The Rodney O. Lain Archive

I Just Want My AirPort to Work, Dammit!

Rodney O. Lain - 2000.01.17

This article was originally published on The iMac.com, a site which no longer exists. It is copyright 2000 by RAC Enterprises, which also seems to no longer exist. It is thus reprinted here without permission (which we would gladly obtain if possible). Links have been retained when possible, but many go to the Internet Wayback Machine.

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Is anyone at Apple reading this?

While at Macworld, my boss, Rob Aldridge, was kind enough to loan me a Lucent WaveLAN PC Card to enable my PowerBook to access the AirPort wireless network.

I fell in love.

It's another home run, Apple.

After being home for a few days, I couldn't resist, so I went to CompUSA and bought an AirPort base station for my home. A manager said that the base stations were RTV'd (Returned To Vendor), because of some problem with the FCC certification.

I don't know if that's true, but it'd be nice for someone else to follow up on that - oh, not me; there's an obvious conflict of interest there for me. Since there aren't any more base stations around, I ask if I can buy the demo unit. I buy it for a below-retail price.

Anyway, I get the base station home, excited about surfing the 'net without having to strand a 25' phone line from the kitchen down to the living room level of the house, where there isn't any phone jack.

I notice that there is no AC adapter. I call Apple's tech support, and the support guy says AC adapters are on back order for a couple of weeks. He orders me one anyway. It arrives the next day.

Good going, Apple. I've heard gripes about your customer service, but it worked much better than I thought it would.

So, I plug the base station in, get my PowerBook ready and start having visions of wireless 'net surfing dancing in my head.' but nothing happens. I can't connect to the web. Ditto for my e-mail servers.

No problem, I think. Maybe I'm just not doing it right. I then do something I've never tried before: I RTFM.

I go through the monkey-see-monkey-do instructions, and I start the base station up again. Nothing happens.

I then remember that John H. Farr, over at Applelinks had written two columns about having the same problem, so I cruise on over to see how he fared. Can't find the articles, so I e-mail him. He writes back that he has an AirPort-equipped iBook, so his solutions don't jive with my Mac.

I then go over to Apple's Tech Info Library to find help. I find a link to the Mac Resource Page, where there is an helpful article on Using the AirPort Without an AirPort-ready Mac.

I follow instructions, which consist of resetting the firmware in the base station. I fire it up again. Nothing happens.

I reset the base station again. And again. And again.

Frustrated. I give up.

At CompUSA, I talk with a coworker who says he had to reset the base station five times before he gets it to work.

Good God.

So, I'm at the end of my rope - which brings me to this last act of desperation:

Hey, readers! Is there anyone out there who can help me get this frickin' thing to work? Any Apple employees out there? I want this thing to work. I'm not trying to bash Apple. I just want my wireless networking to work!

Somebody help me! Please? Plee-hee-hee-ease!

>uncontrollable sobbing commences<

- Rodney O'Neal Lain

Rodney O. Lain is The iMac's Associate Editor. A former professor, he lives in St. Paul, MN, where he is a freelance writer and a supervisor at a major US corporation. He enjoys comic books and pencil drawing. He adores Mike Royko, Zora Hurston, Lewis Grizzard, Maya Angelou, John Byrne, bell hooks, Frank Miller and Henry Louis Gates. He also writes for Low End Mac, Applelinks and My Mac Magazine. When no one's looking, he rants and raves on his home page Free Your Mind & Your Behind Will Follow.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Apr. 2006 - The top-end MacBook Pro includes a 1680 x 1050, 2.16 GHz Core Duo CPU, and supports Apple 30" Cinema Display.
Group of the Day: G4 List is for those using Power Mac G4s or G4 upgrades.
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best iPod nano Deals, 11.25. Refurb 8 GB 4G nano, $99; new, $126; refurb 16 GB, $129; new, $150; new 5G/8 GB, $134.60; 16 GB, $161.12. Shipping included.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 11.25. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
Best 15" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.25. Used 1 GHz Combo, $400; 1.5 GHz SuperDrive, $449; 1.67 GHz hi-res, $600.
Best G4 iMac Deals, 11.24. Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $150; 800 MHz Combo, $229; 1 GHz, $289; 17" 1.25 GHz, $200; 20" 1.25 GHz, $509.
Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.24. Used from $899; refurb from $1,099; new 1.6 GHz/120 HD, $1,150 after rebate; 1.8/64 SSD, $1,150 a/r; 1.86/128 SSD, $1,350 a/r; 2.13/128 SSD, $1,694 a/r.
Best PowerBook G3 Deals, 11.24. Used 233 MHz WallStreet, $75; 266 MHz, $160; 400 MHz Lombard, $199; 400 MHz Pismo, $289; 500 MHz, $350.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.23. Used 867 MHz SuperDrive, $348; 1 GHz Combo, $379; SD, $519; 1.33 GHz, $529; 1.5 GHz Combo, $549; SuperDrive, $609.
Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, 11.23. Used 802.11g AirPort Extreme, $49; 500 GB Time Capsule, $150; new, $190; 1 TB dual-band, $280; 2 TB, $469; 802.11n AirPort Extreme, $170.
More deals in our archive.

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.