[ezkcdude]

I use the Airport connection at home to connect to a wireless router. This has been working for months, since I got a new PB. Yesterday, it stopped working. It looks like I can't get any signal, and I can't create the connection by manually re-typing the network name and password. Not sure what's going on. Yesterday, we removed the battery to check for the S/N (to check if it was recalled). Could that have re-set or screwed something up with Airport?

[Franz Josef]

You need to check whether the issue is the wireless router or the PB. Is ther an AE signal in your toolbar? If you use Tiger there is an AirTraffic widget which will locate wireless networks and give you details.

Also go into About This Mac in Apple menu to see if you are recognising the wireless card you have in the PB.

[ezkcdude]

Thanks, for offering advice . The PB does seem to recognize the AirPort card. There is no signal strength indicated (i.e. no bars) on the menu. I downloaded the widget and it does "see" my wireless connection and some others in my building, but for the life me, I can't figure out why it won't connect to it . I'm puzzled.


Edit (several minutes later): After fooling around with the wireless security settings, AirPort finally connected :smokey: . Something must have needed to be reset.

[Franz Josef]

Glad to hear to it . Do bear in mind it's strongly recommended that you password protect both the wireless network and the wireless router and WPA strength encryption (not WEP) is best. Good also to make your network non discoverable in the airport set-up utility.

FJ

[CobaltFire]

If you have the capability, MAC address filtering is even better. Love that one. Paired with a strong password, that is.

[pv2b]

Mac Address Addressing or not sending beacon packets? Futile as security measures.

To prevent a casual neighbour / freeloader / traveller from using your wireless network, you just need to protect it using WPA or even WEP. Few people are going to bother even cracking your WEP*password. A random attacker will choose the path of least resistance and choose the house down the road with the open WLAN to freeload from instead.

To stop a determined attacker from gaining entry to your particular network, both MAC address filtering and making your network hidden are security measures that are trivial to bypass with some simple spoofing and passive monitoring. So, MAC address filtering and making your network closed adds nothing to your overall security.

What it does, however, is add to your inconvenience when a friend comes over with his laptop and wants to connect to your network. Not only would you have to enter the network SSID manually rather than just be able to select it off a list (slightly inconvenient), but you'd also have to mess around with your access points settings. (What was that admin password now again? And what's the AP's IP address?)

The minimal extra security simply isn't worth the extra effort. Leave your network fully visible and allow all MAC addresses, but password it using a relatively strong key.

[cyrusmekon]

This may sound silly but try turning the airport off.

I encounter a similar problem at times, what i do is switch off my ADSL modem that connects to the airport and switch the airport off as well.

Wait a few mins, switch on then bingo everything is back to norm.

Well for me at least, wouldnt hurt trying.

[ezkcdude]

thanks, again, everyone. As I said above, though, it's working now.