OK, I admit befuddlement is my normal state of mind but this one has me stumped.

About 11pm tonight I noticed my powerbook was failing to connect to my ISP’s email servers and that web browsing wasn’t working. A menu bar icon told me that I’d lost wireless connectivity. The usual cause of this is my router ceasing to broadcast – restarting the router normally cures things. This time it didn’t. Several restarts didn’t help. Both OSX and OS9 told me that I had no Airport (wireless) card. When I tried an 802.11b/g wireless card in the PC card slot, normal service was resumed.

However the b/g card has two disadvantages: it takes up the PC card slot in which I use a PC SCSI card and it doesn’t work under OS9. Also the Airport card which doesn’t have these disadvantages (it fits in dedicated slot just below the keyboard) cost me money. I resent things burning out.

Time for a beer and to talk local politics with Pete & Jane………….

There were two likely causes: either the card itself had burnt out or the ariel (which passes through the hinges) had abraded and snapped. (Of course the third possible cause was that the bits connecting the Airport card to the motherboard had died. However this is too painful to think about: dying motherboard bits = time for a new powerbook. Also dying motherboard bits would manifest in other ways – like the whole damn powerbook ceasing to work!)

So I tested the Airport card in my desktop G4. Yes, just to enable me to test my Airport card, Apple built wireless card slots into desktop macs. Man, do I feel special! The Airport card worked so it looked as if my powerbook’s ariel was toast. On a whim, I put the Airport card back into the powerbook, rebooted and SHAZAM! Back to normal wireless connection.

So I’m relieved but puzzled. What caused the Airport card to stop working? Did it overheat or did it just need a holiday?

BTW, huge thanks to Pete for offering to lend me his Airport card to test the “ariel is broken” and “connection to motherboard is broken” hypotheses.

Time to go back to setting up the 520 to give away to a colleague and the 2300c to my sister.