Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

ctmurray wrote:
I thought Apple though gave you an incident report number so they would remember you.

If you join the +Apple Developer Connection+ — the +ADC Online+ category is free, here:




...you'll get a trackable +Bug ID #+ when you use this:



And no, you don't need to be a "developer" to join — just an Apple user who wants to make sure Apple knows there's a bug and have the ability to track its resolution.

I just wanted to give an update on my own experience in case it is helpful to somebody. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am running OS-X 10.5.8 on a white MacBook, not Snow Leopard. Nevertheless, I have suffered poor wireless performance, which started abruptly some months ago.

I have been able to muddle through by periodically changing my router´s transmission channel. I use KisMac to look at the traffic pattern whenever I have problems and select the channel which is least popular at that time. None of the other machines on my home net are affected by interference.

could be a hardware problem ?

Sure, it could be. But the warranty has expired I don´t want to put any more money into the machine while this issue is unresolved--some people have reported that changing the wireless module made no difference. If the problem gets worse, I will probably buy a third-party USB wireless dongle, preferably one that has its own drivers so that I can bypass all of the Apple 802.11x components.

Would be interesting how you get on.

Others have had success with this.

lurker412 wrote:
Sure, it could be. But the warranty has expired I don´t want to put any more money into the machine while this issue is unresolved--some people have reported that changing the wireless module made no difference. If the problem gets worse, I will probably buy a third-party USB wireless dongle, preferably one that has its own drivers so that I can bypass all of the Apple 802.11x components.

I am one that had weak wireless on a MacBook who chose to purchase an external USB wireless. At the time I was at 10.4.8 but have since upgraded to SL. It does have its own drivers, you turn off Airport entirely. There is a piece of software they provide that links your computer to networks it picks up. You can set a profile for networks (passwords) similar to "locations" in the Apple Network preferences panel. This unit is stronger than the built in Airport since it is external, has a large robust antenna, and I think draws more power than the built in unit (so battery life might be reduced). So I now pick up many more stations than with the internal device. The device was $50. I did search for a unit that was SL compatible and selected the Bear Extender (there seemed to be some issues with units not yet SL compatible at the time). I expect there are other units and they should all be compatible with other versions of Mac OS X.

The upgrading of the OS did not help me (or hurt). I looked into purchasing a new Airport card and studied the steps required to get at the card (iFixit.com). I also worried my antenna might have been disconnected from the airport card and made sure I understood how this was connected to the airport card. I was concerned I would open the laptop, install the airport, ensure the antenna was connected - and still have problems. With the external device I did not have to open the laptop and could test immediately and return if it did not work. It was also cheaper than an new airport card.

Thanks for sharing your experience, ctmurray. A $50 solution sounds right to me.

jpdemers wrote:
A while back, a user reported that turning off Airport and resorting to a USB WiFi dongle solved the problem for his MBP. Just wondering if anybody here has tried that. Not the most elegant fix, but if it works, it sure beats waiting for Apple to figure this out.

And it's still working just dandy, too.
Here's the link to it again:
http://www.planex.net/product/wireless/gw-usmini2n.htm
Cheers.

According to Softpedia at
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Expect-Mac-OS-X-10-6-3-Tomorrow-134921.shtml
Apple will release 10.6.3 today, and, they report, "Apple had narrowed down the focus areas to iCal and printing, AirPort, QuickTime and graphics drivers."
Good luck all.

I think we all wait with baited breath !

Same problem here with my F5D8235-4 v2000 and sadly no fix in sight... Tried it all... firmware update, no wps, no encryption, disabled n-network, different channels, nothing! Since it appears that this problem is almost exclusively a Mac OS 10.6 SL issue, I am wondering whether I should wait until there is a fix or whether to sell my Belkin and go for an Airport Express? I am tired of waiting... Should I wait for a fix or ditch the Belkin?

Anyone out there who has a solid connection with a F5D8235-4 v2000 under 10.6.2? If so, what is your Belkin configuration?

If 10.6.3 finally fixes it, that would be great!

Thanks
Alex

To all those who may be considering purchase of an Apple Airport Extreme unit to solve this problem please do not. I have 2 mac's running 10.5.8, one ipod touch and one windows laptop running under Windows XP all connecting to my AirPort Extreme unit fine. When I switch on the macbook running 10.6.2 the signal freezes after about 20 - 60 minutes.

To me this is clearly a SL issue and not a hardware outside of the SL environment. Ever since I purchased apple computers some 10 years ago everything is apple to stop the possibility of any conflicts in hardware.

Clearly we have to wait until 10.6.3 and see if we get enough time on line to download it and see if it works.

jpdemers and others:
I did purchase a USB dongle in hopes that it would fix my issues of dropping wifi signals. Although the dropping issue, wasn't nearly as bad as the Airport, (and I did turn off Airport on the computer), I DID still have dropping issues, to the point that using the dongle really wasn't a whole lot better than using Airport.
The device I purchased is: PLANEX IEEE802.11n 150Mbps Wireless Mini-USB Adapter GW-USMini2N

Here's hoping that 10.6.3 fixes all these issues, and we can move on to solving other problems.

smickd wrote:
Here's hoping that 10.6.3 fixes all these issues, and we can move on to solving other problems.

I can just about guarantee it won't, as it's clear that not everyone here is suffering from the same issues (as shown by the fact that the various suggestions clear up some peoples' issues for good and they do nothing for others.)

I just heard back from the Apple engineer who I was working with. He obtained a DLINK router identical to mine, and was able to reproduce my problem. Turns out it was a buggy DHCP implementation in the router. He says, "At this point, I can assure you that the issue you see is specific to the DLink router and has nothing to do with Snow Leopard." I don't fully agree with that from a user's perspective, since I never encountered any problems prior to upgrading from Leopard to SL, so SL seems to be less forgiving of buggy routers (and wireless channel interference) than previous versions of the OS, but in terms of constantly going for all-round better performance, I am now pretty confident that switching to another router will resolve all my issues. Since there seem to be multiple causes of the problems discussed on this thread, it's not clear to what extent my experience applies to others.