WLAN problem - transfers keep stopping/freezing

[ahoegh]

I received an iMac a couple of days ago - my first Mac by the way. Some days before that, I set up a wireless network at my appartment. On this network, which goes through an SMC access point, I use WPA encryption. I have two computers connected, my iMac and a laptop running Windows, and they are both setup to see eachother on the network.

The problem is, that when I find a file on the laptop and want to move it to the iMac (say its a larger file > 500 mb), the transfer stops at some point. I think that this can be because the laptop seems to disconnect from the WLAN often and reconnect again - even though it seems that theese small disconnections do not always stop the transfers.

The real problem is, that when a transfer stops, Finder crashes completely. I cannot even re-start it, so I have to turn down the computer using the power switch! Not even the "turn off" button in the Apple-menu works.

Do you have any suggestions on what to do?

The way I look at it, I have theese problems:

a) transfers stop - why? Because of the laptop? It seems to connect to the network fine, so why does it disconnect?

b) Mac OS X crashes - why? Howcome a disconnected WLAN-transfer can kill the Finder like that, so all I can do is to restart?

 

[velocityg4]

A. The disconnections of the laptop can be caused by numerous problems. However the first thing I would check is the wireless channel you are using. Pretty much everyone uses the default channel 8 I believe which I have found can cause interference, at least it seems to for me. So I would change the settings of your router to something like channel 11.

If you never did much setting up of your router you access it through your web browser, usually through typing in 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in your address bar. The user name is almost always "Admin" or "default" and the default password is usually left blank or "Admin" or "user". As for changing the channel the is usually a tab marked wireless or wlan where you can change the settings.

Another problem the laptop could be facing is the actual wireless driver. Two big problems here are the driver revision being used and the garbage network connection software. First off go to your wireless cards manufacturers website and download the latest drivers.

The next step is to remove all the third party network connection software through add and remove programs then install the drivers only this should may be an option in the installer or you will need to do some digging through the temp folder of the installer with the "add hardware" control panel.

You can then set up your wireless connection through the "wireless network setup wizard" in your "control panel" folder in windows XP.

Hopefully this will resolve the laptops connection issues.

B. As for Mac OS X crashing my iMac will seem to crash too when a connection is lost. Usually the Finder completely locks up for a while but will recover eventually. Just give it ten minutes or so it should unfreeze.