Keep losing network connection, especially after waking from sleep, but...

Hi Brent D.-

Sounds like a bad router.

Is the G5 using wireless or is it wired?

Luck-

-DP

If it's really 10base-T, getting one that's at least 100base-T or even gigabit (like the AirPort Extreme Base Station combo wireless N and gigabit Ethernet) would not be a waste of money. The Power Mac has gigabit Ethernet ports (that's 1000 base-T). It's a fire hose trying to pump water through a garden hose.

If you upgrade the router, make sure you also upgrade your wires to at least Cat 5e. Actually, maybe poor cabling is causing the unreliable connection.

My Linksys router failed with no warning. Apple conveniently released the square AirPort Extreme Base Station a few months before, so I got one. It's been rock solid.

Routers, just like any other hardware, can just up and fail one day.

Are you sure that you are connected at 10 Base T speed? Take a look at *About this Mac* under the *Apple menu*, select *More Info*, then select Network in the left column of the System Profiler. There you will find your actual connection speed.

The cheapest thing to try is a new cable and/or new port on the router.

Luck-

-DP

Hi, Brent:

I would not be too quick to start swapping things out (esp. expensive things!) without letting the discussion flow. I have never seen an answer that worked except updates and not all do... see below.

My Dual 2.5GHz G5 has been doing this on and off for years. It has been networked wirelessly since I got it and I am on my third router now for other reasons. I run two other Macs (G4 mini and early IMac/Intel) as well as two laptop PCs, all wireless. None of the other machines ever has this intermittent connectivity issue - just the G5. The symptom is a stalled browser (Safari or FireFox) with the wireless symbol almost always at four bars. Once in a while (like today), the bars will fade down to two for a while, but rarely. Absolutely the only temporary fix I have found successful is to switch airport on and off. Cure may hold for a while or it may not. Have noticed some apps using airport still seem to work (an old MacStumbler utility) even when Safari locks up. Thought it might be a Safari bug, but FireFox does the same thing.

IMHO, this is fundamentally related to a G5 software issue or interaction with the airport or network card. As I noted above, code evolution is a strong factor in my experience. My problems come and go tightly linked to software updates. It is usually a night-and-day change. I am at 10.4.11 on all Macs here; problem had not been around until I ran the last big update to 4.11. Interestingly, my daughter owns a very new iMac with Leopard and has seen the same type of behavior since Day One. I have also seen this problem mentioned about Leopard and iMacs in the lay press.

Wish I could offer a solution, but I am just waiting it out again.

Have you tried using a static IP address?

hello
I had the same problem but now it got even worse: I can't connect to my network @ all. Rightnow I'm using a belkin usb wireless network adapter which is doing the job just fine. It's a real mystery to me why I can't connect using the airport card since my old powermac dual G4 (also with airportcard) is still doing fine and has no problem connecting and the same goes for my ibook G4.
I've been searching the net for a solution but haven't found it yet.
I've been a real mac-addict but lately I find it hard to defend/recommend apple as my powermac G5 has given me more trouble then pleasure…

ISPs are always making changes, sometimes there are firmware updates for routers, and network equipment that worked on PPC doesn't always on Intel, but in your case you have an Intel Mac and it works fine, just your G5 with problem.

I had trouble with my connection after sleep, and it happened running Windows and OS X. Not sure yet why it is fine now other than changed cable.

I'm having the same problem on a dual 1.8 GHz G5. Weird thing is that FTP connections seem to work fine. Browser and e-mail fails most of the time, though.

Network diagnostics keep telling me my Ethernet connection is working. But then, oops, it isn't! Doesn't matter if I boot from OS X 10.4.11 drive or 10.5. My previous machine, a dual 1.6 GHz G5, was rock solid (until the CPU melted down).

I, too, am thinking it's a software issue, since 10.4.11 and 10.5 seem to be closely related. I'm going to reinstall 10.4 and not apply the updates to see if the problem goes away. Trouble is, some of my applications require 10.4.11. Grrr.

I'll do the reinstall and let you all know what happens.

--Orisinio

Message was edited by: orisinio

Okay, I reinstalled OSX 10.4, and am having the same result -- intermittent connections to the internet. I swapped ports on my hub/router -- a waste of time, since this Windows machine I'm using right now has no trouble with the Ethernet cable. Perhaps I'm experiencing some sort of hardware failure in the G5 after all. It seems to be reassigning its own IP address for some reason.

I've saved a disk image of the 10.4.8 update -- maybe I'll install it next to see if there's a change.

--Orisinio

Okay, after reading enough discussions on this topic that pointed the finger to cabling, I pursued the issue. Didn't seem relevant, since my Windows machine and my previous Mac G5 dual 1.6 GHz tower worked fine with the same cabling.

I went to the System Preferences > Network > Ethernet settings and clicked the Advanced button. Sure enough, my "new" (actually second-hand) G5 was more performant than my previous one, and the connection speed was set at 1000baseT. I configured it manually for 10baseT/UTP, and viola! everything is working fine now -- though it might be faster if I replaced all my cabling and used 1000baseT.

Don't know if that helps, but it might be a setting worth tweaking to see if things straighten out for you.

Orisinio

Hi again Brent D.-

"I just got one clue that is pointing to the router"

Actually I've thrown you a few. You need a new router.

Luck-

-DP