AirPort on a G4 Mac

Not quite air on a g string!

I purchased an AirPort card to install into my daughters PowerMac G4 Cube computer.

Straightforward installation involving pushing card into slot and connecting the wire connector.

When I started up the computer, I clicked the 'Connect Internet' application and the AirPort card found the router. However the router was downstairs and the card was unable to connect to it.

In order to test if this was a hardware or software problem, I moved the router upstairs and it connected. I first thought that the card has a very small range and is unable to connect even though it did detect the router downstairs.

Once I was satisfied that the card and router were communicating succsesfully, I moved the router back downstairs but closer to the upstairs bedroom. Unfortunately, the card still had issues connecting to the router.

After several attempts I had to move the router upstairs in order to get the best reception for the router, I also wireless enabled the downstairs computer to connect TV, XBOX 360 and Blu Ray Player to the internet as these are not wireless enabled.

After research on the internet, I was able to discover that the AirPort Card has problems dealing with the newer WPA encryption. One solution mentioned was to change the wireless routers encryption to WEP which seems to work.

I logged onto the wireless router and changed the encryption to WEP, once I had done this, the AirPort Card was able to connect and had a good signal. I tested the connection speed with basic internet searches and more intensive video and audio pages and the card worked wel within it's capability.

I then moved the wireless router downstairs so I could connect it via ethernet (RJ45 Cables) to my Xbox and BluRay player. This worked well and the signal to the AirPort Card was still good.

Obviously, using WEP is a big no no if you want secure internet connection. This is something I will be working on to resolve.

See you soon,

INE