[X4U] airport connectivity

[spoonbender]

Hi all,
I have a Powermac G4 Quicksilver 2001 AGP running mac os x 10.4.2 all  
software is current and no sys 9. For airport I have the 'snow' dual  
ethernet base station and a non-extreme airport card. Airport  
software is current but firmware is 4.0.8. Since 10.4 'tiger' airport  
connectivity has been buggy. Meaning somedays it works fine other  
days nothing. Buy nothing I mean my airport network does not show up  
in internet connect menu of available networks. But I can 'see' my  
neighbors wireless netgear router just fine. In system preferences  
under airport all the settings I have enabled show up for my home  
network.  I have changed channels on the basestation, I have enabled  
encryption, wep, nat etc. and set a real password, not just  
'password' or something else silly. Also limited the broadcast range  
of the basestation as well. Also set up a closed network. I have  
deleted and recreated my home network, performed a hard reset on the  
basestation, tricky but can be done. The only thing I cannot do is  
upload firmware version 4.0.9 to my basestation. Everytime I try all  
I get is the standard error message. It says 'there was an error  
uploading to the selected basestation'. I`m using a direct connect to  
my basestation via an ethernet crossover cable when trying to upload.  
When I do that the basestation is not automatically seen, I have to  
enter the default ip address etc. for the direct connect to work.  
Once I have made the connection I can do anything I want except  
upload firmware. Is the basestation just fried or am I doing  
something wrong ? I`ve tried to be complete as possible.
Thanks,
spoonbender...