Airport (MacBook) cannot connect to 2wire's router

Question

I'm using MacBook and has been trying to connect to my 2wire's wireless router but to no avail. Read a few posts, and have tried including a '$' before the WEP password, still it refused to connect.
The router works fine when I connect it using an Ethernet cable, and airport works fine when I'm outside connecting to my school's wireless network (though I'm not sure what router it is.)
Can anyone suggest anything to help? Do I need to update my router's firmware or anything?
MacBook 13" - White   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   iWorks '06, Office:mac, iLife '06, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Adobe CS

Answer 1

I just did a quick google search with your 2Wire model and problems with connections to Airport cards, didn't find a whole lot, but after reading some of the posts in various forums and answers or possible solutions, I realized just how easy it is to have a connection not work because of one small detail (a setting as random as having both router and laptop set to always connect on a certain channel number (6 usually being default), but if one was 6 and the other was 11 (which I personally like a lot more and is better in my surroundings with too many other WiFi signals using channel 6).
This is also a big problem (more likely to occur) if using a router that is part of a Windows Network (like mine is) and then having the laptop (being a MacBook) trying to use Mac stuff to connect itself into the mix. Normally, this shouldn't be too bad, or like for me, it was easier than setting up WiFi on my windows laptop (and it starts more quickly than my windows which takes a couple minutes to find the router and totally connect to it).
When I first turned on my MacBook, and it started up and did it's thing for the first time, with me entering info and getting the registration done, at whatever point either before all that or soon after, it asked if I wanted it to find my internet connection (I didn't have an Ethernet cable plugged in at that time) and when I hit the button for yes, it immediately found it and had it configured perfectly. This may not be the case for others, so you would want to check through some of the basic details that you can usually find on both sides of the connection (router and wireless card).
First, start off by seeing if your MacBook is showing it's MAC Address, and see if it has an IP Address listed for your machine as well. Also, check what you have it set up for: Automatic DCHP retrieval (from the router) or Manual (where you then enter in the info yourself in the available boxes). You need to try and see if you have your Airport doing anything at all (which might mean it is connected to it's own network and not to any internet connection or other computers). With this case, you should be able to "find" other WiFi signals in the area and even join those networks if they are "open" and you don't need a password. If you can't do that, then I think it is more in the settings (is wifi listed as your top choice of internet connection, is it enabled, and all that "you have to ask yourself just because you don't want to miss anything, even though you are pretty sure you weren't being stupid and trying to use the wireless with it disabled"). Heh. Sorry, stupid questions need to be asked.
You will also want to check all the things (like mentioned earlier) the Channel # that you are using (both on the router and laptop, need to match), as well as signal strength (if you have more WiFi activity around you or possible interference from inside your apartment/house then you will generally want to turn it up to about 10 for strongest signal without buying an extender/booster thing, the default can be very low like anywhere from 3-5 only.
Match up the Encryption formats and types (WEP or WPA) and then the other parts like PSK (and) TKIP... This is what I use and is the most common (best) for home users: Set it as WPA using PSK-TKIP and since you have a 2Wire gateway, there should be a sticker on the bottom of it that has a serial number with bar code, and a set of numbers underneath it - which is your gateway's default WPA password. Stick to this for now, and when you get things working, then later on you can always go and change it (and change it in your connection settings on your laptop too), but this is not needed really.
Also, to make it easier to see your connection, start off by turning on the SSID broadcast and *Change your Network Name*. This is not needed for any real purpose other than making it easier to see your's in a list (as all 2Wire routers show up as 2WIRExxx with the last 3 x's being the last 3 numbers of your router's serial number). More than half of the wifi spots that show up around me are other 2Wire systems...
After you test whether your MacBook can find (show in the list) your (now uniquely named) Network, you have more info to go on. Either it sees it and you can connect which means you can possibly setup a connection to use *just your router* if that's what you want to do, and also hide/disable the SSID Broadcast, OR, you still don't see the router listed and you know you have more looking and tweaking to do.
I don't know how much work you want to put into trying to test this all out etc, I just wanted to throw out some starting points for you and if you try them and they don't work and want to give up, that's your decision, but if you try stuff and it works or not and still need some possible help (even just brainstorming suggestions of what might be wrong and what's causing it - maybe even how to fix it finally) then I'll try to help you out as much as I can. It's usually easier for me to figure out stuff like this by "testing" and playing around with the items in question myself compared to asking questions and getting you to tell me what worked, what didn't etc, but while it might not be all nice and quick, we may end up coming up with a solution to it after a while (or at least know what it most likely isn't).
And this will give you a good chance at exploring your system a bit more with settings and hardware (will make you more comfortable over time with these types of things if you do small little "explorations" every now and then, if you don't already have much experience). I did also read at the macosxhints forums (I think it was there) that Macs Airport products do have some random problems working cooperatively with certain routers (I have seen many posts with people using a Linksys WiFi Router and having the same sort of issues, whether it was only after the wireless update or not I am not totally sure of).
I actually only just did my update (with the other update, was it for iTunes?) and I haven't been at home for more than a little bit since I restarted my MacBook (haven't used it yet, I'm in another room) and so I hope that it didn't do anything to my WiFi connection at all... Heh.