Airport Drops BT HomeHub Signal - Help

[HelixOmnimedia]

I have a PowerBook G4 with the built-in Airport Express and to connect to the internet i use the BT HomeHub...
The speed has been extremely slow, highest speed over the last week has been 157.80kbps, but over the last two days the Airport drops the signal and doesn't recognise the wireless router.

Are the problems connected? Or is there just something wrong with the Airport.

Someone is coming on Tuesday from BT to investigate the problem.

THANKS

 

[NATO]

I hooked a BT Home Hub up for a friend so I could access the net with my MacBook Pro wirelessly but it kept dropping the signal after 10-15 minutes. Just seems to be a rubbish router because my Netgear DG834G hasn't missed a beat since I bought it.

 

[Hannibales]

I've got a BT Home Hub connected wirelessly to my Mac Pro. So far I've only had about 3 bars out of 15 for signal strength and between 2 and 5 Mbps from what should be 54 Mbps (.11g). The Home Hub is about 30ft from my Mac Pro, with only internal walls and furniture between the two. I've changed the channel of the Home Hub and adjusted any other settings that may help, but I still only have 3-5 bars. Some of the labels on the wires to my airport card (Apple Store fitted) have come off so I can't really fiddle with that. If I move my Home Hub as close as possible to my MP as the cables allow I can get 5-6 bars, so one of them (or both) is a rotten piece of kit. I've got hold of a second Home Hub and am going to try that out tonight and will report back.

 

[Hannibales]

Well, tried the 2nd Hub, no luck though. I think it might be a software fault as when I first connect to the hub I get full signal strength and my internet access is super-fast, then after 5-10 seconds it goes down to 5 bars and pages start to lag when loading. If it can get full signal to start with, why can't it keep it? I've only got my computer and the hub switched on upstairs (fridge and freezer are on downstairs) so interference isn't likely.

Roll on 10.4.9 with some Airport updates!

 

[bitabytex]

I could be mistaken, but I think some of the Powerbook G4s' cases are what seemed to cause interference; that, and the wires coming loose. Also, depending on the chipset, some of the wireless cards just suck. I believe the chipset is changed with the MBP and the MB, and they don't have that problem anymore.

 

[Shadow]

I could be mistaken, but I think some of the Powerbook G4s' cases are what seemed to cause interference; that, and the wires coming loose. Also, depending on the chipset, some of the wireless cards just suck. I believe the chipset is changed with the MBP and the MB, and they don't have that problem anymore.

Read NATO's post.

 

[bitabytex]

Chris> I have, and that problem is simply the router, which happens with all types of wireless cards. I've had a few wireless routers (ugh, Linksys) that simply was shotty.

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

I could be mistaken, but I think some of the Powerbook G4s' cases are what seemed to cause interference; that, and the wires coming loose. Also, depending on the chipset, some of the wireless cards just suck. I believe the chipset is changed with the MBP and the MB, and they don't have that problem anymore.

I would LOVE to get a MBP - but not anytime soon. I may wait until Leopard is released and buy one then.
Until that time i'm stuck with my PB.

BT Guy came and check all the settings and ran a line test from my main phone socket in the house... he said that the line rate was at 6.5mb.

Now the highest speed i get from online speed tester (2wire.com - recommended by BT Guy) the speed is at 2.30mb.

He phoned the people at BT to tell them to change the "Brazz Profile Speed" at the exchange to allow me to get atleast 5mb (he said that it will usually drop 1mb to find a stable "all the time speed".

However I'm still receiving slow speeds but they fluxuate. EG:
741.80kbps
1.41mb
2.40mb
613kbps
1.01mb
689.50kbps
2.39mb

I phoned BT yet again, and they say according to their computer the area i live in should only get 3mb - but I've never had 3mb, and they said "we have no idea how that guy got the speeds your telling us... he must be joking" - I told them that I have his handwriting and it states: "Brazz Profile Speed up 6MB, set exchange to 6.5MB so customer can atleast receive 5MB"

What should I do?

 

[Shadow]

Yeah, sorry, got kinda confused there. It happens when I'm trying to do 3 different pieces of coursework at the same time and tidy my room AND try to get the PC to work.

Anyway, I have a Linksys router and its excellent. The Netgear I used to have broke in the first week-it was Christmas too .

Edit: Dude, I don't know what you're on but your internet is VERY fast. Mine's only 1MB (which gives 100kps).

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

Dude, I don't know what you're on but your internet is VERY fast. Mine's only 1MB (which gives 100kps).

It doesn't seem like its fast... all speed tester and BT say that the speed it good but i tried to download a .pdf script size: 44kb and it took 20min? Can this be right? - thats with the PB connected to HomeHub via Ethernet.

Could it be the setting in Firefox which is causing the problem? or the settings between the BT HomeHub and the PowerBook?

 

[OdduWon]

Ok , so about two weeks a go my twin 2.7 g5's internet started slowing down. i reset my base station checked all the connections, etc. all the other computers in the house work at speed that are as fast as what i used to get (im like 10 ft from the bases station). The g5 will loose connection, run safari cripplingly slow and randomly drop a bar or two then go back up with no inprovement or it will just time out. Do you all think the airport card is burning out, no g5 pun intended, or is my bases station breaking? another thing the POS dell next to me is hard wired but if the g5 is totally powered down the internet on the pos dell will not work, turn the g5 on and then bam... it works. is it possible that the g5 is routing the signial to the other computers and this is causing the airport to die. please let me have some insighht.
P.s. the airport for me So does not fit in the "it just works category". it took like two days to get mine working. the settings wouldnt work as they were descrided and what finnaly happened was i let it sit over night and somehow all the missing connection data just filled it'self in and it started working but this is after like 10 resets and a whole bunch of waiting on the phone, anyone else have troouble like this?