AirPort Drops Out (University Wireless)

[kolax]

My University has a wireless network which covers the whole campus. It requires authentication via PEAP, so I have to enter my username and password to access it.

However, AirPort seems to drop the signal every few minutes, then reconnect. Pretty annoying, since I might be typing a post, downloading specimen papers etc and it'll get cut off.

There is 3 stages at which it connects:


Stage 1
It will connect and gain an IP address like shown, and internet will work shortly after it does this. It displays this for about 5 seconds.

Stage 2
It seems to switch to this, with a timer showing how long I've connected, and internet still works fine.

Stage 3
It drops the signal, and AirPort assigns itself an IP address - no internet access.

This happens literally every few minutes, sometimes less. During the connected time, the internet works flawlessly. What gives?! It works perfectly fine on other Windows machines.

 

[lsmeteor]

Weird...
What mode are you using for your airport? n only? (2.4 GHz) b/g compatible? I used to have mine using b/g compatible (2.4 GHz). Since my phone is also using the same frequency range, I would lose the connection everytime the phone was in use. For some reason, in a phone vs airport extreme match, the phone always wins.
I changed it since to be using the n only mode (5 GHz). Problem disappeared.
Try changing it in AirPort Utility -->Manual -->Wireless tab to see if that makes any difference.

 

[Pixellated]

Weird...
What mode are you using for your airport? n only? (2.4 GHz) b/g compatible? I used to have mine using b/g compatible (2.4 GHz). Since my phone is also using the same frequency range, I would lose the connection everytime the phone was in use. For some reason, in a phone vs airport extreme match, the phone always wins.
I changed it since to be using the n only mode (5 GHz). Problem disappeared.
Try changing it in AirPort Utility -->Manual -->Wireless tab to see if that makes any difference.

Maybe the campus WiFi is 802.11g....

 

[kolax]

Maybe the campus WiFi is 802.11g....

It will be G - having an N only network would cut off the majority of students wanting to connect. Either way, G or N, it doesn't really matter for me.

I want to know what is causing this - since I'm sitting next to friends in the library who are using their laptops and having no problems, yet I'm dropping out every 2 minutes.

 

[JNB]

Weird...
What mode are you using for your airport? n only? (2.4 GHz) b/g compatible? I used to have mine using b/g compatible (2.4 GHz). Since my phone is also using the same frequency range, I would lose the connection everytime the phone was in use. For some reason, in a phone vs airport extreme match, the phone always wins.
I changed it since to be using the n only mode (5 GHz). Problem disappeared.
Try changing it in AirPort Utility -->Manual -->Wireless tab to see if that makes any difference.

Missed this one. The OP's talking about the MB's Airport, not an Airport router.

For the OP: Is the uni using any kind of timed access, MAC (not Mac) registration or any other filters/rules besides PEAP Auth? Yours is acting more like a VPN connection than simply WAP issues (I know that's not the case). Check w/ your helpdesk folks & escalate.