The Strange Case of the Missing Network Icon

Question

Can anyone help my buddy Tom - who is running a G4 iBook with OS X Panther? He is unable to get onto his wireless network and here is the problem in his own words:
"Had a moment to muck about in the iBook drive, following data crumbs from the all-pervasive Network software. Apparently, all that spinning of the drive over regions containing bits and bytes of the application managed to cobble together enough of Network to launch an e-mail, which I immediately determined had to go to you. This is strictly a spit-and-string enterprise, similar to a baling wire and soup can exhaust system fix, and likely the only e-mail I'll get off until I complete an entire system restore. Think of it as a faulty telephone connection - you can hear me, but I can't hear you. So, don't bother to respond, as your e-mail will probably languish in my Inbox for the time it takes me to resurrect OS X.
What brought me to this point is my reasoning Network isn't a stand-alone application like a word processor, but rather a "network" (clever, eh?) piece of software with files strewn through other software so they can access various aspects of it. For example, World Book Encyclopedia accomplishes a software update without launching Safari; connecting to its mother ship via but another piece of Network that happens to reside within the program. I guess this approach is what put the "i" in iBook, and it seems to work pretty well...until moments like this. Perhaps Steve Jobs outsourced to Hansel and Gretel to create a new marketing twist.
Anyway, I've talked this all up with a number of people, and the universal response seems to be; "Huh? I've never heard such a thing.". I even managed to mightily confuse Dave and he's got an awful lot of Mac expertise. But the real kicker, when explaining how I reasoned it all out, is when I mention the key to my understanding was when I noticed the missing Network icon. That's when their eyes glaze over and it's apparent they can't quite wrap their brain around the idea. I've deduced how to cajole the Finder to reveal this Archimedean moment, and included a pair of attachments so you, too, can share in my AHA!! revelation. Running this all past Dave had him agreeing I seem to have a handle on it, but the sheer complexity of all those .exec files squirreled here, there, and everywhere still had him scratching his head.
Interestingly, I have to coerce the Finder to display the icon example; you can't simply click it into existence. I do it by plugging in a travel drive, opening same, then ejecting it. The Finder then defaults to what you see (the word Network with no icon).
Speaking of attachments, I was so tempted to wade through all 70 (70!!) e-mails in my inbox, but was fearful my MacGyvered patch would fail before getting this off to you.
Time to fade back into the black hole from whence I came. When I close Safari it'll relinquish its tenuous grasp on the Network .exec file it's hacked to."
Any ideas on what's wrong and how it can be fixed? I'll see that they get passed on to Tom.
G4 Powerbook   Mac OS X (10.4.10)   iMac

Answer 1

Before the mid-1980s, networking might have been implemented with a lot of goofy little routines (.exec's if you must) calling one another. About that time the CCITT (an international telecommunications standards committee made up of Academic and Industrial representatives) did a lot of work abstracting and then standardizing the functions that various parts of a network perform.
The CCITT refined the notion of a Layered Network Architecture and specified the types of activities performed in each layer. Shortly thereafter Apple implemented Open Transport and delivered it into the marketplace in System 7.5.3.
Apple networking has been very well-behaved and under control since then. It does not tend to "get lost" or "lose track of things". It really is very good. With only a few limitations, you can connect Macs running 7.5.3 through 10.3.9 and have File Sharing work without regard to what versions are talking to each other.