My internet connection hangs from my Mac only

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My internet connection hangs from my Mac only

I have a MAc Mini and three windows pc's - all connect wirelessly through a Belkin ADSL router to the internet. While I occassionally have internet the connection hangin, which affects all my pc's - and is solved by rebooting the router, I have a Mac-specific issue.

The Mac can be used to surf (using Safari) or download (via Safari, iTunes and others) - it will frequently hang the connection, requiring a reboot.

Frequently: - clicking to a new link in Safari will cause this

Often: - download (say a podcast) will slow then hang before the end, at which point no internet connection will work.

Often: - clicking on a new link as no effect, until I click again - then it may slowly respond

Sometimes - I use speedtest.net to test connection speed - it may spart at 3-4Meg, but degrade to virtually nothing and hang before the end

The Router is a Belkin Mimo G+ - set to run at 802b & g, with 54g security currently off (doesn't seem to matter)

The Bandwidth provision is up to 6 Meg downstream and ~400k upstream

Use of the other PC's - all different - does not prompt the same effect.

I want to make much more use of the Mac - but I cannot rely on it, yet it is not the physical device, it is the internet connection via the wireless router that is affected.

MacMini Intel Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.7), Belkin G+ Mimo wireless router

Posted on Oct 15, 2007 6:57 AM

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Answer 1

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Oct 15, 2007 7:13 AM in response to Trousers088

Could you describe the layout of your different computers with respect to the router and to each other? Distances and obstacles. Thanks!

Are all the computers using wireless?

Are there any interfering devices nearby (cordless phones, neighbor's routers)?

Does the "G+" mean that the Belkin is a non-standard superset of the G standard? You might try turning off any non-standards-compliant features of the router.

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Answer 2

Trousers088 Author

Level 1

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Oct 15, 2007 8:05 AM in response to Boece

The other three are all intel/ms and using wireless connections. 1 works laptop is used off-and-on and works fine, desktop uses a Belkin USB WiFi adaptor - fine, own laptop uses internal modem - also fine.

The G+ MIMO is what is written on the box - "ADSL2+ Modem with G+ MIMO Router" (Belkin part: F5D9230-4) ,claims greater coverage and speed than G - and up to 32 connectons.

Issues occur if this is the only connection or one of 3 or 4.

There is a cordless phone in the house - but it's location, and that of the base station, doesn't seem to make any difference.

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Answer 3

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Oct 15, 2007 11:15 AM in response to Trousers088

How far is the Mini from the router? What obstacles are between?

BTW any device that claims to be better ("G+") than a standard (eg "G") is non-standards-compliant. If you can turn off the "plus" features, that might help with reliability.

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Answer 4

Trousers088 Author

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Oct 16, 2007 3:06 AM in response to Boece

I am taking WiFi out of the equation - I have now moved the mini and router into the same room and the mac is now wired into the router. This way I can see if it is WiFi or internet that is the cause.

This morning (UK time) performance is fine - but I noticed something last night.

In the evening, the bandwidth available was much lower (due to shared usage in the area) - down to ~1-1.5 Meg - and I could not maintain a valid connection through the Mac. I could not even reply to your last posting. Nothing else had changed.

Taking this on face value - it would suggest that the Mac needs quite a bit of bandwidth (or quick response time) to maintain a connection. * Does this ring any bells? *

I am going to use the Mac a lot for the next 24-hours - in different circumstances - and see if I get any issues.

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Answer 5

Trousers088 Author

Level 1

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Oct 23, 2007 6:39 AM in response to Trousers088

With the Mac wired into the router many off the issues have gone away - and cannot be isolated as a mac-only issue.

I don't believe my router behaves as consistently with the Mac as with the windows devices, but I cannot demonstrate that in any definitive way, so am closing this thread.

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