Internet connection requires restart frequently

I am having almost the same problem.
Cable modem is connected to Airport, which has one wired connection, and several unwired connections in my house.

Every 2 or 3 days, almost always around 10:30pm I lose internet connection. I have to unplug both the modem and the Airport, wait about a minute, power the modem, wait until it's reconnected, power up the Airport, and then it all works fine for another 2 or 3 days.

Everything looks normal, but nothing works.

Same problem here. I've asked about it some time ago on here and got no where. At the time I didn't press the aspect of my set up that there is a machine connected via ethernet to the base station as well as a lap top connected to the base station via air, but that is the case with me and also both of you. Often I don't loose connection to the internet entirely but it becomes bogged down and flakey (often in connection with using P2P software). Other times, complete internet connection loss. Likewise turning base station and modem off and on usually solves (temporerily). I have had a few times where that doesn't allow it to work again, and disconnecting all wires from the modem then reconnecting again is necessary. Thing is there's so many things which could be to blame: ISP, the modem, the base station. How do we know (I don't although suspect) it is the base station?

I'm using the white round extreme b & g with internal dial up modem base station. Ethernet modem > base station then ethernet connection to mac, and air connection to mac.

My problem occurs when the mac connected via ethernet to the base station has been off all the time -- I was feeling this wasn't part of it.

There is a thread of some time ago which had a very similar problem (sans mac connected via ethernet though I think) and he found downgrading the firmware (a) solved the problem entirely (b) lost some security functionality of some sort.

Here's a link to the last of my posts in my previous thread which I asked about this problem in, which links to the above mentioned "some time ago" thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4418341#4418341 (oh yeah just to save a possible bit of wasted time, about the first half of the thread that directly links to, apart from maybe the description of the problem itself, is a complete waste of time).

I haven't tried downgrading, maybe I will. The problem does seem less drastic now for me (which leads me to think maybe the problem was connected with my ISP as not a lot has changed at my end). The problem does still occur but more down to a dribble/flakey rather than outright stop.

Seems to me the whole thing's flakey and unlikely to work smoothly -- I've kind of given up / am resigned to that 😟

There's two things I should try but can't really face: taking the base station out of the set up and using internet > modem > laptop and seeing if the problem still occurs or not (it really is impracticle for me to do that though), and downgrading the firmware somehow.

Well, next time this happens I'm going to connect directly from the cable modem to one computer via ethernet and see if that works. I suspect it's the Airport acting up, hopefully that will tell.

Have you tried a hard reset?

This is a bump, along with an update,

I still have the problem, except the odd recent occurance was that I lost connection not at the normal time around 10:30pm. This time it went at 3pm.

I called Comcast, the modem looked normal. I connected modem the directly to computer and could access internet normally. So next I called Apple. We did a hard reset, and then created a new network for my home setup, and then connected everything to this new newtwork. So far it's worked for 3 days. Not saying it's a permanenmt fix, but so far , so good.

I'm here at this thread because I just had to restart my 802.11n AirPort for the umpteenth time. It will go for a couple or a few days without needing restarting, then while using Safari it'll just bonk out. Stops working for my MacBook Pro and my wife's MacBook also, so it's not confined to just one machine. Because of this, it seems to be a problem with only the AirPort router. My reception bars show full strength but Safari doesn't work and I can't ping anything on the other side.

For me the solution has been to yank the AirPort's power plug and then let it restart. After that my laptops will auto-reconnect and everything will be fine again.

I have an unusual setup that might help isolate the problem within the AirPort. I've got OS X Server on another box that's serving DHCP and DNS. As a result, I'm only using the AirPort as a wireless bridge (In the AirPort config utility, go to Internet -> Internet Connection -> Connection Sharing -> "Off (Bridge Mode)")

So my AirPort isn't doing anything other than being a wireless access point. I hope this helps you folks some too, because I bet you don't need to restart your cable modems or anything else, just only the AirPort, and I don't think it's the AirPort's DHCP or DNS pass-along that's messing up. I think it just either gets swamped or stalled and then it's DOA until repowering.

Your posts helped me because with my base station I could have sworn it started around the time I got an iPhone. I was worried that it was the supposed WiFi arp-request flooding problem that's suspected of the iPhone. Both your posts and an experiment where I turned off the iPhone seem to rule that out as a suspect.

Unfortunately, since the trouble is so sparse and not reproducable I'm afraid it won't be solved any time soon.

By the way, I re-flashed my firmware (7.1.1) and that hasn't helped. I don't know about going back to 7.1. I suppose that might be worth a try. Maybe the trouble started around the time of that update; I can't recall. I haven't noticed that mine locks out at any particular time of the day.

What firmware rev are you folks running? Same, 7.1.1?

I'm convinced this is related to the OS, not to the router or the firmware. As I posted earlier this evening on a similar thread, I bought the Airport Extreme yesterday to alleviate exactly this problem (hoping the problem was with my Belkin Pre-N wireless router). And it hasn't helped at all.

So I'm fairly sure it's related to OS 10.4.10, although the bug may have been introduced by 10.4.9. I've also got a feeling it may only affect the Mac Book/Mac Book Pro.

Still awaiting a fix, though. And changing the wireless channel doesn't help.

- Steve

If it's the OS, then it's very strange that it affects 2 computers at the same time. I'm not saying that's impossible, just that I can't imagine what would cause the symptom simultaneously.)

Of course, you were using a Belkin router and I've been using an AirPort 11n the whole time. I do have a SonicWall in my office that hasn't locked up, but that's only b/g.

This is kiiiiiillling me. I just had to restart again. It's hitting once/day at this rate.

I was wired. My wife told me her net connection just bonked out. I couldn't 'ping' her through it. I was able to reach the AirPort using the Utility so I restarted it from the menu selection.

Tonight I'll downgrade to firmware 7.1 from 7.1.1, test for a couple days, and report back.

i have the same problem. i am using a G4 hardwired to the router. for a while i had 2 network locations set up so when the connection failed i would switch locations and the puter would find a connection again with out restarting. now i can no longer do this, it never connects. another weird thing is that the network status is still green, but safari is started up to find " you are not connected to the internet." still stranger than the status being green with no connection is that the current configuration to my IP address and router are the same except the last number
**.**.0.100 and **.**.0.1 respectfuly. correct me if im wrong but shouldn't they be different in some other way? especialy because my IP ends with a 1.1 in its configuration. this connection is the one set up by my "automatic" location setting.
also these settings that work on the auto local if they are typed in on a manual setting they do not work and are not found in my puters subnet mask even if that is the same.

as for times that i lose connection they are all over the board, round the clock service on that one.

any one know what is up with these ethernet connections, HELP!!
thanks, john

I tried to post earlier that my downgrade to 7.1 didn't help, but... the AirPort totally locked up during my post.

After replacing the 802.11n one with an older "snow" 802.11g AirPort that I have, I haven't had any troubles since the replacement (2 days so far).

Does anybody here have their Airport(s) in a WDS-setup? I have had the same issues after the latest Airport update: I began to have the need to re-start my main base station 4-8 times a day.

If I connected directly to my ISP* with an ethernet cable in my Macbook, then everything was fine. Connected to my Airport network though, the connection started out fine, but gradually slowed down to a complete and utter halt after approx. ten minutes of use.

After fiddling around with Airport Utility, and AP Grapher, I suspected foul play with the WDS extended range setup. I unplugged one of the Airports and boom! (as Steve would have said it) - everything was in order. No slow down, no transfer rate drop, no "server timeout"s. And so it has been for hours now.

So my initial suspicion lies in WDS and the recent Airport update. Because I haven't had any troubles at all with my WDS / airports before. Does any one of you have the same setup and same issues?

+*(My ISP does not provide a router or cable modem or the like, just an ethernet plug in the wall. The whole building is wired up to a larger system.)+

+(For your info, the WDS setup includes an Extreme & an Express. I have tried switching them around, so that either one of them has been serving as the main base station with the other one being the "slave" - same result. Connection issues were the same from a macbook, a Mac Mini and a Powerbook.)+

Update:

I have to correct myself here. The solution stated above didn't completely fix the error. It just delayed the inevitable "downfall" considerably. We still have a connection now after half a day, but the speed is crawling. Not to a complete halt as before, but still - c r a w l i n g.

This is getting annoying. Anyway, I will troubleshoot later today, because the active Airport (the Express right now), shows some unusual peaks in its transfer rate (via AP Grapher). I don't know if this is because of AP Grapher itself or if there's something weird going on. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, any good ideas are more than welcome! Cheers.

I have now investigated a bit further (egad). I really don't know if this means anything +at all+, but nevertheless. I have tried to test the transfer rate on my home network and on the network at my job. As stated before, my home network has consisted of an Express and an Extreme (old version). At my job exists only the new Extreme base stations (the 1.3 inches tall ones).

AP Grapher ( http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/apgrapher/) shows some remarkable peaks as seen here: http://www.interiority.com/misc/airport_peaks.jpg
It's the white lines in the picture. The same thing went on for the airports at my work, although I had a (tad) better connection there. Later on, I tried an open wireless network by a cafe nearby, and the peaks were much smoother. I didn't remember to get a screenshot of it, but it looked similar to this one: http://www.macobserver.com/tip/2007/02/apgrapher.jpg
i.e. a much more "smooth" transfer rate graph. So, I really don't know what causes this: If it is AP Grapher itself or the kind of network I've connected to, or the Airports themselves and their connection between themselves and the Macs. But the peaks look weird, if we assume AP Grapher is right.

Any ideas? Am I totally on an edge here? Anyone? I'm getting fairly desperate because my girlfriend is breathing down my neck 😉 and I simply do not know what's going on... I hate to restart the Airports constantly just to be able to keep the network alive.

Well it seems like I'm not the only one. This is really bugging me. I've ruled out the ISP being the issue, it's either the airport or the OS. Like you guys I'm sick of restarting the airport every hour.

I've sent the wife to pick up the new airport base station from the Apple store but it sounds as if that isn't going to solve the problems.

Has anyone tried reinstalling the OS? I'm considering of doing that in a minute although I would prefer not to. Perhaps that's the only option for the time being?

The only "cure" I found is to downgrade the AEBS (the old, g one) firmware to 5.5.1. It's a bummer since I then don't get the benefits introduced in the later versions. But the network doesn't drop anymore...

Let's hope that OS X 10.4.11 will resolve things, but don't hold your breath. It would help if people complained directly to Apple (I lost the URL for the feedback page).

Michel