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Dropping Wireless Connection

B

BicyclePunk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 26, 2002
187
0
Somewhere near Philadelphia
Ok, I know this is a vague question and is like finding a needle in a haystack, but figured I'd ask it anyway...just in case there is a known problem of which I'm unaware.

Anyway...recently I've noticed the wireless connection that I set up in my house suddenly drops my 15" 1ghz PowerBook with airport extreme. I'm using a Belkin Wireless router (b...not...g). All of a sudden, I have no connection. The base station has all the proper lights on, and the DSL modem is running fine. But the laptop is not connected. Yet, my wife can still connect on her windows laptop.

So are there any issues out there that could cause this? Anything I can do to further troubleshoot?

Thanks.
 
similar problem(no fix yet)

With my computer, it always seems to have a similar problem when it comes back from being asleep. I will just stop doing anything internet related even though it shows I am connected to the wireless router. Even weirder, sometimes I will be doing stuff on my computer and it will all the sudden just loose the connection and the router won't show up at all in the internet connection. The only way I have found to solve the problem is to unplug the router for a few minutes. This seems to only happen at night though, during the day if I am home, everything works normal.

Hope someone can help us here.(sorry I couldn't be of any :) )
 
My brother just moved into a new apartment, and he was having the same problem. At the same time, his mac and mine would both lose connection, while his roommates PC would still be online.

What we did was switch the router to another channel, and havent had any problems since. I dont know if we were getting interference from something else, or what.
:confused:
 
Spizzo said:
My brother just moved into a new apartment, and he was having the same problem. At the same time, his mac and mine would both lose connection, while his roommates PC would still be online.

What we did was switch the router to another channel, and havent had any problems since. I dont know if we were getting interference from something else, or what.
:confused:
Click to expand...

Often times a 2.4GHz cordless phone will disrupt the wireless signal if it is near either the receiving computer or the base station. If there appears to be random dropping of signal, it can be cleared up by switching the channel on the base station.
 
wwooden said:
With my computer, it always seems to have a similar problem when it comes back from being asleep. I will just stop doing anything internet related even though it shows I am connected to the wireless router. Even weirder, sometimes I will be doing stuff on my computer and it will all the sudden just loose the connection and the router won't show up at all in the internet connection. The only way I have found to solve the problem is to unplug the router for a few minutes. This seems to only happen at night though, during the day if I am home, everything works normal.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what happens with mine...especially at night! But I'm going to try switching channels on the router and see what happens. At least I know I'm not alone with this. I'm at work now, but will check when I get home, and report back here. Thanks!!
 
my linksys router will do this about once a week. i found if i reset the DHCP on the router it will let me back on. but that is weird, it should automatically set the DHCP. :-/ though as i think of it now it hasnt happened in a couple of weeks (knock on wood). i dont know about changing the chanel, because i have already changed the channel to get my airport express to work. . . and i have the hardest time changing the channel on that.
 
good idea

Man, I never even thought about changing the channel ( sometimes my brain just doesn't work). I am in class right now, but when I get home, I will try it out and share what happens. We do have a 2.4ghz phone, and sometimes I put the phone right next to either place ( hub or computer). Never even gave that a thought before.
 
Ok...silly question, but if the phone is not in use, but still not in the cradle, will that make a difference? Hell...if it's in the cradle, too? The base station for my phone is right next to and/or on top of the base station.
 
There are a lot of report of the latest Panther update and Airport card update causing problems like this. Random dropping of WiFi connections. I too had this problem with my PowerBook. The solution, which still makes no sense to me, is to hard reset your base station. I hard reset my NetGear WiFi router and upgraded it's firmware and I haven't had the problem since.
 
BicyclePunk said:
Ok...silly question, but if the phone is not in use, but still not in the cradle, will that make a difference? Hell...if it's in the cradle, too? The base station for my phone is right next to and/or on top of the base station.
Click to expand...

I had instances where if I had my handset near my Mac and the phone rang, it would knock out my wireless connection. I also had instances where it would drop without apparent reason while the phone was near the Mac (perhaps just doing a quick check for the base station or something?). Once I changed channels, no more problems.

As for the update breaking the system as well, I've heard that and completely forgot about it (I haven't run the update, shame on me, so don't have a problem).
 
yellow said:
There are a lot of report of the latest Panther update and Airport card update causing problems like this. Random dropping of WiFi connections. I too had this problem with my PowerBook.
Click to expand...

This is when I started to notice it, too. It first happened on my PowerMac dual 500 G4 with the old Airport Card. But I'll try to change the channel on the base station and see how that works. Apple should fix this, if this is where the problem is.
 
Ok...I changed the channel on the router. Just did it now and things seem fine. I'm also starting to think this whole problem has something to do with our baby monitor. Not sure, though. If things are still screwed up, I'll try resetting the router....it does have a reset button. Stay tuned.
 
I'm having the same problem - Powerbook 1.5 can't use the network after waking from sleep despite seeing the signal. Always fixes once I restart the router (D-Link DI624) by unplugging it and plugging it back in. I tried resetting it via the pinhole and that hasn't fixed the problem. As for changing the channel, it seems that the router has only one channel - 6. Anyone know how I can change this? It only gives me one option for the channel when I use the router's webpage config...
 
Ok...reset the router, changed channels and everything. Still the same problem. What's even more weird is that my desk top with the old AirPort card is connected even less. But on that machine, I'm showing a fairly strong signal...but it's not connecting. this is pretty frustrating......
 
Try downloading and reinstalling the 10.3.5 Combo Updater, as well as the latest AirPort card update. Plus do some WiFi Router firmware upgrades if available.. it's probably been a while since you've done that, right?
 
Of course the firmware update for my router won't unstsuff. But it's a year old anyway. But I installed AirPort Card Update 2004-08-31 just now. I don't think it did anything, though. I'm gonna try to reinstall the 10.3.5 combined and see how that works. Would having a g card running on a b router be that much of a problem? how about a b and g running on a b router? Maybe I should just buy a new g router?? Stay tuned.
 
I have a linksys (b) router with the exact same problem, but I was able to fix it. All I did was update the firmware for my router, and I havnt had a single problem since! computer sees router just fine, no connection drop outs, and even after I wake my PB up, its immediately online :D

so what I would do, it look and see if your routers brand has firmware updates for your particular router, 9 times out of 10 that will fix most major problems.
 
Downloaded and installed latest version of firmware for my DI624, even though this was the same version that was already installed. It fixed the problem though, it seems... :confused:
 
Well...I downloaded a firmware update for my Belkin router, but when I try to unstuff it, it throws some kind of error saying it wasn't compressed properly. I'm gonna see if my wife can download and decompress it. That, or I'm going to buy a new router tomorrow.....
 
Ok...on the wife's windows laptop and connecting to the wireless network wonderfully right now. Tried downloading and unstuffing the firmware update for the router from this machine, too. No luck. Bad stuff. Screw it...I'm going to buy a new router today. Damn. :mad:
 
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