Oh, duh. I totally forgot the reason I originally started write that post last night. Both my MacBook Pro and the G5 are on a wireless network, with the cable modem and Airport base station down in the basement. When I moved the G5 into the new room and hooked everything up, it couldn't get on the network. It kept acting like I was typing the wrong password or something, giving an error message that “There was a problem joining the network.” I chased the problem for two or three days—it was a big PITA because I use both machines for different things and move files back and forth over the network all the time.

There is a great tutorial on troubleshooting Airport problems at MacFixit, and I tried turning Airport off and on, turning the cable modem off and on, resetting the base station, blah blah blah. Nothing. Finally, I tried “enable interference robustness,” and poof! I was in like Flynn. Apparently this room is some kind of hot spot for wireless signals, even though I’m farther from the wireless phone and the microwave than in the other room. We’ll see if I start glowing in the dark or something as I continue working in here. The MacBook has no problem at all, maybe since it’s a newer machine.

Anyway, if your Mac is having wireless network problems, try the MacFixit page. If you do any kind of tech support for your own or other people’s Macs, I wholeheartedly recommend the MacFixit site. I subscribe to their email list, and never install upgrades or security patches until I see if people are having trouble with them.