Macbook can't find AirPort connection

I have one of the new 13" aluminium Macbooks (OSX 10.5.6) bought in October '08. It has been connecting via AirPort to my router with no problems until today, but now cannot find the wireless connection. It connects OK via ethernet.

It have now moved it to within two feet of the router, next to my older iMac which is working fine with the same router, via Airport - I have unplugged the ethernet cable on the iMac and am viewing this forum via the wireless connection. So it's not a router problem.

iStumbler is working on the Macbook and can find all the usual connections, with an 82% signal for my router. (The signal strength registers slightly lower on the iMac - around 60 - 65%).

The AirPort icon in the Macbook menu bar shows On, but the drop-down menu constantly shows 'AirPort: Scanning' and then greys out 'AirPort: On'.

Since working OK yesterday evening the Macbook had been on Sleep overnight, I since tried a restart with no luck. The battery was fully charged this morning and it is running on the mains at the moment.

Has anyone had the same problem or can think of any tests or a solution to this please?

Have you tried the "Assist me" option on the Airport Network Prefs?

Mine's working fine, so I can't say how much help it will be

Presumably you have tried rebooting the router? (I know you say that the iMac connects OK, but it's always worth a go.) The other possibility is that you have MAC filtering turned on in the router and it has somehow lost the details of the MAC for the Macbook. (Stranger things do happen, so again it's worth checking.)

I hadn't rebooted the router simply because Airport was working fine with the iMac.
I now talked this through with a helpful support line, first thing we did was reboot the router, and as AirPort was then showing an amber light in the Network prefs, he guessed there was some sort of conflict between AirPort and the iStumbler prefs. This seems to be correct, I first changed the iStumbler prefs to "Auto-select best network" and then quit it. AirPort came up with a green light, and re-started.

So two clues: reboot the router and watch for a conflict with iStumbler.

thanks for replies.

I have had problems with iStumbler in the past - if running iStumbler I found that my connection speed dropped incredibly - this was confirmed by some other MacUsers too . [ that BTW was when on Panther ]

It's great for sniffing out Networks but if I do have to use it for that - then I close it as soon as I am connected.

If I'm wanting any wireless info then I use CoconutWiFi 2.0 - a wee light sits in your menu bar amber for secure networks and green for open ones - it also tells you how many networks there are working within reach.

Thanks Goldie, I have installed Coconut WiFi, will give it a go.

I hadn't been paying sufficient attention to whether iStumbler was active or off - I can well believe it slowed things down if left on.

> > CoconutWiFi

Just installed that, could be useful... though around here all the networks are secured

Interestingly, there's one network that iStumbler and Airport both report but Coconut doesn't. It is the weakest one though.

First rule of PC Support - try rebooting everything, even the equipment that you know can't possibly be the cause of your problem.

In reply to:

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First rule of PC Support

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It's a Mac, not a PC

It's a Personal Computer. I know that many people think that Macs are just toys, but I take a more generous view.