider (or reconsider) two things: (1) What are your DNS
settings, and are they working okay? and (2) is it better to use DHCP,
or might a static IP number be worth trying?
Part of the trouble here (and I particularly want to emphasize this)
is that the computer can give misleading symptoms: it will act as if
the router signal is weak (you'll see less than the usual number of
"bars" in the AirPort menu icon, or the connection will work but will
drop out now and then) when what is really going on is that it's
having trouble with DNS.
One reader writes:
I had the Leopard / Airport problem. I kept losing my Airport
connection and many times my Airport Extreme didn't even show up. I
tried every fix I could find to no avail. Then I read a post on the
Apple Discussions Board where someone noticed his IP DNS numbers were
missing. He replaced them and SUCCESS!
So here's what I did:
Opened Network Preferences: Airport: Advanced button
Clicked on the DNS tab. Yes, my DNS Server numbers had vanished after
the Leopard Install.
Clicked on the Proxies tab. Choose Manually Configure Proxies. There
was a long number in the Bypass proxy settings field.
I deleted the number and clicked OK.
My airport has worked perfectly ever since, so far.
Now, there are really several things going on here. There was
evidently an incorrect value in the Proxies tab. Deleting this caused
DNS to start working correctly. Making a new AirPort service or a new
Location would have had the same effect, starting over without
whatever cruft is causing trouble in the Network settings.
If you are using DHCP, you will know that DNS is working properly
because the DNS values from your router will automatically be mirrored
into the DNS pane of your AirPort Advanced settings on the computer.
Still, if your router permits it, setting up a static IP number might
work better than DHCP. (Also, in my own setup, I have other reasons
for wanting to use static IP numbers: it's so that, if necessary, on
occasion, I can punch a hole in the router's firewall and use port
forwarding.) Be certain to configure the router to do DHCP in a range
that is different from the static IP number you intend to assign the
computer; if you give the computer a static IP number that's within
the router's DHCP range, there will be trouble.
One reader writes:
I ran my Airport network with static IP addresses and it has always
been rock solid. When installing Leopard, I decided to change to
dynamic addressing and I began to see the problematic behaviour that
others are reporting. Two days ago I decided to change back to static
addressing and so far the network has been problem-free again, even
with large file transfers (Time Machine backups).
My network consists of a Sitecom router (that provided the DHCP), an
Airport extreme for 802.11n, and a flying saucer Airport for 802.11g,
plus several computers and network printers. Two hard disks are
connected to the Airport extreme.
A slight problem when setting up a static IP address is what DNS
numbers to enter for the computer. I've tried various approaches; at
the moment, on my Leopard machine, I've put in the same DNS values
that are used by the router, and that seems to be working very well. I
was using the router's IP address as my DNS server value, and this was
not working so well. Your results may differ from mine.
Is your router's firmware up to date? One reader suggests that solving
connection problems can be as simple as updating firmware:
I was getting a "Connection Timeout" error, preventing me from
connecting to my wireless LAN after upgrading to Leopard. I tried all
the suggestions for wireless troubleshooting, but nothing worked. I
finally thought of updating the firmware on the gateway. After
updating the firmware on my Verizon gateway everything worked fine. I
now get a good connection, perhaps even better than before.
Of course, this assumes that you can update your router's firmware.
I've tried valiantly to update the firmware on my Linksys router, but
it always fails halfway through the process. A router is a touchy
little thing; it's effectively a computer in and of itself, with all
the complexities that this implies.
Speaking of the router, it might help to fiddle with some of its
settings. One reader says that just changing his base station name
solved his problems:
I had problems seeing my 802.11g Airport Extreme base station with a
clean, updated Leopard install on an external Firewire drive attached
to my iBook G4. Once I changed the base station name to remove all
spaces, I was able to connect right away. I've had no trouble with
dropped connections, or slow transfers either.
The base station is using WEP 128 bit encryption, is a closed network,
uses the minimal Multicast rate (6 Mbps) and interference robustness.
The only change I made was to the name to get it to work. Also, after
an archive and install on the iBook itself, I've had no troubles.
Or you might try messing with the router password, or the channel it's
using, or both - as one reader did. He had to use the Airport Admin
Utility from a Tiger machine in order to make the changes:
Since installing Leopard, I have experienced (along with a throng of
others) a plethora of problems with my Graphite Base Station wireless
connectivity in Leopard.
Here is some history:
Upgraded a brand-new 24" iMac with Leopard. No airport problems until
I unplugged the machine and moved it to a different room. Once I did,
I would get "connection failed" or "incompatible security" error
messages when trying to access my Base Station.
Upgraded an original 17" PowerBook G4. No problems initially.
Upgraded a 17" MacBook Pro. No problems.
Upgraded a MacBook. No problems initially.
iPhone never lost connectivity.
I noticed that while Airport Setup Utility from my old PowerBook could
reconfigure the Base Station, the Network control panel never seemed
to "remember" the password settings. I also discovered that my old
password (which was greater than five characters) had been converted
to a hexadecimal equivalent. Changing the Base Station password then
caused all of the Leopard Macs to cease airport connections, despite
re-entry of the password. (Meanwhile my iPhone never missed a beat.) I
could run Airport Setup Utility on the PPC machine and get Airport to
connect, but this had to be done every time the computer woke from
sleep or was re-booted.
After hours (even days!) of troubleshooting (I have tried EVERYTHING
that I have seen in your forums so far and then some) I finally
stumbled upon a fix. Since the Airport Admin Utility could not be run
in Leopard, and the Airport Utility in Leopard will not work with the
Graphite Base Station, I booted from a Tiger partition, ran Airport
Admin Utility 4.2 and changed my Airport password back to what the
Leopard machines originally were connected with. I also changed the
Base Station channel from 1 to 11. Viola! Now all of my Leopard
machines have full use of my wireless network again.
One reader suggests something as simple as turning off Interference
Robustness:
The trick is to go to Airport Admin and configure the BASE STATION to
disable interface robustness. The interface robustness option
disappeared from the card's config params in Leopard, but you can
still disable it on the base station (I have it set for 802.11g only,
no interface robustness, maximum multicast speed). Signal is 100% and
all's well.
Another simple suggestion involves just unplugging the router for a
while, to let it recycle (or whatever magic it is that happens when
you unplug it). One reader tells us that this solved his problems
connecting to an AirPort Disk:
Recently I had problems with connecting wirelessly to my hard disk,
which is connected to Airport Extreme. If I would double click on the
drive's icon in the side pane Finder's window, I would get an error
message, like "Connection Failed..." I called Apple's tech support and
technician asked me to disconnect the power cable from Airport
Extreme, then reconnect it again. That fixed the problem.
.
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