[WelMac] Introduction + question

[David Empson]

At 10:16 AM +1200 30/09/2007, Gordon Paynter wrote:
>Hi all:

Hi Gordon

>I have a quesion about my iBook that Jo suggested I run by you all. 
>It is a white G3 iBook (600Mhz, dual USB, October 2001), much 
>beloved, that we use as our stereo (with an Airport Express base 
>station of similar vintage) and for day-to-day web browsing from the 
>couch. Until recently, this has worked a treat, and there probably 
>aren't many 6-year-old machines that do as much work as this one 
>does daily.

That's quite lucky. My PowerBook G4 didn't quite make it to the five 
year mark. I had to buy a MacBook Pro recently. I've also seen a few 
iBook G3s of similar vintage which have died in various ways.

>However, we've just encountred a problem. The wireless internet 
>connection (provided by an Airport Card) is intermitantly failing. 
>Everything appears to be okay, but no signal is wireless detected. 
>This will go on for days at a time, until one day we will wake the 
>iBook up and the wireless will be back. It will work until we shut 
>the lid again, and then it will usually not come back again next rme 
>we use it. This has been progressively getting worse, and now the 
>wireless is only working about once per week.

I have four theories which might explain the problem.

1. Hardware problem in the iBook, such as a bad connection to the 
internal antenna (or a broken wire in the antenna).

2. Some kind of problem with the Airport Express base station.

3. Interference from other devices which is preventing the network operating.

4. Software problem on the iBook.

I think the first is more likely, given the symptoms. Sometimes you 
are lucky and the antenna is making contact at the point of the break 
or disconnection. At other times, it is not making contact and you 
get no signal.

Testing the Airport Express will require either another Airport 
Express as a temporary replacement, or another computer with known 
working 802.11b/g, to see whether the problem is restricted to your 
iBook or whether it affects all wireless computers.

Interference can be from a lot of devices. A microwave oven in the 
area of either the base station or computer can wipe out the 2.4 GHz 
radio band while active, but that doesn't sound likely. Other 
candidates are anything else using the 2.4 GHz band, such as cordless 
phones, but they usually only transmit while you are talking on them. 
Do you have a nearby neighbour who might have a video transmitter or 
something similar running on 2.4 GHz, which could be interfering with 
your wireless network? As an experiment, you could try changing the 
base station to a different wireless channel. Try channels which are 
spaced reasonably far apart, e.g. 1, 5, 9, 13. The convention for 
802.11g is to use channels 1, 6 or 11, as the channel is quite wide 
and can overlap with other wireless networks within 5 channels either 
side.

A software problem is harder to diagnose but best to eliminate before 
you start opening up the computer.

I assume that you have tried restarting the computer when it doesn't 
see the network, and that didn't help?

I have had issues with Macs not automatically connecting to an 
Airport network: it can see the network in the Airport menu but the 
network needs to be selected manually.

In cases where your base station is NOT broadcasting the network name 
(SSID), this problem is manifested as an apparent inability to 
connect to the network at all. Since the name isn't being broadcast, 
you can't see it in the menu in order to select it. To connect to the 
network, you have to choose "Other", type in the network name, select 
the encryption method and type in the password. (All of these have to 
be entered exactly right, or you won't connect. The network name and 
password are probably case sensitive.)

If this doesn't help, it is likely to be a hardware problem.

First question is whether the iBook still thinks it has an Airport 
card. Once the problem is occurring, restart the computer, confirm 
that you still can't get into the Airport network, and then go into 
System Profiler (Apple menu > About This Mac > More Info). Click on 
Airport Card unde the Network heading and confirm that it actually 
thinks it has one.

The next step is to check the connection between the antenna and the 
Airport card. Shut down the computer. Lift up the keyboard (releasing 
the latches in the function key row then flipping it over) and you 
should immediately see the Airport card. Make sure the antenna is 
actually plugged into the card: you might want to unplug the antenna 
and plug it back in again, making sure it is firmly connected. Also 
check that the Airport card is firmly seated in its slot.

If that doesn't solve it, it gets tricky. You really need an 
alternative antenna to test whether the problem is a broken wire 
within your antenna. The antenna runs around the outside of the 
screen, so it must pass through the hinge connecting the screen to 
the body of the iBook, and it might have broken at the point where it 
regularly flexes due to the lid opening and closing. You might be 
able to close the break by putting the screen at different angles 
relative to the body.

>We're currently working around this by using wires when we want to 
>play music, but that kind of defeats the purpose.
>
>So my quesiton is: how do I figure out what is wrong without buying 
>a new airport card? My guess is that it is the airport card that is 
>broken, but maybe something is wrong with the computer itself, which 
>means replacing the card wont fix it. Apple doesn't make those cards 
>anymore, so I will have to buy a second-hand one on trademe to test 
>with--but then I still wont be sure the new card isn't broken.
>
>Any suggestions? (Or does anyone have an airport express card I can 
>borrow for a few minutes?)

There is no such thing as an airport express card. I assume you meant 
either an Airport card or an Airport Express base station. (An 
Airport Extreme card won't work in your iBook G3.)

I might be able to assist, time permitting (I'm very busy these 
days). E-mail me directly.
-- 
David Empson
dempson at actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand