AirPort Problem on G5/Panther!!! HELP!!!!

[Lyra]

Help!

I have an old AirPort and a new G5 with Airport Extreme. Also Installed Panther...

My problem or problems are these :

1. I get a very bad reception on my G5, and we are only talking about a room apart where the AirPort its self is. But my AirPort Extreme can pick up others a block away from here... Strange...

2. I tend to have serious drop outs, I can see that my signal just gets weaker and weaker, to the point it just fades out and I can't use the net anymore... Sometimes it comes back after a minute or two, but sometimes it just never does... I have to do a reboot and turn off the Airport etc. before it comes back online...

3. When my girlfriends iMac 800 with an old AirPort card, leaves her computer on sleep mode, while mine is on, and I turn mine off, hers still in sleep mode. When she turns it back on, she has no signal, cannot connect... It is like not only does our airport cards communicate with the base station but with each other... Messing it up...

I hope someone can help me as it is super annoying, I cannot have a solid connection to the web anymore... With Panther installed on both machines, it has now become worse...

Any ideas or help will be greatly appreciated...

Thanks

 

[nospleen]

Did you connect the supplied external antenna to the back of the G5?

 

[Lyra]

Yip, it is all the way in...

Hi

Yeah I did, I wish it was that simple... But sadly it is not... The antenna is firmly in its socket and even-though I turn it every direction as apple told me nothing... Not that I have spoken with Apple about this but in the manual it says it does something to the reception... Uh, make it worse...

 

[legion]

#1 is very common. The G5s have horrible wireless reception. Sorry, nothing to do there since it's a hardware design flaw. Possible solution is to get a Dr. Bott antenna to extend the range of the G5 (it works better than the little antenna from Apple)

#2 sounds like a symptom of #1, other than that, I haven't heard of such an issue.

#3 is an often discussed issue with all wireless and is also a symptom of #1. It seems that the slowest connection determines the overall speed of a wireless basestation. (In this case, it's your G5) When the iMac is trying to connect, it doesn't receive a "connected" response fast enough to its query to the basestation and thereby doesn't achieve a connection. I think it's possible to increase the "wait time" for the response, but the overall connection speed will still be slow. One of the basics of wireless reception is that the weaker the signal strength, the slower the connection (and usually this is dependent on distance since the further you get from a basestation, the weaker the signal) The G5 complicates things with its Al cage enclosure, thereby weaking the signal received. Since it's a weaker signal, it's a slower rate for the connection. For instance (and I don't condone this), a means to "sabotage" hotspots would be to create a small battery-powered wireless emitter that attempts to logon to the basestation at a 1Mb/s rate, strap it to the underside of a table at Starbucks and no one would be able to logon there. That's in essence what your G5 is doing to the basestation.

Moral of the story, fix #1 and #2 and #3 will go away. Easiest way to fix #1 is move the basestation to right next to the G5. The second would be to get a stronger or powered external antenna for the G5.

 

[Lyra]

Oh yeah... That might very well be it...

Wow!!

Thanks!! That helps a lot!

Funny how Dr.Bots knew JUST when to hit the market with such a little gizmo...

They must have known that the antenna was weak...

Ok, I will try to get an antenna from them and hope it gets better...

The funny thing is that when I had the old iMac 800 same as the one my girlfriend has now, the two computers shared the same problem with sleep and the loss of connection... Strange...

Your explanations is very good, I will give it a try... Sadly I cannot move my G5 closer to the AirPort, but will invest in an antenna...

Thanks and have a great day!

PS. I always thought it was strange to give the G5 the strongest and biggest of Apples Machines such a small, we.. Antenna... A serious design flaw...

 

[Lyra]

Oh great!

Great...

System Requirements:
AirPort Extreme Base Station (with modem and antenna port)

I have an old AirPort basestation... I am done for...

 

[benixau]

Re: Oh great!

Originally posted by Lyra
Great...

System Requirements:
AirPort Extreme Base Station (with modem and antenna port)

I have an old AirPort basestation... I am done for...

Is it first or second generation? The first generation have a considerably weaker signal than the second generation or the new AP-X stations.

The new AP-X stations have some of the best 802.11b signal around.

 

[Lyra]

Arrh Not again...

Yeah it is the first generation... So I cannot do much but to spend money on an upgrade to the AirPort Extreme Base-Station... Not too happy with this...



But thanks for all your help, it looks like I have to pull out my wallet for this again...

 

[benixau]

Re: Arrh Not again...

Originally posted by Lyra
Yeah it is the first generation... So I cannot do much but to spend money on an upgrade to the AirPort Extreme Base-Station... Not too happy with this...



But thanks for all your help, it looks like I have to pull out my wallet for this again...

amen. This is what happens when you are an early adopter. I know the feeling - got a first generation MDD, what was the nickname? JetEngine/Hurricane/Hovercraft/Windtunnel - thats it!

I heard that the AirForce replaced its windtunnels with PowerMac G4 MDDs. They were more power effecient but as a trade off were twice as loud whilst producing a little more airflow. They were also cheaper.