MacPro 2.66 Wifi Blues 14-25% noise in Airport App.

[jazz1]

I bought a MacPro 2.66 from Apple as a refurb. months ago. I had the local Apple Store Genius install a Wifi card and all was well about two weeks ago. Now my Internet speeds crawl and then bounce back up. I've cut out of the chain Netgear router and switch.

I replaced an Apple Extreme.

I've had Mediacom out three times.

I've been on Apple Care support staff by phone.

I've checked the speed a Mac directly connected to the Apple Extreme via Ethernet, and with a MacBook Pro. Good speeds there.

Today I dragged the MacPro to the local Genius Bar and they pulled it and reseated it, and made sure all the antenna wires were tight. In the Apple Store the speeds to two WWW Internet speed sites screamed.

Back home I got initial joy and then I'm back down in the dumper again with speed. There must be some environmental thing going on here. Yes I do have a wireless 5.8 mhz phone. But I've dropped the Extreme to the lower mhz. One of my neighbors has a Wifi network going, but that has been up for many months.

Time to drill a hole in the floor I guess and drop an Ethernet cable into it. Any last minute ideas before I put up the construction tape

 

[inigel]

Do you have this problem with other computers using Wi-Fi?

 

[jazz1]

Do you have this problem with other computers using Wi-Fi?

No, oddly my Macbook Pro laptop, off of the same Apple Extreme cooks right along, though it only has a G card in it.

Either my Mediacom connection is acting like a yo-yo and I just can't isolate it, or my MacPro has some intermittent issue that of course didn't show at the MacGenius Bar.

I note 15-25% noise with a 78% signal on the MacPro via Airport Utility. Is that a lot of noise? I did try the robust setting against interference, but that really killed the speed worse than ever before.

 

[bearcatrp]

What type of encryption are you using? I switched from WEP to WPA and have the same issues. Works great in WEP. It does this on my 2ghz mac pro and my 24 inch 1st gen iMac. Its like its pulsing the signal. Beats me why.

 

[jazz1]

What type of encryption are you using? I switched from WEP to WPA and have the same issues. Works great in WEP. It does this on my 2ghz mac pro and my 24 inch 1st gen iMac. Its like its pulsing the signal. Beats me why.

I tried "no" encryption and same problem. I just went back to "N" only and my speeds are back up, not the highest, but back up pretty good. I also just had an issue with my BT keyboard.

Is the MacPro card for Wifi also serving up Bluetooth. I just wonder if I have a flakey board after all and the Apple Genius just got luck that it was not flacking out while he was looking at it?

I've never had such long term issues with Wifi. I guess I should probably go Ethernet cable. Other than the hole in floor this room is right above the Extreme's location.

I still need Wifi for an old Emac and my Dell Mini 9 and MacPro.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Trying to diagnose Wifi issues is hard.

 

[inigel]

I just tried the wireless in my Mac Pro, mine was a BTO Mac Pro and it is fine running through a Time Capsule at N & G speeds. Mind you, I have no interference, thanks to all the space in rural Australia.

Does anyone think it has something to do with the Mac Pro case? With the aerial being in the centre of the case?

 

[jazz1]

I just tried the wireless in my Mac Pro, mine was a BTO Mac Pro and it is fine running through a Time Capsule at N & G speeds. Mind you, I have no interference, thanks to all the space in rural Australia.

Does anyone think it has something to do with the Mac Pro case? With the aerial being in the centre of the case?

Would it have killed Apple to put a little stub antenna out the back! Wonder if there are aftermarket hacks? I'll have to do a search. Right now the "N" is working, and I've got the Express up using "G" only. We will see how long this lasts.

 

[Earl Urly]

The Wifi antenna on the Mac Pro is actually on the BOTTOM of the case, towards the back.

You tried switching wireless channels? 1, 6, and 11 are considered the best channels. Used to get interference from running my microwave oven when at 11, but since I switched to 1 I don't even notice anything, even while cooking a burrito

 

[Catch Them]

i was experience the same issue the other day, my MBP would blaze through pages and file transfer, but the MP would sort of just crawl.

I did a PRAM and SMC reset of the MP.

PRAM (COMMAND OPTION P R) immediately at start up


and it seemed to boost the performance quite well.


(I also have a windows partition but that wasnt experiencing any issues prior or after the reset, so im thinking it was something OSX and the firmware needed to recalibrate and reset to get things going again)


worth a shot id say.

 

[jazz1]

i was experience the same issue the other day, my MBP would blaze through pages and file transfer, but the MP would sort of just crawl.

I did a PRAM and SMC reset of the MP.

PRAM (COMMAND OPTION P R) immediately at start up


and it seemed to boost the performance quite well.


(I also have a windows partition but that wasnt experiencing any issues prior or after the reset, so im thinking it was something OSX and the firmware needed to recalibrate and reset to get things going again)


worth a shot id say.

I will give it a try. I assume I have to dig out the USB keyboard as the BT probably wouldn't input in in time at start-up.

Thanks for the help.