Thread

WiFi under OS 9 on Pismo?

WiFi under OS 9 on Pismo? Networking 19 posts Apr 29, 2009 — May 18, 2009

#1 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 - 10:15

Hi all,

I have a nearly pristine Pismo with 512 Mb of Ram, happily running both Mac OS X 10.3.9 and Mac OS 9.2.2 on a 60 Gb hard drive. It has an Airport card, which I can use just as expected on OS X, but I had no luck on 9. I set up my WiFi network with a WEP password, since I read somewhere it's all OS 9 can handle, but it keeps telling me the password is wrong (which is obviously not the case). OS 9 sees the network, though. As of yet I haven't tried without a password or with only a MAC address filter, since I would like somme level of protection. Maybe I should? Any suggestion? Thanks!

#2 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 - 14:04

OS 9 can't do "WEP passwords" very well. Is your base station a genuine AirPort base station, or is it 3rd party? If it's 3rd party, the password can't be used in OS 9. You'll have to find the hex key and supply that in OS 9 when prompted for a "password." Enter "0x" (that's zero ecks) and then your hex key.

For instance, if your hex key were 1234abcd0f, you would enter "0x1234abcd0f".

Peace,

Drew

#3 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 - 14:43

Thanks for the reply!

The base station is a genuine last gen Airport Extreme. Does that change something?

Actually I could as well go with the MAC address filter.

#4 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 - 16:13

OS 9 can't do "WEP passwords" very well. Is your base station a genuine AirPort base station, or is it 3rd party? If it's 3rd party, the password can't be used in OS 9. You'll have to find the hex key and supply that in OS 9 when prompted for a "password." Enter "0x" (that's zero ecks) and then your hex key.
For instance, if your hex key were 1234abcd0f, you would enter "0x1234abcd0f".

Peace,

Drew

So I guess my SBC 2Wire 1000SW and more recently the newer router that comes with U-Verse is a genuine Airport Base Station.

#5 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 - 20:44

My Lucent WaveLAN card had the same problem.

Turned off encryption, and used the MAC restriction feature instead.

#6 Thu, 30 Apr 2009 - 07:59

It WILL work.

Make sure you install the latest Airport 2.0.4

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120120

#7 Sun, 3 May 2009 - 19:21

So, did you get it fixed? If so, what fixed it?

Peace,

Drew

#8 Mon, 4 May 2009 - 12:58

Hadn't time to start up the Pismo last week. But I bet it'll will work with the latest Airport software, as said by freundling. I'll let you know!

#9 Tue, 5 May 2009 - 16:39

Ok, I took time today to look at that.

I installed Airport Software 2.0.4 (I had 1.2 installed, that came with OS 9.2.2). Now it kinda works better: I can connect to my network using the wep password. But that's about it: no local nor internet connection. TCP/IP control panel gives me a random local address (169.x.x.x), but my network is of the king 192.168.x.x. It does work fine under OS X, and under OS 9 using an ethernet cable, though.

Any further idea?

EDIT: sorry, I forgot to thank you all for your time and suggestions!

#10 Thu, 7 May 2009 - 02:11

Sometimes it can be quirky.

So some restarts. Make sure TCP/IP is set to your WAVELAN card, and that you are connecting via DCHP.

Set AppleTalk to infrared just to mitigate any interference with your ethernet connection.

Restart several times.

If it just won't work, download the Orinoco 7.2 wifi driver from versiontracker.com

Install it, and try it.

Let us know.

#11 Mon, 11 May 2009 - 04:31

Ok, I took time today to look at that.I installed Airport Software 2.0.4 (I had 1.2 installed, that came with OS 9.2.2). Now it kinda works better: I can connect to my network using the wep password. But that's about it: no local nor internet connection. TCP/IP control panel gives me a random local address (169.x.x.x), but my network is of the king 192.168.x.x. It does work fine under OS X, and under OS 9 using an ethernet cable, though.

Any further idea?

EDIT: sorry, I forgot to thank you all for your time and suggestions!

That IP address is usually self-assigned by the OS when it us unable to contact a DHCP server. If you use the Airport utility in OS 9, and scan for networks, is your listed? I hate to sound like a Tier 1 Tech Phone Drone, but did you type in the password correctly? You should be able to use encryption with it, but stay limited to WEP.

For troubleshooting purposes, I would disable ALL security on a temporary basis and see if I could connect. If so I would work my way up from there, turning on the weakest encryption. If I cannot connect then I would go for MAC Address filtering. If that works then I would disable SSID broadcast and test again. If that works you should be reasonably secure.

#12 Sat, 16 May 2009 - 13:09

Ok, thanks to all you guys, it finally works. I fired up my orange iBook just to be sure, and it worked just as expected on wifi. So I knew it was software-related on the Pismo, and my network wasn't to blame. So I was lazy and took 15 minutes to make a clean install of OS 9.2.2 on the Pismo, and everything is OK.

And just for the sake of it:

If you use the Airport utility in OS 9, and scan for networks, is your listed? I hate to sound like a Tier 1 Tech Phone Drone, but did you type in the password correctly? You should be able to use encryption with it, but stay limited to WEP.

Thanks Mr Phone Drone!

As I wrote above, I could indeed see the wifi network, and connect to it with an indeed correct password. The green dots in the strip bar module even indicated a strong connections. I just didn't got an IP, go figure why. But it doesn't matter anymore!

Now, I still have a tiny problem: TCP/IP works fine on both the Pismo and the iBook, since I can surf the web. But strange enough, I can't see nor connect to local machines via AppleTalk. Any idea?

#13 Sat, 16 May 2009 - 19:34

What are the IP addresses on your network?

Are they both within the same subnet?

Can you ping the machines in question?

#14 Sun, 17 May 2009 - 09:24

What are the IP addresses on your network?

192.168.1.x

Are they both within the same subnet?

Yes.

Can you ping the machines in question?

I'll install Network Tools as soon as I get some time to play with my collection again, and I'll let you know. Thanks for your help!

#15 Sun, 17 May 2009 - 14:03

Ok, strange.

I can ping every machine in my network (wifi and wired) from the Pismo in wifi, and I can ping the Pismo from my MBP (in wifi too) and from other OS 9 wired machines.

From the Pismo I can connect to my MBP through AppleShare (by entering its IP in the Chooser) and it works, but I can't "see" other OS 9 machines in the AplleShare list, nor connect to them by entering their IP. And similarily, I can't see the Pismo from any other machine.

#16 Sun, 17 May 2009 - 18:09

Does the new model AirPort Extereme route AppleTalk packets over the wireless interface?

Peace,

Drew

#17 Mon, 18 May 2009 - 09:36

Does the new model AirPort Extereme route AppleTalk packets over the wireless interface?

That's a good question. It certainly does over ethernet, since my old Macs are usually connected through a switch which is directly connected to the Airport Extreme base station (over a Devolo Powerline). And I'm a bit confused about which is which in AppleTalk/AppleShare protocols. But I certainly can connect to an OS X machine when typing its IP in the Chooser. Isn't that the same?

#18 Mon, 18 May 2009 - 15:03

But I certainly can connect to an OS X machine when typing its IP in the Chooser. Isn't that the same?

No. When you enter an IP address in the Chooser, you are using AppleTalk over IP (AppleTalk encapsulated in IP packets). When you just pick AppleShare Client in the Chooser, you are using raw AppleTalk (EtherTalk to be exact) packets over your ethernet interface. Some vendors don't pass the raw AppleTalk packets over the wireless interface. Linksys is well known for this. I don't know if Apple dumped AppleTalk support in the new Extreme base stations, though...

Peace,

Drew

#19 Mon, 18 May 2009 - 17:36

Ok, I understand. Thanks for the info!