OK, It seems the Macbook Pro has a problem dealing with wireless running at 108Mhz. Background: Recently, my wife began experiencing Kernel Panics on her MBP. Suspecting hardware issues, we took it to the Apple Store for repair. 3 Trips and multiple parts replaced, Apple replaced the entire unit. When we got home... Boom .... kernel panic. At that point, I figured it could not be hardware!! I had now seen the kernel panic issues with 4 different MacBooks: 1) Original MBP with 2.0G CPU 2) Original 2.0G with "fixed" (latest rev) motherboard 3) New 2.16G MBP 4) Sons 2.16G MBP All 4 units experienced random Kernel Panics all listing the same basic traceback related to: com.apple.driver.AirPortAtheros5424 com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family Figuring wireless was at fault, I went though the process of elimination: Downgrading from 2.0 to 1.0 software on the router : no change Trying WPA and not WPA2 : no change Trying WEP : no change Disabling the extend range mode : no change Setting the router to b/g mode only : helped After that the MBP went from crashing ever hour to so, to crashing once or twice a day. Thinking the 108 had something to do with it, I shut off my my second wireless access point (used for the work access). Both my wife's and son's MBP has now been running with no fault for days. Conclusion: If the MPB is associated to a device running 108 - it crashes very frequently (time is random from 15 mins, to 2 hours). However, what's real interesting to me is the MBP does not actually have to be associated, just doing wireless in the presents of a wireless router operating at the 108 speed for it to crash the MBP. Also, note I have *NOT* seen these issues with the Powerbook Pro at all. Other comments, both Wireless Routers in operation are Netgear WPN802. This weekend I will likely change back to WPA2 and upgrade the firmware to 2.x to be sure those are not related...
Well, if you suspect that it's the pre-N stuff that's causing the crashes, why don't you set your router on 54Mbps only.
I did.... Setting the router to b/g mode only : helped But the remaining concern is: However, what's real interesting to me is the MBP does not actually have to be associated, just doing wireless in the presents of a wireless router operating at the 108 speed for it to crash the MBP. So if i am in at a hot spot running 108 - i cant control that....
I will just comment that I ran my MacBook Pro (week 8, from the first batch,) on a client's Pre-N Netgear router just fine for over two hours with no problems.
I don't think you'll have to worry about 108Mbps hotspots anytime soon, at least until the standard is released. Routers are funky things, I would see if it acts like that on other 108Mbps routers from Netgear, of course, it's Netgear so... Also, N hasn't been finalized, and there are several competing technologies, so it may just be a conflict with that.