iMac G5 Airport Problem?

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iMac G5 Airport Problem?

My iMac G5 (ALS, no iSight - 2.0GHz Model) which has become my wife's computer air having a problem with wireless connectivity. It constantly loses its connection to the internet or to the network entirely. Often times (on restarts) it won't connect to its known network (our home network). Usually it prompts for the password when manually selecting our home network, though it knows it. I've tried everything I can think of.

I've just recently done a clean install and updated to 10.5.8. It's set up as a new machine, not restored so I don't think any bad settings have carried over. Because the computer is no where near our Airport, I'm thinking if I can't get this fixed, I might have to buy an Express or something to plug a connection in with a cable, but that's not ideal. Does anyone have any thoughts?

M9844LL/A, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 22, 2009 5:08 AM

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Answer 1

Sayquack

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2009 7:51 AM in response to robertkunda

Absolutely having the same problem. Apple support has no idea what is going on. Local Apple endorsed repair shop replace power supply under the assumption that it was going out and causing the airport to be underpowered.

The really weird part is that it will work no problem for the better part of a day and then randomly lose the signal and it does not come back. I have moved the iMac all over the house and even set it up right next to the TimeCapsule to ensure that it is not a problem with location relative to the router. This does not solve the problem.

Does anyone have any ideas? I am reluctant to replace the airport as I don't want to waste another $100 trying to solve this problem. It seems strangely like a software issue rather than hardware.

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Answer 2

Nov 11, 2009 2:07 PM in response to robertkunda

I have also a iMAC PowerPC G5 (no iSight) and I acquired a few months ago a iMAC Intel 24 '. and i'm also using Airport.
Airport is working fine but i had a hard time for the initial configuration.
Have you look at the "Aiport utility". There, you can choose which channel to be used for the communications.
Depending of possible interferences, you might get better performance with one or another channel.
Hoping this might help....

By the way, I used for some time a wireless keyboard and mouse. It was working fine for a long time But suddenly, the quality of the wireless link was miserable and after many failed attempts, I had to use the old good "cabled" keybord and mouse.....

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Answer 3

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Nov 12, 2009 10:43 AM in response to robertkunda

Welcome to Discussions, robertkunda

Sounds like it might be interference. To help minimize interference, turn on interference robustness if it is not already enabled.

Keep wireless phones and BIG speakers or other potentially interfering devices away from the Mac and your wireless router.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AirPortUtility/5.1/en/ap2082.html

If that does not resolve the problem, see your wireless router device user guide (manual) if needed and change wireless channels in the router. Move as far as possible from your currently used channel.

If current channel is Auto, 1, or 6, change to Channel 11. Save the settings and test whether the problem is fixed.

If the problem persists, unless the channel was originally set to "1", change to Channel 1. Save the settings and test whether the problem is fixed. If not, unless the original channel was "6", try changing to Channel 6. There is no need to try the intermediate channels.

If your wireless router is an Apple Airport, one of these Help articles may also give you some help:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Airport/5.0/en/ap2072.html

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Airport/5.0/en/ap2043.html (power setting)

If none of the above fixes the problem, the trouble is unlikely to be related to interference. In that case, the first thing I would try is connecting wife's iMac via ethernet to verify that it is reliable when connected via wire.

EZ Jim

Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz w/Mac OS X (10.6.2) MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.2)
LED Cinema Display G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

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