Wireless Connection Problem

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by bingefeller, Jul 25, 2007.

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  1. bingefeller, Jul 25, 2007

    bingefeller macrumors 6502a

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    #1
    Hey guys,

    I've noticed a little problem with my internet connection.

    I'm using firefox and when I'd type in an address the status bar would read "connecting to google.com" or whatever and it wouldn't connect to the site. I'd sometimes have to hit return to get the site to load.

    So, this happened tonight and I opened up Safari and the same problem occured. Safari gave a little message saying you are not connected to the internet. My Airport icon shows full strength and it didn't display a loss of connection at this time. After hitting refresh a few times, the page loaded OK.

    I have noticed this problem happened a few times yesterday but only once today. Perhaps it's an ISP problem? My ISP is BT Internet.

    My modem is a Netgear DG834G and my computer is about 3 meters away from it.

    Weird thing about this is that I was chatting on IRC at the time and didn't get disconnected from the server......
     
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  2. bingefeller, Jul 29, 2007

    bingefeller thread starter macrumors 6502a

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    #2
    OK so this happened again today, after not happening for a few previous days. I looked at all the lights on my modem / router and they were all lit up. This time I need to turn off Airport and turn it back on again, then things worked perfectly.

    What do you guys think is the problem?

    I posted a picture of my modem settings, maybe the fact that DHCP is on is causing these problems? Maybe my router just needs a reboot as it hasn't been turned off in a week?
     

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  3. MalcolmJID, Jul 29, 2007

    MalcolmJID macrumors 6502a

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    #3
    I have similar problems. After taking a look at my iStat Pro widget, I found when there was this problem where it would remain on "connecting to google.com", the network section on the widget showed "Ext. IP: Unknown".

    So this seemed to be a problem at the modem end. When this happens, I can't use the internet, but oddly enough, like you said yourself, I could still chat on Adium!

    This happens in both my houses (both using Blueyonder/Virgin Media cable broadband).

    A reebot of the router seems to do the trick, but it's really annoying. At first I thought maybe just the Linksys router at one house was about to die, as it kept dropping the connection, or being really slow.

    But then the same started happening at the other house with a Belkin router. Whenever this happens, the internet also goes crap for any other computers on the wireless network (or in the case of the Linksys router, even a computer wired with ethernet).
     
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  4. bingefeller, Jul 29, 2007

    bingefeller thread starter macrumors 6502a

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    #4
    You see, it happens with any site in my case, I just provided google with an example - although I have been having a few slow connections to google this weekend.

    When this happened to me today I was again chatting using IRC and I got disconnected from the server. I'm not sure if this is what counts as a dropped connection. I tried to log in to my router from my computer but I couldn't! I had to restart Airport to do so. Like I said no lights were out on my router so I'm guessing it's an Airport fault?

    The logs from around the time show this -

    When the incident happened -

    When I'd reconnected and rebooted my router -

     
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  5. theheyes, Jul 29, 2007

    theheyes macrumors regular

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    Manchester
    #5
    This has been happening to me recently. At first I thought it was my ISP (Sky) or the pile of **** router they supply you with, but since you guys have listed Virgin and BT it might not be Sky after all...

    I wonder if the UK routers are beginning to feel the strain. :D
     
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  6. bingefeller, Jul 29, 2007

    bingefeller thread starter macrumors 6502a

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    #6
    Today was the only time that this has happened that I needed to turn off Airport and restart it and it was the only time that this has presented itself in the log file. I wonder if today's occurence was something different?

    It's just happened again as I tried to reply to this topic....

    Another thing that might be important - my neighbour has Sky Internet and sometimes my Airport shows his network name in the menu buut, at the moment, it doesn't appear. I wonder if his wireless is anything to do with me having problems?
     
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  7. zulgand04, Jul 29, 2007

    zulgand04 macrumors regular

    zulgand04

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    Location:
    Northborough, MA
    #7
    I've been having the same exact problem, but here over in the states. It really is weird i will be surfing to a page and it just won't load until i try to reload it and not a problem. As well when ever this happens adium works without a hitch. I have also noticed when im connected to my wired network in my house this never happens. In addition it does not seem to occur with my tivo, or brothers Dell (both wireless connected). Even being in the same room as the router doesn't help.

    We thought it was the router originally and replaced it with a new one through AT&T, yet the problem still occurs.

    -Neal
     
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  8. bingefeller, Jul 29, 2007

    bingefeller thread starter macrumors 6502a

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    #8
    Hmm, interesting. Maybe it's a problem with some of the backbone servers?

    Does anyone know if there's a way to have my Airport completely ignore all other networks and only show mine in the drop down menu? I do have interference robustness turned on. I can sometimes get up to 40% noise on my network according to iStumbler.

    Here's what iStumbler says about both networks -
     

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  9. bingefeller, Jul 29, 2007

    bingefeller thread starter macrumors 6502a

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    #9
    Just to add something else, I restarted my machine and haven't had a problem since. Does anyone have any idea what's going on?
     
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  10. MalcolmJID, Jul 31, 2007

    MalcolmJID macrumors 6502a

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    #10
    My initial concerns about it being the router was because when I bypassed the router and just plugged straight in the modem (either the PC or my MacBook) it was never a problem. Same at the house with the Belkin router. It's odd.

    A restart also fixes it for me occasionally, but the problems eventually come back.

    A quick look through all the network and router settings shows nothing that shouldn't be there. I can't understand why it keep happening. Unless it's just Blueyonder/Virgin capping our connection, as I know certain members of the households tend to enjoy torrents a lot :rolleyes:
     
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  11. bingefeller, Jul 31, 2007

    bingefeller thread starter macrumors 6502a

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    Location:
    Northern Ireland
    #11
    For me it's a DNS issue. Last night I couldn't connect to google.com so I found out google's IP and, when Firefox was trying to connect to google, I typed in the IP and it worked perfectly. It seems to be working OK for the last hour for me also. It's something to do with BT Internet's DNS server. Perhaps all the rain has effected something somewhere.....
     
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