# Airport not working?



## leech21

Yesterday my sister installed a few automatic updates onto her Macbook Pro. I do not know what they were and she doesn't remember. Ever since the update however, she has been unable to connect to our wireless network, which was previously working. 
After a bit of looking around, I found people in the past who have had problems with certain Airport updates being incompatible with our wireless router (Netgear MR814v2). 
I don't know much about macs, but I tried to install an older version of Airport and was basically told by her computer that it had the newest version and wouldn't let me install the old one. 

Has anyone seen this kind of thing before and is there a possible fix? Apparently the mac OS has no system restore or rollback feature, and I haven't found out a way to uninstall Airport so I can try the old version.
Thanks.

Edit* I believe she is running OSX 10.4.x or something along those lines


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## sinclair_tm

well, it would seem that the router is a wireless-b device, where your Macbook is a wireless-n device. And yes, Macs have been having problems with different wireless standards after this last update. I'm sure if you could force the Mac to run at b speeds, it would connect, but I don't know how to get the wireless card to change speeds. I'll have to research this one.


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## macthorough

1 Open Network Utility (found in the Applications > Utilities folder)
2 Under the Info Tab, choose Network Interface (en1)
3 In the section "Model: Wireless Network Adapter, what does it say?
==================
Try 

1 Delete this folder and rebooting 
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

2 Create a network location in network preferences and reboot again, then try joining your wireless network(s)


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## leech21

thanks for the replies

it says Wireless Network Adapter (802.11 a/b/g/n)
what does deleting that folder do exactly? this isn't my computer and i'm not sure if the owner would like if i deleted a bunch of settings, i'll have to check with the owner when they wake up lol


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## macthorough

it means you have an airport card that will work with (mixed) a/b/g/n wireless technologies.

I'm not sure why but the network settings in on the mac get so cluttered and not responsive. I like to kill the network settings every now and then. 

The system configuration folder holds all the network settings. So if you delete it and then reboot the mac os will make a new default system configuration folder (WARNING - this will delete all your network info about any network you have ever joined).

You can try making a new location in the network preferences first and reboot and join your wireless. That may work, but I like to blow away files in the Mac OS cause the OS makes new ones in a lot of cases. Just don't delete things out of the \System\Library it's "ok" to delete files out of \Library\Preferences\...

The \Library\Preferences folder controls how the Users\Library\ operates 

and in turn the \System\Library controls how the \Library\Preferences\ operates...

If you blow away files in the \System\Library you will probably need to reinstall...


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## macthorough

Making a new location initiates the creating of the new \Library\Preferences\SystemConfiguration\ folder. It's like opening any application for the 1st time, the program or in this case the OS, makes new preferences also knows as .plist files


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## leech21

ok i tried deleting the folder and restarting and making a new connection and restarting, but it is still unable to connect.


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## macthorough

Before I go on, what are the wireless settings on the wirless router. Is the network broadcasting?

What is the 
SSID
Security


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## leech21

yes the network is broadcasting, I am able to access it on a laptop that is running windows.
the SSID is my dog's name in all caps, normally under 64bit WEP encryption, but even when i take the encryption off it is unable to connect.


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## macthorough

Let me look up some info about connecting, but what I want you to do is try to connect to the network manually. under the airport menu you can click other, for other network and manually type in you settings. See if that works, brb...


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## macthorough

Also when you try to connect make sure you are right beside the netgear.


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## leech21

ok, tried it sitting right next to the router, still no luck. the only reason i can think for it not working is that the Airport software was updated and there is some incompatibility between that new software and my router


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## macthorough

Possibly, but I think there may be another way around this besides doing and archive and install (preserving users and network settings). I know about 30 people that work for Apple i'm escalating this to them to see if there's any - hot issues! I used to work for apple for 3 yrs but unfortunately I jumped on the Windows band wagon - for now... 

Create another account admin account and see if you cannot connect to airport in that account, please.


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## leech21

i made a new admin account, still nothing. thanks for showing this to them


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## macthorough

I'm waiting for them to reply, the only thing I see on the web is to systematically cycle thru the security settings and see if one works...


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## leech21

alright, i've been trying that and nothing works so far.


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## macthorough

Upgrade the netgear router firmware try again... 

Take the macbook pro to apple service provider or an apple store to see if you can connect to an apple airport extreme base station.

Then were looking at doing an archive and install (preserving users and network settings).


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## leech21

ahh wow it works. upgrading the router firmware did it. didn't even think to check that since our other laptop still worked.
thank you for all your help, very much appreciated


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## macthorough

No problem... anytime...

= )


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