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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / May 2004Airport disconnects
My Pismo laptop frequently disconnects from the wifi signal after periods of inactivity, maybe an hour? Connection cannot be restored until the machine is restarted. My friend has the same problem with his Titanium. We're both running Panther with all current updates. Any ideas? TIA > My Pismo laptop frequently disconnects from the wifi signal after > periods of inactivity, maybe an hour? Connection cannot be restored > until the machine is restarted. My friend has the same problem with his > Titanium. We're both running Panther with all current updates. > > Any ideas? TIA 1. get MacStumbler or equivalent software, and see whether anything about the signal changes when one or both computers loses signal. 2. Before restarting the computer, try: a) logging out and back in, b) restarting the BS (at least check the BS and cable/DSL "modem" for activity). I had a situation where I was restarting my BS frequently for behavior similar to yours. I eventually got both the BS and my AP card replaced under warrantee, but I suspect that the power supply to the house was part of the problem as well. I'm putting my BS on a UPS here soon, just to put my mind at ease. HTH.  SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun between @ and .edu to reply > 2. Before restarting the computer, try: a) logging out and back in, b) > restarting the BS (at least check the BS and cable/DSL "modem" for > activity). Hmm, I have a Netgear 614 which works nicely except for this problem. I thought it was a software issue since my friend experiences the same exact thing with his Titanium/Airport BS combo. When the signal drops, the signal "bars" in the menubar are greyed out but it still shows "connected"; the only option is to disconnect. I've tried logging out and back in but it doesn't reconnect the signal. I'll try turning the Netgear base station off/on and see if that helps. A Google search turned up a thread that suggested that allowing your hard drive to go to sleep might disconnect the wifi signal, but even when I left the HD spinning it dropped connection after an hour or so. My other computer connected to the Netgear (directly via ethernet) maintains its internet connection during all this. > > 2. Before restarting the computer, try: a) logging out and back in, b) > > restarting the BS (at least check the BS and cable/DSL "modem" for [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > My other computer connected to the Netgear (directly via ethernet) > maintains its internet connection during all this. My Pismo retains its connection through disk spin-down, sleep, whatever. THe only times that I have problems with reception, I trot downstairs to find that the BS has hung. Restart it and everything's back to normal. SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun between @ and .edu to reply > My Pismo retains its connection through disk spin-down, sleep, whatever. > THe only times that I have problems with reception, I trot downstairs to > find that the BS has hung. Restart it and everything's back to normal. My Pismo with AirPort card has disconnected when the AP signal strength is marginal. AirPort software seems quite arrogant about what it will connect to, signal strength-wise. It seems to not want to reconnect unless there's a strong signal present. What is the received signal strength when you are connected? (Try using MacStumbler, available at versiontracker.com to watch signal strength.) SignatureDaveC me@privacy.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group > > My Pismo retains its connection through disk spin-down, sleep, whatever. > > THe only times that I have problems with reception, I trot downstairs to [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > What is the received signal strength when you are connected? (Try using > MacStumbler, available at versiontracker.com to watch signal strength.) Note: I'm not the guy having problems at the moment. I'd have to agree. When signal strength is low, the card won't re-connect if it loses signal. On the other hand, I've found that my computer is something of a bulldog in retaining a connection under low signal circumstantes. I've had the signal down to 1 bar on the AP meter (yes, it's useless, but I'm not going to go measure...ok, yes I am. ;-) Right. My card retained a connection down to a MacStumbler signal strength of 10. I've seen computers that had trouble retaining a connection below 20 (iMac), and anything less than 25-30 slows down real fast. My usual location sees signal of 40, noise of 6-8, and everything's ducky. The failures that I've seen at my place were very odd things, and certainly not related to signal strength going down, or to interference from phones/other WiFi devices/microwaves, etc. HTH SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun between @ and .edu to reply I should have mentioned this earlier, but didn't think about it, b/c it's been a while since I had it happen (knock on wood). I've woken my powerbook from sleep before and had all the bars greyed out. It's only happened maybe two or three times ever, over a 10 month period. Still, IIRC, I turned off the airport (through the drop down in the menu bar), wait about 10 seconds, turn it back on and within about 5 seconds, it had reestablished connection. Something which the PCs were never able to pull off. It seemed like the Airport and AP had just enough to be able to reestablish connectivity. Strange, huh? Anyway, for reference, I was running an AlBook with Aiport Extreme and a Linksys Wireless-B BEFW11S4 Ver 4. Jason > Hmm, I have a Netgear 614 which works nicely except for this problem. I > thought it was a software issue since my friend experiences the same [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > and back in but it doesn't reconnect the signal. I'll try turning the > Netgear base station off/on and see if that helps. On 24/5/04 3:22 pm, in article 240520040722456187%hpinkle@aol.com, "harry" <hpinkle@aol.com> wrote: > Hmm, I have a Netgear 614 which works nicely except for this problem. I > thought it was a software issue since my friend experiences the same [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > and back in but it doesn't reconnect the signal. I'll try turning the > Netgear base station off/on and see if that helps. It drives me mad! I'm on a Powerbook and a Netgear DG834G. I lose connection perhaps once a day, certainly once every two days, and four times today alone! Each time the router shows that it has a connection but the Powerbook has dropped it. I have to restart the router and reset all the settings. I'd kill for a solution! I mentioned this to someone else, try changing the channel of the router wireless to one of the far end frequencies, not something in the center. This helped with mine. Jason > On 24/5/04 3:22 pm, in article 240520040722456187%hpinkle@aol.com, "harry" > <hpinkle@aol.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > I'd kill for a solution! > I mentioned this to someone else, try changing the channel of the router > wireless to one of the far end frequencies, not something in the center. > This helped with mine. > > Jason A more involved approach to doing the same thing is to use a program such as MacStumbler to monitor both signal and noise for each of the channels, then choose the channel that gives the best combination. If the laptop is far from the router, this takes some running around, but I gained significant signal strength (maybe 10 points in MacStumbler) by doing this in one installation. SignatureLater, John johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu 'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun between @ and .edu to reply >It drives me mad! I'm on a Powerbook and a Netgear DG834G. I lose >connection perhaps once a day, certainly once every two days, and four times [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >I'd kill for a solution! Do you have to restart the computer as well ? Is it Mac OS X ? What version ? On 29/5/04 1:20 am, in article matsw-2B76DA.02200029052004@sicinfo.epfl.ch, >> It drives me mad! I'm on a Powerbook and a Netgear DG834G. I lose >> connection perhaps once a day, certainly once every two days, and four times [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Do you have to restart the computer as well ? Is it Mac OS X ? What > version ? No, I don't have to restart the computer. I'm using X.3.4 I tried changing the channel on the router and that seems to have helped...(crossed fingers!) >My Pismo laptop frequently disconnects from the wifi signal after >periods of inactivity, maybe an hour? Connection cannot be restored >until the machine is restarted. My friend has the same problem with his >Titanium. We're both running Panther with all current updates. How much RAM ? Airport will disconnect and refuse to reconnect if you have more than 1 Go of RAM. > How much RAM ? Airport will disconnect and refuse to reconnect if you > have more than 1 Go of RAM. This seems highly illogical. Is this your experience? Is this documented somewhere? SignatureDaveC me@privacy.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group >> How much RAM ? Airport will disconnect and refuse to reconnect if you >> have more than 1 Go of RAM. > >This seems highly illogical. Is this your experience? Is this documented >somewhere? I wouldn't believe it either, but it is true. http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20040513021826150 I bought my AlBook in december with 2Go of RAM and I have never been able to use Airport reliably. A week ago I removed 1Go of memory and I have had no problem (except swapping) since then. > >> How much RAM ? Airport will disconnect and refuse to reconnect if you > >> have more than 1 Go of RAM. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > able to use Airport reliably. A week ago I removed 1Go of memory and I > have had no problem (except swapping) since then. For the record. My Albook with 2GB runs fine with an old Airport. I only have lost connection twice in 6 months and a restart sorted that out. Don Wed, 26 May 2004 14:05:23 +0100, phrje@warwick.ac.uk suggested: : For the record. My Albook with 2GB runs fine with an old Airport. I only : have lost connection twice in 6 months and a restart sorted that out. I think that it has something to do with how much network traffic runs across the airport connection over a timeframe. Sometimes mine will go over a week without breaking; sometimes it happens twice in one day. Every time it fails on me, I'm transferring a lot of data. Signatureagreenbu @ nyx . net andrew michael greenburg >For the record. My Albook with 2GB runs fine with an old Airport. I only >have lost connection twice in 6 months and a restart sorted that out. I guess it depends if you are really using all the RAM or not. You can check with MemoryStick, MemoryMonitor or "ls -l /var/vm" in Terminal. The problem is hard to reproduce in a consistent way, but very real. > >For the record. My Albook with 2GB runs fine with an old Airport. I only > >have lost connection twice in 6 months and a restart sorted that out. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > The problem is hard to reproduce in a consistent way, but very real. My G4 with 2gb RAM and Airport Extreme disconnects nearly everyday. I don't think my my Pismo with 512mb and the old Airport card has ever crashed. Don't know what kind of access point you have, but I have a Linksys 802.llb where you can change which channel it is using. In case you don't know, each of these channels is a slightly different frequency around 2.4GHz. Well, when I was having trouble with a PC on the wireless LAN having disconnect issues after it was inactive for an hour or so, I looked up the FAQ and they recommended switching it to either the highest or lowest channel to get as far away from any interference I might be having. Sure enough, did the trick. Haven't had a problem with either laptop (AlBook and HP) since. It's pretty quick to switch if you can, so it's at least worth a shot. Jason > My Pismo laptop frequently disconnects from the wifi signal after > periods of inactivity, maybe an hour? Connection cannot be restored > until the machine is restarted. My friend has the same problem with his > Titanium. We're both running Panther with all current updates. > > Any ideas? TIA > Well, when I was having trouble with a PC on the > wireless LAN having disconnect issues after it was inactive for an hour [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > with either laptop (AlBook and HP) since. It's pretty quick to switch > if you can, so it's at least worth a shot. Interesting. I will try this. BTW in response to the other post my Pismo is running with 768mb of ram. > My Pismo laptop frequently disconnects from the wifi signal after > periods of inactivity, maybe an hour? Connection cannot be restored > until the machine is restarted. My friend has the same problem with his > Titanium. We're both running Panther with all current updates. > > Any ideas? TIA Another thing to try, instead of rebooting, is to just turn off Airport and then turn it back on. Also you can create another network location, and in this one remove all network devices (Airport, Etherent, Modem), and name it "OffLine". Then try switching to this "Offline" location and then switch back again to your normal home location. My Pismo only died about 6 months ago, and the tricks I used then are starting to fade fast :-) But I think these are the things I did when I would loose signal. And at the time, it was a SMC Barricade that I had trouble connecting to, and I think most of the time I was able to get back by turning the airport card on and off at the menu icon. Bob Harris > My Pismo laptop frequently disconnects from the wifi signal after > periods of inactivity, maybe an hour? First, let's define "disconnects." When you do from a terminal window, "ifconfig -a", what do you get? Can you 'ping' the default gateway which normally is something like: xx.xx.xx.1 where "xx.xx.xx" is the IP address from the "ifconfig -a". If you get a ping response, the wireless is working perfectly. If not, then the problem lies between your laptop and airport. >Connection cannot be restored > until the machine is restarted. My friend has the same problem with his > Titanium. We're both running Panther with all current updates. First let's isolate the problem to the wireless link versus the upstream link to your ISP. Bob Wilson |
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