Netgear WPN824 MIMO: Problems connecting, configuring with Macs

We recently published a series of articles [Guide to Mac-friendly wireless routers; Mac-friendly wireless routers (#2): Which units support AppleTalk devices and work well with AirPort hardware?] discussing Mac support, documentation and compatibility concerns regarding various third-party wireless routers. The reports spurred considerable feedback from readers, indicating individual experience with routers from prominent manufacturers.

One salient point from the article series is that virtually all wireless routers are natively compatible with Macs. While many do not offer Mac-specific documentation/support, nor AppleTalk compatibility, nor support for WDS capabilities when used in conjunction with AirPort Base stations, most can at least be configured by Macs through a Web browser and deliver wireless network throughput. We did, however, note that a handful of routers actually fail to receive connections from Macs with AirPort-branded wireless cards.

MacFixIt reader Ron Eve reports that, with the Netgear WPN824 MIMO is one of those routers:

"I've just spent a considerable amount of time trying to get a brand new MacBook Pro to connect to a Netgear WPN824 MIMO wireless router with no success. Each time I get the dreaded 'An error occurred while trying to connect...' The router was set up with WPA security.

"I accessed the router via Ethernet and tried all security combinations, including no security, plus changing the type of wireless (a, b, g etc) to no avail. The only thing I couldn't change was the Channel which was set on ch 6. I even updated the firmware which added some extra WPA security options, but made no difference. The router worked fine with the previous G4 PowerBook and works fine with an iMac (PPC). I even booted up with an external Firewire drive with a clean install of the Intel 10.4.8 thinking there may be a bad file. Nope." Finally I set up a spare Airport Extreme Base station as a test, which worked perfectly."

It should be noted that different AirPort-enabled Macs use different wireless chipsets. The MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo mentioned by Ron, for instance, uses an 802.11 b g n-capable chipset that differs significantly from previous AirPort Extreme and AirPort cards. Hence the issue with this router may only exist with Macs that contain this chipset.

If you are having similar issues with this or another third-party wireless router, please let us know.

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