AirPort fails to connect to WiFi: error -3151

[TheHappyHacker]

Somewhat to my surprise, my G4 detected my home WiFi and offered to connect. It even knows to ask for the password. But it fails instantly with: "An error occurred while trying to join the selected AirPort network: -3151"

Can anyone give me a hint where to look for what this means and what to do about it?

[robespierre]

-3151  kOTBadOptionErr: The specified protocol options were in an incorrect format or contained illegal information.
I think that the network stack is probably unprepared for the packets coming from the router. Do you run IPv6?

[TheHappyHacker]

My WiFi is an Android cell phone acting as a hotspot. It's probably offering a lot of protocol options that didn't exist twenty years ago. My laptop connects to it using IPv4. The connection is password protected, and WiFi security has changed a lot over the years.

I'll poke around on the phone and see what configuration options I can control.

Just knowing what the numeric error code means is really helpful. Where would I look to decode that (and others I might encounter)? I'm hardly a Mac expert, I've been running Linux for nearly 30 years now....

Thanks for the quick help!

[GaryN]

In advance, I'm sorry but I just can't help myself…

FIRST: "Somewhat to my surprise, my G4 detected my home WiFi and offered to connect…"

LATER: Oh yeah, by the way… "My WiFi is an Android cell phone acting as a hotspot."

I just can't imagine how there could be any kind of hiccup there…