What exactly does the Radio Beacon Indicate

Question

I have seen cases where the Radio Beacon is black and when it is gray. When it's black you may or may not be able to go through the wireless router to the modem and then to the internet. When it is gray, you cannot really do anything except be in a local mode. However there are instances when the Radio Beacon is black, rather than gray, and you still cannot access the internet. So, what exactly does the activated Radio Beacon Indicate, i.e., that the wireless network is working and the modem is down, or something else entirely ?

Answer 1

Assuming you're referring to the Airport icon in the menu bar, 'clear/empty' means Airport is turned off, gray bars means Airport is on but not connected to a network, and black bars means Airport is on and connected to a network. Other possible icon states are solid gray with a little computer inset, meaning you're connected to a computer-to-computer created on the Mac, and gray bars with an exclamation point (10.6 only), meaning connected to a network but not authenticated (e.g. wrong password for an 801.2X corporate/university network).
To your question, it's perfectly possible to be successfully connected to a network (black icon) and unable to access the internet. Situations like that would include the network requiring a proxy server, for which you haven't set up the details on in Network Preferences, or you're connected to an open network that requires you to enter information or agree to terms (e.g. a hotel network, where you need to put in your room number and agree to the charges before you can connect to the internet).