Airport Problems Getting Worse

[Mlobo01]

update...

my firewall log read:
12/20/07 8:41:13 AM com.apple.launchd[85] ([0x0-0x30030].com.opendoor.doorstopx[370]) Exited: Killed
12/20/07 8:42:13 AM Spotlight[92] Invalid kMDItemPath for DoorStop X 2.2

This was a leftover from a Firewall app called DoorstopX, that I deleted when I was troubleshooting the connectivity issue, under the library>application support I found the Doorstop deamon, that even when thhe app is trashed it keeps on working, still there no proof that this makes the connectivity crash but I want to test it in a non-contaminated manner so I left the computer to sleep on its own, it went to sleep and it connected, this test was after I deleted this deamon, now im back to test mode, I will let it sleep again go to work and test it, when I get back I'll see if long term sleep affects it, it could be that upon self-sleep it does not log out the connection?

 

[sunfast]

My laptop takes a while to re-connect when waking from sleep. That's not a big problem but sometimes it doesn't re-conenct at all and I have to put my password in again which is irritating. Especially as I can't rely on my mac to wake me up with internet radio in the morning any more

 

[Mlobo01]

I understand...

I've been keeping up with this issue and I've been also tracking the Apple Supports forums as well, I believe that the issue is starting to point out towards Leopard's hastily designed Firewall, the combination of System Preferences not retaining settings and configurations, the Utility Disc App that seems that its been dumbed down in this iteration, unable to fix certain permissions therefore bugs and anomalies never go away, the inability of Leopard to discard old caches that truly affect system performance, the ipfw (a secondary Firewall?) which I believe is an old Panther app and bug that's back?, A Keychain Access App. that maybe prone to errors, my laptop is different, why? could it be that the intel version of Mac OS X has slightly more glitches? you also need to remember that Apple is new at developing for intel processors, and its a good possiblity that they may have overlook a lot, so be patient and see if the upcoming update can resolve our woes or if collectively we can come to various solutions.

 

[Hmac]

For years I used a parade of increasing-version WRT54G Linksys routers, all of which were associated with varying degrees of periodic malfunction. Mostly, this took the form of the router not keeping up with the IP address of my DHCP cable modem and was solved by about twice-a-week unplugging the router and modem and repowering them. Charter, my ISP, even has this exact issue as part of their automated troubleshooting recording when you call them for technical assistance.

When I switched over to the Airport Extreme - haven't had a problem at all with it on 6 different machines (one ethernet Mac Pro, and three wireless Mac laptops and two Dells.

 

[Mlobo01]

ipfw: the invisible culprit...

I had a reply from the Apple Support forum that confirmed for me that Leopard indeed has a secondary Firewall, The Infamous ipfw! the same one that showed up in panther, well it occured to me that if its set to a default setting how are we to now what it denies or allows access to? your router's ip address may be being denied connection because ipfw is set to a specific address different from the Systems preference Firewall. How do we check its configuration? do the following: in Terminal type: sudo ipfw list _then enter
in one of the lines it shows what ip addresses are being allowed, like this:"allow any from 192.168.0.0 to 24" if this is different from your router then flush the rules with the following command: sudo ipfw flush _then enter
it should configure an address closer to your router's. check to see if the connection behaves as it should.

 

[Mlobo01]

issues...and testing...
So far so good, I have not lost connectivity since last I posted, I am testing a new account and its also running well, I believe that migrated accounts transfer poorly under this iteration of Leopard, mainly because of the transferred prefs, unresolved permissions and caches. Once you get over these small hurdles it seems to open the time to keep on testing other performance related matters, I think we must abandon the notion of carrying over our prefs to a system that likes to write files under it's own environment.
My compilation of fixes include the following if not already listed by others: Turn off ipv6, in SysPrefs>energy saver: turn off "put disc to sleep", flush the ipfw, under the Firewall app. (under essential or specific items)include to allow widgets the need the internet, browsers, messengers, mail clients,quicktime or any video players. under the network pane input the dns numbers, also I found this old hint from macosxhints to make system prefs remember:
"Mac OS X Networking Problems? Try deleting these preference files
We previously noted this procedure as part of a workaround for users who were unable to use AirPort functionality after applying one of Apple's firmware updates.
MacFixIt reader Colin writes "I had a bizarre problem where my network settings were screwy. Although I don't use it PPPoE was checked and every time I unchecked it, it would re-enable itself."
If you are experiencing a problem similar to this, or an issue where Network Preferences cannot remember other settings, delete the following files using the Terminal's "sudo rm" command:
/var/db/NetworkInterfaces.xml
/var/db/SystemConfiguration/*.xml
(jan 2003, issue with panther)

 

[Mlobo01]

Stability...

So I have managed to maintain a stable connection by going into the router's settings and selecting one channel instead of automatic and selecting mixed mode instead of Wireless G. It has been stable and connects after sleep or any shutdowns.