[Lar88]

I have and airport system that has been working fine for a couple of years. A cable modem connects to the Airport, which connects via ethernet to a Linksys router which connects to a mirrored drive door mac running system 10.3.9. Airport software is vers. 4.2.
Two macs connect via the wireless signal of the airport. Starting yesteday, everything looks fine, but the two connecting via airport periodically can't connect to the internet. They show that they are receiving the signal, but won't connect. Sometimes Safari instantly pops up with the "can't find the server" message, but mostly it just sits there with the first section of the url blue and the beach ball spinning for ever.
If I unplug the power to the airport and restart it. then all works fine for a while. Then in a few hours, it isn't working again.
Anyone have any ideas other than apparently the Airport has gone bad and even though it is sending a signal it isn't processing things correctly and connecting to the modem and thus it is time for a new airport?
Thanks,
Lar88

[gra_login1]

I assume you are not using a new or nearby cordless phone or microwave when this happens. I also assume if you hardwire a mac to your router everything is fine.
Now, if this is a Graphite Airport base station then the intermittent connection, degrading to the amber warning light/flashing red and never connecting is a classic early symptom of a dying power supply capacitor. If it continues to worsen then you can easily change the capacitor if you are at the least bit savvy with a screwdriver and soldering iron. See something like:
http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/Repair
for step by step instructions. Alternatively, as you say it could be an excuse to upgrade to the new airport!
Good luck.

[kerby74]

Mine did this on my one Mac running Panther, my Tiger Mac did not have the problem. It started after I did the most recent security update. I restarted my DSL modem, my airport and the Mac and it started running again. Mine has not cut out again since though.

[Lar88]

The responses were appreciated, although they didn't help in my situation. I tried the suggestions, but it made no difference. The Macs that connect through Airport continue to lose their ability to connect to the Internet after being put to sleep. It appears to be an Airport problem, not a problem with the Macs. If I restart the Airport, then the Macs can connect to the Internet (they never lose the connection to the Airport signal).
I reviewed a bunch of the Apple support messages and tried one of those reccomendations from a similar problem--I changed the Airport to another channel. It has worked for two days now. No idea why the problem started, It's worked perfectly on the old channel for four years!
Thanks again,
Lar88