Macbook / Eircom Netopia Router problem

a5y

I'm having problems with my new Macbook: I'm trying to use it to connect with the router wirelessly (The router is a Netopia 3347NWG that Eircom give away, Macbook is a 1GB RAM 120 GB ROM Superdrive version thats on sale in the Applestore) and I'm getting nowhere at all.

I tried connecting it whilst setting up my account with OS X the first time I turned it on: it couldn't find the network.

(I can rule out interference, broken wifi in the router and firewalls / security; the Macbook was 2 feet away with no lead plates, magnetron, microwaves or nuclear test sites nearby;, the wifi works fine with my PSP or at least as well as its infuriating browser works and the router has its firewall disabled and is not running WEP or WPA because I figured it'd be simplest just to enable them later)

To be honest I'm a bit frustrated; I've already had to call up the Apple help line, stay on hold listening to the most strange call centre music (Not annoying music, just STRANGE) after it crashed within 30 minutes of turning it on.

Could the laptops wifi be broken? Is there something else I've forgotten to check?

(I really want to be able to logo onto boards on my mac next time... )

heggie

have you tried a wired connection into it first? make sure you have the right wep settings?

a5y

heggie wrote:

have you tried a wired connection into it first? make sure you have the right wep settings?

Ah! I'm on teh internets!

Now all I need to do is get my head around this airport-wifi-voodoo...

a5y

OK, I think I'm getting somewhere:

The problem is the encryption. *I think*.

The options the router offers are:

• WPA 802.1x
• WPA PSK (Preshared key?)
• WEP - Automatic
• OFF - No Privacy

Whereas the options on the Macbook for airport are:

• WEP Password
• WEP 40/128-bit hex
• WEP 40/128-bit ASCII

There doesn't seem to be any overlap?
...Could someone please tell me I'm wrong? (Please?! )

Urban Weigl

Try turning encryption off and seeing if that solves your problems. If it does, try WPA PSK with a passphrase.

Forget about WEP, it takes less than 60 seconds to "hack" and provides no security whatsoever at this point.

a5y

I'm after figuring out what I was doing wrong. Firstly I didn't realise the Network options that were displayed in Airport were dependant on the types of network encryption that were being detected on the network.

ie. WPA wasn't showing because for some stupid reason I'd left the network encrypted with WEP. *slaps forehead*

ALSO I'd set up my router with a whitelist of MAC addresses when I got my PSP last xmas, and naturally my non-psychic router wasn't approving the new Macbook MAC address as it didn't know the MAC address.

Thanks everyone for taking time to help the clueless noob, I really appreciate it!