Titanium PB G4 no longer connects to WIFI

Question

Hi, I inherited a lovely TiBook 1Ghz PPC (the previous owner having upgraded to a new Intel MBP).  It has visited here in the past and had no problems connecting to our home wifi, which is a Linksys AP running Tomato 1.2.8 firmware.
Shortly after arriving it quit connecting to the wifi entirely.  It still sees the network; the SSID is 13 characters long and is correctly displayed, as is the authentication type (WPA).  However, type in the password and we'll get 19 seconds worth of daisy wheel, then "Connection timeout".
OK, reinstall the OS (no good).  Upgrade the OS to 10.5 (still no good).  Download the combo updater (STILL no good).
So it's the AP, right?  Well... three other Macs (Macbook and Macbook Pros), two iPod Touchs, two iPhones and a number of PCs owned by friends have absolutely no issues.  But I'm game to try anything.  I switch the encryption from TKIP/AES to AES only, TKIP only and back again.  I go from WPA2/WPA to WPA only, WEP, to none at all.  I tried changing SSIDs.  I tried changing channels (even though there's nothing close enough to interfere) from 6, to 9, to 13, to 2.  The net effect being... zip, zero, nada, nihil abstat.  TiBook 0 - All other players 1.  -.-
Even more maddening?  Version 98 of iStumbler running on the TiBook sees the network just fine.  >.<
The only thing I've not done at this point is go to Panera and see if it will connect to a public AP.
Below is what I believe to be the relevant portion of the logs:
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: System Wake
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: Wake event 0008
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: enableClockSpreading returned with 0
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: pci restore waited for ethernet (22187) fail
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: Sound assertion "0 != err" failed in "AppleLegacyAudio/AppleTexas2Audio/AppleTexas2Audio.cpp" at line 960 goto Exit
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: ^P
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: ADB present:8c
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: AirPortFirmware: start Sta f/w download
Sept 10 09:05:23 sams-powerbook-g4-15 airportd[306]: Error: SecKeychainSearchCopyNext() returned error: -25300
Sept 10 09:05:24 sams-powerbook-g4-15 airportd[306]: Error: _ACKeychainCopyPassword() expected password for "H5467I156L6LS" not found: -25300 (The specified item could not be found in the keychain.)
Sept 10 09:05:24 sams-powerbook-g4-15 airportd[306]: Error: SecKeychainSearchCopyNext() returned error: -25300
Sept 10 09:05:24 sams-powerbook-g4-15 airportd[306]: Error: _ACKeychainCopyPassword() expected password for "H5467I156L6LS" not found: -25300 (The specified item could not be found in the keychain.)
Sept 10 09:05:24 sams-powerbook-g4-15 airportd[306]: Error: SecKeychainSearchCopyNext() returned error: -25300
Sept 10 09:05:24 sams-powerbook-g4-15 airportd[306]: Error: _ACKeychainCopyPassword() expected password for "H5467I156L6LS" not found: -25300 (The specified item could not be found in the keychain.)
Sept 10 09:05:46 sams-powerbook-g4-15 kernel[0]: AirPortDriver::setLinkState: down
Sept 10 09:05:53: --- last message repeated 2 times ---
Sept 10 09:05:53 sams-powerbook-g4-15airportd[306]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Sept 10 09:05:53 sams-powerbook-g4-15kernel[0]: AirPortDriver::setLinkState: down
Sept 10 09:05:53 sams-powerbook-g4-15SystemUIServer[114]: Error: airportd MIG failed = -6 ((null))  (port = 61091)
Sept 10 09:05:53 sams-powerbook-g4-15SystemUIServer[114]: Error joining H5467I156L6LS: Connection timeout (-6 timeout connecting)
After poking at this off and on for a couple of weeks I decided I just buy a USB wireless device and bypass Airport entirely.  So I searched Amazon, found the ASUS USB-N10 which was well reviewed and had Mac drivers.  $20 and two weeks later it arrived.  I installed the software per the manufacturer and... it crashes.  Won't init at all.  /sigh
So, I post here, hoping someone can smack me with a cluestick and in the meantime the TiBook and I are going to go to Panera.
Thanks for reading in.

Answer 1

An issue with my PowerBook's built-in Airport card led me to look for an alternative some time ago. Through searching for something Mac compatible on eBay I came across a Sagem PCMCIA wireless card (802.11.g). The joy of it was it was incredibly cheap plus it needed no drivers - the computer just recognises it as an Airport card.
It works fine and I could recommend it. The only downside is the way it projects from the side of the computer
(an Aluminium 1.25GHz). Then the other day I came across this -  an Edimax EW7811Un 802.11 b/g/n USB wirelwss adapter. If the link holds good here it is on Amaazon USA (I bought it from Amazon UK) http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-802-11b-Wireless-languages/dp/B003MTTJOY/ ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316631822&sr=8-1
Unable to resist I bought one. You can't believe how small this thing is and it works! I had to download the correct OSX drivers from the Edimax website but setting it up was a cinch and while I've not tested it for range it seems to pull in a good signal. Worth a try if all else fails.