I am pretty displeased with Mac. I made the switch over last summer when Apple was having the big sale for college students. I bought a Macbook with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. It wasn't the cheapest white one, but it wasn't the expensive black one either. Reason one why I was displeased: the CD drive sounded like a motor boat when I tried burning CDs. After having that fixed, yet another problem arose that persists to this day: For some reason, my wireless doesn't work here at home. It works (almost) perfectly at school, but here at home, I have to be about 3 inches away from the freaking router for it to function properly. When I'm no more than 10 feet away, the signal begins to drop. Even when I have 3 bars of connection showing, my internet won't work at all. Coincidentally, when i click on the wireless button up at the top of the screen, it begins to function again (most of the time). It is really annoying. This is probably the last Mac I will ever buy. At home, I have a Linksys wireless router, Model WRT54GR. Can anyone out there help me??
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Wireless doesn't always work
- Thread starter Javi1490
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
shady825
macrumors 68000
Sounds like it's a problem at your house dont you think? If it works fine at school..
I've heard of other people at home having these problems. My neighbor was under the impression that he couldnt have a wireless router due to the 'design' of his house. He also thought things like the refrigerator and microwave would mess up the router signal.. Maybe he was right. If you can maybe try moving your router to a room that's closer to where you normally work.
I dont really know what else to say.. I'm sure you can figure it out through trial and error.
Good luck
FIXED!
Haha...dude how is it a macbook problem if it works perfectly at school? Do you have any other wireless devices you can test out at home?
Yeah! We have two HP computers running with Windows Vista who pick up the router perfectly all around the house! It's really weird! 😕
first let me say i'm overly satisfied with the linksys router ive been using so i disagree with he who spoke down of them
, OP, have you tried moving your router around?, sometimes there are things that can affect the signal ( i have no technical knowledge just real world experience at my house) but things like metal filing cabinet, drop ceiling(with metal rails) or cement walls affected mine, had troubles for years but after moving it many times, and trying 5 different routers... i found a spot that works perfect for me.
, OP, have you tried moving your router around?, sometimes there are things that can affect the signal ( i have no technical knowledge just real world experience at my house) but things like metal filing cabinet, drop ceiling(with metal rails) or cement walls affected mine, had troubles for years but after moving it many times, and trying 5 different routers... i found a spot that works perfect for me.
Is your router set for TKIP or AES as the WPA-PSK security algorithim? I had a problem connecting wirelessly until I changed my router's WPA setting to TKIP. Mac's don't do AES.
Also, try changing the wifi channel to one less popular. Linksys usually comes out of the box set to channel 6.
Also, try changing the wifi channel to one less popular. Linksys usually comes out of the box set to channel 6.
darkcurse
macrumors 6502a
Strange I have the exact opposite of your experience. It craps out when I set it to TKIP but was fine when I set it to AES. Don't router's do auto channel hopping as the default setting? I know Belkin ones do because that is what I have.
Ive heard rumors that linksys arnt the best, and macs dont really like to use them. Im using a Belkin router and its on the otherside of my house and I get full bars.
I have a Linksys wrt54g, running the dd-wrt firmware. I've got power transmission set to 251 mw and not running any security other than maintaining a MAC address access list on the router. I've got heavy electrical interference in my house and still manage to get 8 mbps wirelessly on my laptop.
Oh yeah, I've got my router set to autoswitch between channels 5, 7, 8 and 11 every 4 hours.
Tom
Oh yeah, I've got my router set to autoswitch between channels 5, 7, 8 and 11 every 4 hours.
Tom