MacBook Pro - DIR-655 connection problems (Revisited)
Hello again fellow Mac users!
Last time I posted regarding this subject I was "fairly" new to the Mac system, now I have more time behind the keyboard and have, in general, come to accept Mac as far superior to PC.
Though I still have one nagging pain that I cannot understand or solve. I have EXTREME problems with my home network and connectivity with my router. Every time I think I have found a working solution the problem re-emerges and I cannot solve it permanently. What I am curious to find out is if there is anyone that have figured out what the actual problem is, why so many are experiencing this problem?
I have been sweeping the net for any and every solution and I have found tons of them, though no solution is permanent and no solution is universal. No solution I have found has solved the problem for everyone.
At home I have a D-Link DIR-655 router and for some reason I am experiencing connection problems with my MBP.
If I manage to connect, saving the network with password, it will connect, reconnect, wake from sleep and connect, come home from work and connect..... In other words, work perfectly. But this is always only temporary, ranging from a day up to two weeks. Then one day, the connection will timeout and then I cannot connect. Using the same method, it will find the network and timeout, then I have to restart AirPort in order for the network to show up in the list again. If I try to reconnect AirPort will prompt me for my password even though it is already stored on my MBP. If it continues to show up in the list it still wont connect automatically even though it is the highest priority network in my wireless list, as if it is a new network which is not recognized. THough I have not reset, turned of or changed any settings on the router.
If I use the Network preferences window to try to connect when this problem occurs I still have to fill out my password, the colored ball shows up for a few seconds and then a new pop-up prompting me for the password again. It does not matter how many times I try, I never get through.
As I mentioned, I have found several solutions, none of which is permanent. Everything from restarting to actually changing the wifi card and moving cables around in the antenna... They span from 2007 to present day over different OS X versions and AirPort versions.
I do not believe that this problem is hardware related because this would mean a ton of malfunctioning macs and/or routers. It also seems unlikely since the router is working flawlessly with a PS3, with an iPhone, with a Nokia phone, with a Sony VAIO PC, with a WD MyBookWorld NAS, with an old PC running both Windows XP and Ubuntu, as well as any and every other WiFi enabled product that has ever entered our apartment.
On the other side of the coin, the Mac always connects to any new wireless network I have encountered (except my own). I used to have a connection problem but this was caused by a lingering IP filter from a idiotic PeerGuardian install and was solved by a complete format and re-install. I travel a lot with work and have not encountered any connection problems at any hotel on any continent. I also connect perfectly at work, at my mothers, my brothers and my fathers, all running different routers and different ISP:s.
Since it works flawlessly when I actually get it connected at home, I cannot understand why (as I have seen suggested) D-Link and Mac would be incompatible? Since nothing is changed at home, with the router or the environment, I do not understand why it would work perfectly one day and not at all another day if this was compatibility related, then it should be related to settings or environment, or not work at all right?
The problem is that the behavior is completely erratic. Deleting all network related information works sometimes but not all the time, manually connecting to the router instead of using DHCP works sometimes but not all of the time, verifying disk permissions and repairing airport related problems worked one or twice when problems where found but not every time and does not solve the problem permanently, safe reboots, clearing PRAM and so fort works sometimes but not always, switching channels work sometimes but not always, rebooting the router while hardwired to the mac (ethernet) works sometimes but not always, switching channels works sometimes, sometimes it just starts working without me doing anything and works for a couple of days just to break again. Switching IPv6 configuration to Off works sometimes and then stops working again. Changing settings works sometimes just to fail later...
It seems that switching router to another brand (NetGear or Apples AirPort seems to be the favorites) solves the problem, but when my current setup is working it is working flawlessly so I refuse to believe that this is a problem that should not be solvable.
I'm getting tired of finding a working solution just to be dumbstruck when it breaks again after a few days so I thought I'd give this one last try before finally give up and change to another router.
Is there anyone that has the same setup as I have at home that have experienced problems similar to mine and actually managed to find a working solution that solves this problem permanently? In that case, how on earth did you solve the problem?
Best regards
Gustaf
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 Mhz DDR3