slightly dodgy Airport Card?

[fluidedge]

Hi, So i've just about setup my new mac pro. Installed all my apps, however i've not been overwhelmed by the strength of the signal i get from the airport card.

I've moved the router a bit closer and it's a bit better - i'll get full strength for about 10 minutes, then it'll drop down to about 2 bars and really slow down - as in downloads stall and pages don't (finish) load(ing)

I thought the new mac pros had 802.11n? (just a thought - do i need an 'n' router to enable this?)

To be honest my wireless router is a few years old now - do you think a more modern router would give better strength? The router is about 30ft away and has to send signals through just one wall about 6 inches thick

 

[DWS]

You could try a signal booster similar to this:

http://www.netcomm.com.au/Wireless/NP560.php

 

[fluidedge]

discovered something very strange - when the internet reduces to a crawl - in fact it completely stalls - I open up network preferences (by clicking on the Airport bars and clicking on "Open Network Preferences...") and IMMEDIATELY the internet comes back to life and a page loads automatically.

It's almost as if by opening Network Preferences it some how forces the page to load, or forces a download to pickup again??

What the hell is going on here? Has anyone else heard of this? It almost confirms in my mind that the Airport card is working perfectly and picks up a signal all the time, there is just a problem with the software drivers or something?

I've updated the driver on my wireless box (D-Link DI-524) to the latest version. Can I update the Airport card firmware etc?

Why opening Network preferences should force a page to load is baffling - anyone got any advice?

The internet is barely working on my mac pro now without this strange work around - which lasts for about 30 seconds then appears to drop the connection again

I'm running Leopard 10.5.1 - Is this something 10.5.2 will clear up?

I'm convinced its software based rather than a dodgy airport card/router as i can sort of force a page to load at will.

Help!

 

[phjo]

My experience was about the same as yours... Sometimes the airport showing strong signal and fast browsing, and sometimes the signal being so weak as to lose connection, asking password again.

I moved the access point somewhat (something like 30 or 40 centimeters !) and connection has been perfect from that moment...

As for the 802.11n abilities of the airport, yes, you would need a 'n' routeur to benefit from it, and maybe not every brand...

phjo

 

[fluidedge]

reading around - i think opening network preferences sort of resets your connection to the router somehow.

I've tried moving the router again but it's not done much - is this a REAL problem? Or should i just wait for 10.5.2 to see if that sorts it out, i think 10.5.2 is supposed to fix a lot of things

I've also just turned Bluetooth off (I'll never use it anyway) in case that is somehow interfering with the airport card?

 

[fluidedge]

i just don't understand it - i run network diagnostics and it says everything's fine - which it is for about the first 30 seconds - everything runs smoothly and then it just suddenly drops to nothing. I open network diagnositcs and then everything jumps into life again, then 30 seconds late it dies.

anyone got any ideas? I wonder if the router's knackered? Should i go and buy an 'n' class router?

Thing is - my 4 year old iBook G4 and 2.16GHz macbook have no such troubles - in fact i often find the macbook kind of 'consumes' the whole bandwidth not allowing my ibook G4 to pick up any signal?

Is this an 'intel' mac problem?

 

[fluidedge]

right after reading about 400 threads on various places i've found it's a very common problem that is being fixed in 10.5.2 - a developer with the update says his airport card issues are completely fixed with the 10.5.2 update

now not all issues seem to be the same, but fingers crossed it seems to be solving the issues!

now when is 10.5.2 coming Apple!?! Get a flipping move on.