after 10.5.7 on TWO macs, intermittent wireless network problems on them

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Level 1

10 points

after 10.5.7 on TWO macs, intermittent wireless network problems on them

After I installed 10.5.7, my wireless connection is intermittently doing strange things:
- Connection just hangs when loading a web site/watching video. Sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after just a few seconds of browsing. But it returns sometime later... haven't figured out a pattern as to when it returns.
- After reboot, it doesn't automatically find my wireless network. If I explicitly set it, and type my password, I get Connection Timeout. But then after a little while later, it automatically finds it and I get all bars in my wireless menu
- This happens on BOTH computers that was upgraded to 10.5.7
- No problems at all before the upgrade
- iPod touch can browse without any problems any time
- wireless router is Time Capsule. I'm not sure if it's something specific to Time Capsule that only affect Macs
- Wired connections to Time Capsule always works
- Wireless is the top priority network connection
- I tried deleting all my keychains associated with the wireless network. It didn't change anything

Any suggestions, explanations?

PowerBook G4 1.33mhz, Mac OS X (10.5.7), Time Capsule

Posted on May 23, 2009 12:56 AM

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Answer 1

May 23, 2009 9:22 AM in response to Adam Kim1

I am having the same problem since I installed 10.5.7 on my Macbook Pro. I have found that I stay connected fine as long as I am using the Mac, but as soon as I leave it idle or it goes to sleep it loses its wireless connection. This behavior started as soon as I upgraded. It was solid prior to the latest SW version.

I know there is nothing wrong with my wireless network as I also have a PC connected wireless, a wired PC as well, and my iPhone using wireless is not having any issues.

My wireless router is the Airport Extreme Base Station. There is no issue with the base station as no settings changed and as I said, the PC's are not experiencing any problems.

Does anyone know of a patch for 10.5.7 that resolves this?

Thanks.

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Answer 2

Adam Kim1 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 24, 2009 10:12 AM in response to Adam Kim1

"After reboot, it doesn't automatically find my wireless network. If I explicitly set it, and type my password, I get Connection Timeout. But then after a little while later, it automatically finds it and I get all bars in my wireless menu"

I want to clarify that even though I get all bars, I still cannot access the internet (or even my router's config page).

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Answer 3

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

May 24, 2009 10:48 AM in response to Adam Kim1

Check this thread
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2008843&tstart=0

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Answer 4

Adam Kim1 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 25, 2009 2:00 AM in response to nerowolfe

That thread was not very helpful. My router works fine. I have a PC, two TiVo devices, an iPhone, and an iPod Touch that has no problems with my router.

I don't use WEP, I use WPA2 Personal. I even tried removing authentication anyway.

By the way, after a few minutes of successful browsing, the wireless network gets stuck. Things take forever to download. I noticed if I turn airport off and then on again, it works like it should... but only for a few more minutes.

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Answer 5

May 25, 2009 7:08 PM in response to Adam Kim1

Am suffering same problem after upgrade from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7. Originally thought it was due to a router change. Have gone back to original router and

1) Computer doesn't recognize saved network after reboot or going to sleep. Even though I've told it to remember the network, am prompted for password every time
2) randomly doesn't connect at all, even though it says I have 4 bars, I have no connectivity, and can't log into the router's IP at all.
3) if I do manage to connect, service is intermittent. Videos stop playing, every few minutes connection goes away, and we go back to step 1.

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Answer 6

May 25, 2009 7:10 PM in response to katrinaarcher

I should also mention that my husband's MacBook Pro doesn't seem to suffer from the same problems on the same router, but he hasn't upgraded to 10.5.7 yet (he's still on 10.5.6).

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Answer 7

May 25, 2009 7:39 PM in response to katrinaarcher

I have a very similar issue... this is very frustrating. my connection drops out and sometimes I'll have 2 bars yet can't connect... suspect it's 10.5.7

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Answer 8

May 25, 2009 10:31 PM in response to katrinaarcher

Here are the debugging steps we've tried:

1) Create new location. No joy
2) Delete old network. Recreate settings. No Joy
3) Remove firewall from router. No joy.
4) Remove all wireless security (eg, unlocked network). No joy
5) Changed entire subnet configuration on rrouter to force new client IP address to be issued. No joy.

Inspecting TCP/IP settings from Airport Advanced settings shows Airport DHCP client was not obtaining an IP address from the router's DHCP server. By setting it to DHCP - manual IP and picking a valid IP on the subnet, it worked (I also deleted all my old keychains at this stage). I was then able to re-instate automatic DHCP and I have access for now. I will monitor this to see how reliable it is after sleeps and reboots.

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Answer 9

May 25, 2009 11:22 PM in response to katrinaarcher

Still going after putting machine to sleep and waking up. Fingers crossed. Will have to see how I do at my other place.

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Answer 10

calivw78

Level 1

0 points

May 26, 2009 7:55 AM in response to Adam Kim1

We are seeing the same problem now as well. Macbook upgrade to 10.5.7 causes intermittent connection issues.

I made all of the following changes individually but with no results on our Airport Extreme v7.4.1
--Removed all authentication
--Changed channels
--Tried all Multicast rates
--Tried all Transmit Power percentages
--Tried Interference Robustness enabled and disabled
--Disabled my mac address filtering
--Double checked speed/duplex settings against port configuration on our cisco catalyst switch (even moved to automatic)

My macbook pro is running 10.5.6 and is having no issues. The wifes macbook on 10.5.7, right after the upgrade, started doing this. Needless to say, I'll be postponing my update. I even hooked up our Linksys wrt54g and the macbook does the exact same thing.

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Answer 11

May 26, 2009 8:17 AM in response to calivw78

Did you try renewing your DHCP lease using the "Use DHCP with manual address" setting like I did? We suspect that helped the router identify my machine's mac address. I did that then renewed the lease again going back to the plain old "Use DHCP" setting and I've been connected ever since. Kludgy, yes. But at least I'm up and running (on a WRT54G).

Kat

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Answer 12

May 26, 2009 9:47 AM in response to Adam Kim1

I'll ditto this. The apple store had to install 10.5.7 the other day, and my internet connection has been aweful. Dropped calls on skype/ichat, video streaming stops all the time, web pages stuck..

I imagine this is a bigger issue in the OS? Any ideas that work yet?

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Answer 13

May 26, 2009 7:36 PM in response to John Gallagher3

So far this has worked...

"Did you try renewing your DHCP lease using the "Use DHCP with manual address" setting like I did? We suspect that helped the router identify my machine's mac address. I did that then renewed the lease again going back to the plain old "Use DHCP" setting and I've been connected ever since."

THANKS! I will report back if it stops working again....

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Answer 14

Mr Gasp

Level 1

10 points

May 26, 2009 10:37 PM in response to Adam Kim1

hi everyone,
im having this problem as well.
im not using a router, wireless as well and the modem is just right beside me.
i didnt notice this problem at first time i come across this thread.
then i realised that its just recent after the update to 10.5.7 and these problems occur.
frequent on and off connection, browser page hang while loading, etc...
will there be anything done by apple so that theres another update soon to solve this problem...?

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Answer 15

Adam Kim1 Author

Level 1

10 points

May 26, 2009 11:12 PM in response to Mr Gasp

Yours sound like it's caused by a different problem since you're having problems with wired connections which I didn't have. If you have another computer, does it experience the same issue when it's connected directly to the modem? Networking issues are hard to troubleshoot because the symptoms all seems the same yet it can have many different causes.

Btw, I'm gonna give Renew DHCP a try. I'll see if that fixes my issue.

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