EMac not connecting to internet

Question

Hi there,
My eMac connects by means of Airport to a Belkin router. My G3 iMac is wired to it, and the Belkin is, in turn conected to my cable modem. A few days ago it stopped working. Airport shows that it is on, but the menu item for the Belkin is not ticked. Ticking it doesn't work. Trying to join it through system preferences brings up a request for WPA, with a request for a password. I don't have a password - but whether I leave it blank, add the security password for the Belkin site or a WPA password I once had for it, but have removed ages ago, it just tries to connect, says that there was an error joining the network. I tried rebooting the system, but it won't work on the eMac. The Powerbook (also wireless) connects well. Belkin had me connect the eMac by means of an Ethernet cable, to ping the router (success once, failure the second time), and to ping Yahoo (no dice). I tried re-entering the connection information and that didn't work.
Then I was working on the laptop and I found that it could connect with the eMac for file sharing. The eMac Airport started working. I found that Airport wouldn't turn on if we put the eMac to sleep and then woke it up after a rest, but it would restore itself if we put it to sleep again and then immediately woke it up. This it would do by making the screen blue, and when it restored the desktop we were connected again. Sometimes it wouldn't connect immediately, but it then allowed me a choice between WPA Password (which I didn't have) and WPA Personal (I think - it hasn't done this again) which didn't. If I chose the latter when I was allowed, the Airport would then work.
Fine. My husband left the eMac on all night to do its cron thing, and it connected fine - because it hadn't been put to sleep for the night. This morning, however, it's doing the same thing and won't connect - it wants a password and won't accept anything. I've run out of ideas, and all I can find on similar problems in these discussions haven't been answered or are specifically about Airport routers.
Does anyone have the ghost of an idea about what to do next?
Cheers,
Virginia

Answer 1

Hi Henry (and all),
You're not kidding it's hard to fix! First that I'll say that the eMac is now connected to the network but not automatically, then I'll say what I've done this morning in hope that there might be a more permanent solution.
The eMac connects when I use the drop-down Airport menu and choose Other in the range of things to join. Then it brings up the option to join WPA Personal rather than WPA Password. Selecting Personal removes the box for password, leaving only a 'join network' box. There is nothing in the network box, but if I touch the blue option at the box's side it brings up Belkin. I choose this and the eMac connects to the network.
However, when I put the eMac to sleep and then wake it up, the screen turns blue and then it's in the state it was in before - showing connection but not connected. I have to go to Other and WPA Personal to connect. This was how I made it work a couple days ago (but by accident and trial-and-error, so I'd forgotten), but sometimes Other only brings up the option of Computer to Computer networking, which makes me think that the eMac thinks it's already connected to the Belkin when it's not.
Now as to the other steps I took, I did what you asked and put the preference on the desktop. Then I restarted. It didn't join automatically. In Systems Preferences I tried in the existing airport settings to join a network and it just acted as if it was already connected. I then made a new location - eMac airport - and it acted as if it was connected. There is still a tick next to 'belkin' on the drop-down menu. When you click it, that's when it asks for the WPA Password. So I don't think that pulling out the preferences has done anything. I now have these locations in systems preferences: Automatic, Belkin, Home Wireless, and eMac Airport - from all the attempts to connect and none of them work.
So what do I do with the plist and all these locations? And now that I have a way of connecting manually to the network, how do I make this connection automatic? Thanks for the suggestions - it seems like progress!
Cheers,
Virginia