IBook Airport card region

Question

Simple question: I have iBook with Airport card and I cannot connect or even see my wireless network. My Macbook connects just fine and I looked that the channel is 13. I also looked that my iBook's Airport region is United States. Is it true that this card will only see channels 1 to 11 and that is simply the reason why it cannot connect? The problem should be solved if I change the channel from my wireless modem?

Answer 1

Simple questions sometimes beget more questions!
There is a matter of which iBook G4 you have, as some
of them have a removable AirPort card under the keyboard
and others have a card on the logic board which combines
both the Bluetooth and 802.11/b/g wi-fi on one part...
So, if you have a model with the card under the keyboard,
the easier method of changing those wi-fi channels would
be to get the airport card for your region; or if you have a
control over what channels are available to your private
network, change the channel or use a different one so as
to stay within those the card in the computer supports.
And, if you travel with the iBook and find the available wi-fi
networks limited by the lack of support in the original card
as equipped (and you decide to not get a different one) an
idea to get around that may be to use a USB wi-fi adapter
that fits into the computer's USB port (fully & snug) and then
just don't forget it then could get knocked around sticking out.
Where are you located? Several cards will work most anywhere
if the channel happens to be one your card supports. A few, do
overlap; and some are missing channels. There is an Apple
support document in the online database telling of the different
regions supported by certain wireless AirPort cards. That may
be something worth looking into, via a search; perhaps.
Hopefully you can just change a channel on the base station in
the local home network, but if traveling, you may find some of
the available wireless networks won't work due to the channel.
In some regions, their base stations may be missing channels.
Good luck & happy computing!