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In Need of Tech Help, iMac Wifi Issues

I

IanAraujoPhoto

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2012
1
0
Hi, hopefully some of you guys can help me out with some problems I've been having lately.
Here are my computer and network specs: I have a Mid-2011 Base model 27" iMac with 4GB RAM and the 2.7 ghz intel quad core i5 and standard 1TB HD running OS X Version 10.8.
For my router, I have a Linksys Cisco EA3500 Wireless Router.
Not sure if this is important, but Comcast is my ISP.

For the past few months (including before I bought Mountain Lion) I've been having some internet connection issues. I'll explain:
I'll have my computer sleeping, and I'll sit down and wake it up. Then I'll open up Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox and proceed to browse around online and possibly watch some videos. All of a sudden my internet browser page says "This Webpage Is Not Available" or "No Internet Connection Detected" or something along those lines. So then I have to disconnect from my WiFi Network, and reconnect again. After I do this, my computer stays on the connection for about 10 minutes max, then I get disconnected again, or dropped, I'm not sure which is the correct term here. Then I have to repeat the process again, and disconnect, reconnect, etc. etc.

No other computers in my house seem to have any internet connection issues. I have an old G5 iMac that actually works faster and stays connected to my Wifi 100% of the time. My old HP laptop doesn't seem to have an issue staying connected either.

My brother is directly plugged in or "hardwired" to our wireless router, and I'm wondering if he might be contributing to the network issues somehow. He's a huge gamer and him and I, both built his PC together. His PC is nothing too "insane" but it's pretty powerful. I wanna say he's running an Intel Core i7 3770 and a superclocked nvidia evga560. (I don't think his specs are important but I want to give you guys an idea of how powerful his computer is). He often runs multiple games and other chatting programs at the same time.
My concern here is that maybe he's maxing out our provided MB from comcast, but I highly doubt it. Let me know if this is a possibility.

ANYWAYS: I followed all the instructions on apples site, I created a new location, etc. etc. but none of it worked. I literally do not store anything on my computers HD as I store it all on external drives. So I don't think my computers getting "bogged down" either, because I still have 900GB available on my internal HD. I also regularly run CCleaner and I also repair disk permissions regularly. I just am stumped to what it could be. I moved my computer out of my room and into my living room to see if I might be having interference issues, and i thought it worked because it didn't drop me right away, but after about 25minutes online, it dropped me again.

Sorry this was so long, I don't think all of it I "needed" to say, but I want someone to be able to properly help me diagnose my issue.

Any help what so ever would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again, and sorry about this long OP.
 
I too had the same issue as you, with my iMac.

I disabled IPv6 since Comcast was sending IPv6 to my modem, disabling that on my Modem seems to have worked to resolve it.
 
Last edited:
Ian, I would begin by trying to find out if the problem is on the internet side (where your brother's use may be causing your problems) or on the wifi side of the router (where your brother's use should have no effect); try a temporary direct connection from the router to your Mac, both when your brother is online and when he is not.

Walls and electrical wiring can interfere with wifi; I have a friend who wasn't able to get a wifi signal in his living room, with his router in the den, and moving the router across the den solved his problem.

Good luck.
 
I had a similar issue in my house...my Mom's MacBook would not have internet intermittently at her desk. But, if we moved it anywhere else, it would reconnect.

I found that our neighbor's WiFi was actually interfering with here computer since she is on the far side of the house.

Try changing the channels on your router until you get a solid connection. That is what worked for me after being frustrated about it for a while.
 
IanAraujoPhoto said:
So then I have to disconnect from my WiFi Network, and reconnect again.
Click to expand...
As others have suggested, there are many things that can interfere with WiFi signals. You might also consider changing the wireless channel used by your router, as WesCole suggested.
IanAraujoPhoto said:
I also regularly run CCleaner
Click to expand...
You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps like CCleaner to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.


IanAraujoPhoto said:
and I also repair disk permissions regularly.
Click to expand...
Repairing permissions will have no effect whatsoever on your wireless issues. Some people repair, or recommend repairing permissions for situations where it isn't appropriate. Repairing permissions only addresses very specific issues. It is not a "cure all" or a general performance enhancer, and doesn't need to be done on a regular basis. It also doesn't address permissions problems with your files or 3rd party apps.

Disk Utility repairs the permissions for files installed by the Mac OS X Installer, Software Update, or an Apple software installer. It doesn’t repair permissions for your documents, your home folder, and third-party applications.

You can verify or repair permissions only on a disk with Mac OS X installed.
Click to expand...
Does Disk Utility check permissions on all files?

Files that aren't installed as part of an Apple-originated installer package are not listed in a receipt and therefore are not checked. For example, if you install an application using a non-Apple installer application, or by copying it from a disk image, network volume, or other disk instead of installing it via Installer, a receipt file isn't created. This is expected. Some applications are designed to be installed in one of those ways.

Also, certain files whose permissions can be changed during normal usage without affecting their function are intentionally not checked.
Click to expand...
There are times when repairing permissions is appropriate. To do so, here are the instructions:
If repairing permissions results in error messages, some of these messages can be ignored and should be no cause for concern.
 
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