Wireless network: iBook works, iMac doesn't

grimsongrimson
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have two older Macs: a G4 iBook and a G3 iMac. I got a wireless router and the iBook gets online no problem, but the iMac doesn't (it does have an Airport card, and it did work on a previous wireless network). I feel like there is just some configuration setting or something on the iMac that I have wrong. Airport on the iMac shows it receiving the signal, but not connecting to the internet. Any ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    bbwibbwi Posts: 812member
    first thing that comes to mind is you're using 802.11G now and not 802.11B
  • Reply 2 of 9
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Hm, thanks. Any way I can check this? Do Ihave to take the airport card out of the iMac to see?
  • Reply 3 of 9
    bbwibbwi Posts: 812member
    My first response is probably not a correct response now that I look at your question again. 802.11G should work with 802.11B as long as you are in mixed mode. Check the router and make sure it's set to allow mixed mode. Or just make sure all your devices are set to use 802.11B and use that in your router



    If your iMac gets signal but can't get on the internet make sure you have DHCP set up correctly. Then try and ping your router. If it responds, try and ping your G4. If it responds then your local LAN is working great. Now ping the internet... like www.yahoo.com. If it responds you should be good to go on the internet,too. If yahooo doesn't respond post the error here.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bbwi View Post


    My first response is probably not a correct response now that I look at your question again. 802.11G should work with 802.11B as long as you are in mixed mode. Check the router and make sure it's set to allow mixed mode. Or just make sure all your devices are set to use 802.11B and use that in your router



    If your iMac gets signal but can't get on the internet make sure you have DHCP set up correctly. Then try and ping your router. If it responds, try and ping your G4. If it responds then your local LAN is working great. Now ping the internet... like www.yahoo.com. If it responds you should be good to go on the internet,too. If yahooo doesn't respond post the error here.



    Thanks for your continued help. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of an idiot and don't know how to ping my router (I don't know the url) or my G4. I did try pinging yahoo.com and got "unknown host."
  • Reply 5 of 9
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Well, I got the router number from my tcp/ip control panel and tried pinging it...it says 'network is down.' I pinged the ip number for my G4. It repeated the ip number and said '56 data bytes.' Under that, '10 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss.'
  • Reply 6 of 9
    bbwibbwi Posts: 812member
    what kind of air card in your imac have... 802.11b? That needs to be determined. Try using System Profiler to determine this.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Unfortunately, System Profiler doesn't tell me anything about the Airport card, it just tells me the IP, ethernet address, etc. Am I going to have to physically removed the card to check? I'll do so if the information is on the card.



    I pinged the router again, and this time got a different result. It seemed to recognize it, saying "64 bytes received from xxxx (router IP) 10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packets lost." But it still failed when I tried www.yahoo.com.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    bbwibbwi Posts: 812member
    If you're able to ping the router then you're connected to your wireless network.



    PING www-real.wa1.b.yahoo.com (209.131.36.158): 56 data bytes

    64 bytes from 209.131.36.158: icmp_seq=0 ttl=57 time=30.191 ms



    when you ping www.yahoo.com does is resolve the name to an IP address like above?
  • Reply 9 of 9
    grimsongrimson Posts: 108member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bbwi View Post


    If you're able to ping the router then you're connected to your wireless network.



    PING www-real.wa1.b.yahoo.com (209.131.36.158): 56 data bytes

    64 bytes from 209.131.36.158: icmp_seq=0 ttl=57 time=30.191 ms



    when you ping www.yahoo.com does is resolve the name to an IP address like above?



    No, it just says 'ping: unknown host www.yahoo.com'



    Also, Internet Connect keeps popping a window open that says "No dial tone detected. Please check phone line and try again" even though I've got Airport turned on?
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