airport displays perfect signal, but no internet

[letsgorangers]

i have a CD black macbook.

when i first moved into this apartment, i could get a wireless signal and surf the net just fine. now it won't work at all. it connects fine and in system prefs it says that i am connected. but when i open firefox, nothing loads.

for anyone wondering, yes i pay for internet (too much if you ask me), but i don't have a wireless router and sometimes it's nice to not sit at a desk.

but yeah since i am getting the signal from a neighbor i can't reset the router or any of that stuff.

any idea what could be causing this?

 

[72930]

Try safari...

 

[letsgorangers]

did that a few moments ago. didn't work either.

 

[adrianblaine]

They probably discovered you (or randomly decided to increase security) and set their router to not accept your physical address. As I recall, it will still show you connected, but not able to access anything.

Wireless routers aren't that expensive are they? If you are paying for internet, you may as well use it...

 

[letsgorangers]

probably so.

and routers are around 50 bucks or so i guess. but my grad school stipend pays rent and utilities and that's about it. don't really have the extra money to be blowing on something i don't really need.

 

[orangemacapple]

if his internet was down (e.g. cat loose or not plugged in) you would still get a perfect signal but not be able to connect to the internet (he may not have noticed it because his desk computer may be wired and he hasn't used his laptop lately)

i bought 2 wireless routers just before xmas for less than 50¢ each after rebate. keep an rss on slick deals or cheap bastards or a bevy of others. there's always deals on them if you're willing to stay with 802.11g (which is still faster than your internet connection will ever be.) you probably might need to go to an "n" router if you have more than say a dozen notebooks transferring info between them constantly on your home lan and you want it done in a hurry.

 

[butaro]

i have a CD black macbook.

when i first moved into this apartment, i could get a wireless signal and surf the net just fine. now it won't work at all. it connects fine and in system prefs it says that i am connected. but when i open firefox, nothing loads.

for anyone wondering, yes i pay for internet (too much if you ask me), but i don't have a wireless router and sometimes it's nice to not sit at a desk.

but yeah since i am getting the signal from a neighbor i can't reset the router or any of that stuff.

any idea what could be causing this?

First of all, is it your wireless signal? Like the others mentioned if not then you were using someone else's, they probably caught on or updated their security like previous poster said. Check what your IP is if its like 169. something (i think thats the "limbo" ip range) then yea they have security now.
You will be able to connect to it but without authenticating nothing will work.

 

[letsgorangers]

orangemacapple - less than 50 cents?! where on earth did you find those.... maybe you meant less than 50 dollars?

butaro - no 169 in the ip. and seriously, i use my built in ethernet mostly. i didn't use wireless much at all.

i guess i will look around ebay for a router.

but the thing is i have a friend with a macbook, comcast internet, and his own router, and the internet does the same stuff (shows a signal, then won't do anything). so i don't want to waste my money if it's a mac/comcast/particular router issue.