Problems with airport card

[engineereeyore]

I have a MacBook Pro with a built-in airport card and I keep sporatically losing my wireless connection. No other computers that connect to my router experience this problem, only my mac laptop. I have to turn off my airport card and then turn it back on to fix the problem. I have a Linksys WRT54G and have tried different routers and different security settings, but I still experience the exact same problem with all of them.

Anyone else have a problem like this? Any suggestions?

 

[Kaido]

Yes. My wife's iMac does that. What version MBP do you have? CD, C2D, SR?

 

[aphex]

My Mac Mini does it as well. I even have network speed issues with the Mac that are non-existant on all my other computers.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: aphex
My Mac Mini does it as well. I even have network speed issues with the Mac that are non-existant on all my other computers.

I wonder if the 802.11n cards in the newer Macs have the same problem. I've tried 3 different routers, physically moving both the computer and the router, security settings, wireless settings, etc. My PC works fine, her iMac is spotty. It seems to be hit or miss with the wireless on Macs. I don't recall my 13" iMac ever having problems, but my Mac Mini was flaky at times. We're going back to Ethernet this summer

 

[aphex]

well i have a dell 1500 wireless-n card i'm popping in my mini as soon as my antenna arrives... i'll keep ya posted if I see any marked improvement.

On a side note, is there ant netstumbler type application for mac?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: aphex
well i have a dell 1500 wireless-n card i'm popping in my mini as soon as my antenna arrives... i'll keep ya posted if I see any marked improvement.

On a side note, is there ant netstumbler type application for mac?

Tons:

iStumbler
MacStumbler
coconutWifi (simpler version)

You ever hang out at 123MacMini.com?

 

[aphex]

yea, I mainly lurk there but have posted a few times...

 

[aphex]

btw, thanks!

 

[aphex]

http://www.iiki.org/pics/wifi.jpg

i'm connected to Quesadilla, the router is less than 10 feet away. Schmitty, on the other hand, is well over 100 feet away, if not farther. At least 2-3 townhomes over.

My 10mb cable line speedtests at between 800k-900k, while it shows up as 12000k on all other rigs

 

[ViRGE]

Drop to channel 1. It looks like you have 3 neighbors using the same frequency range as you.

 

[engineereeyore]

I've got a CD.

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.2f10

I've also tried changing the channel and none of the channels appear to make a difference. I was curious if maybe a apple base station would work better? I just don't want to invest that type of money into a router if it's not going to make any difference. I just haven't found any other solution to this problem.

 

[Keitero]

My Macbook Pro (2nd gen) has that issue... sort of, my connection to an AP/Router is rock solid and so is my internet connection, but file transfers to and from a samba box (2k3 Server, Vista, XP, 2000) are slow as dirt. I've had Apple swap out wireless cards to no avail. I've reinstalled Tiger and now have Leopard on it and it's still the same. Anyone have a clue?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
I've also tried changing the channel and none of the channels appear to make a difference. I was curious if maybe a apple base station would work better? I just don't want to invest that type of money into a router if it's not going to make any difference. I just haven't found any other solution to this problem.

I'm not sure if buying an Airport would make a difference. I seem to recall people who were having wifi problems with their Macs also had Airports. I've tried everything - multiple routers, different channels, SSIDs, increased/decreased distances from the computer to the router (from 1" to 100'), etc etc etc. Not sure if it's the software or the hardware in the Macs, but sometimes they just work like crap. Go wired if you can!

 

[Keitero]

If you have a x86-based Mac, have you tried to see if the problems exist in Windows or *nix through BootCamp or VMWare/Parallels?

 

[engineereeyore]

I found this on the apple support site for the mbp. They talked about the problem only occurring when the computer is running on battery power, which, now that I think about it, sounds about right. They suggested an update to the battery. Here's a link for those interested. I've installed it and haven't had any problems since. Hopefully that was the cure, but only time will tell.

 

[Keitero]

It may work for some, others like me are still going to have to call up Apple and take it to the store so that they can send it off, send it back, and have me yet again call them up and get them to give me a new unit. /end rant.