iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
Mac-friendly wireless routers (#3): Dropped connections
In our ongoing coverage of Mac-friendly third-party wireless routers, the issue of dropped connections has surfaced.
Some routers, for various reasons, have trouble maintaining connections with AirPort-enabled Macs. In most cases of this issue, connections can be established and briefly maintained, but sporadically drop after variable intervals of time. Generally, full AirPort signal strength will be indicated, but no network services can be accessed.
The most commonly applicable workaround for this issue is a restart of the problematic router.
MacFixIt reader Chris Rettig provides a case example:
"I received one of the newest Macbooks in November 2006 with the Intel processor and the network cards capable of wireless-n. I am able to connect to the internet through a D-Link DI-524 wireless router. But, after an unspecified amount of time in sleep mode, the Macbook cannot connect to the internet again. The Airport symbol shows a strong signal, and Internet Connect says I'm connected but it's a false connection. The only fix I have found (despite many suggestions from other users on the Macfixit forum) is to power off my router whenever I put the Macbook to sleep and power it back on when I wake it up.
"Generally, I can maintain a good, strong connection for 1-2 hours and then it will drop the connection. Again, at this point, the only way to re-establish the wireless connection is to power off/on the router."
It would be feasible to write this issue off as indicative of faulty routers. However, in many cases, Windows PCs with non-Apple wireless hardware can remain connected to the same afflicted router for indefinite time periods.
Users experiencing this issue should try some of the suggestions listed in our AirPort troubleshooting tutorial. Failing those, however, please e-mail us with the brand and model of your router. We'd like to attempt identification of any models that seem particularly prone to the issue.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Previous coverage:
- Mac-friendly wireless routers (#2): Which units support AppleTalk devices and work well with AirPort hardware?
- Guide to Mac-friendly wireless routers
:%20Dropped%20connections%20%7C%20MacFixIt%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10328023-263.html){kind=small}
That thread turned up an Dell Windows user with the same problem.
I have a DI-624 at home and my MacBook Pro C2D would connect but after a period of time (sometimes hours, sometimes minutes) it would not be able to send or receive.
I have a DWL-2100AP at my office and am able to run it there without any issue whatsoever, for any length of time.
Both use WPA2(PSK.)
At home I had to resort to using a protype Eicon Corporate Router/VPN endpoint which uses a Gemtek Wifi radio system and runs a micro linux distribution. Running in WPA-PSK using AES/CCMP is fine for extended periods of time.
On a more positive note (or not) I have experienced similar incompatibilities with all sorts of wireless equipment on my older Dell Inspiron 700m - so the problems are not necessarily mac-exclusive - it just seems to be guess and go with a lot of consumer wifi equipment.
Does anyone know who's providing the chipsets for the n-capable hardware?
---
The only intuitive interface is the nipple. After that it's all learned. -Bruce Ediger
Otherwise, the router will assign a new IP but the computer still thinks it has the old one.
- by macnerd10 January 22, 2007 10:04 PM PST
- The culprit may not be a faulty router but the new Airport cards in the core 2 duo laptops. On MacFixit forums, there are more and more complaints about this issue. I started a thread asking for a success story with core 2 duo Macs and wireless last week. No replies yet. MacFixit might like to query Apple about it.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(5 Comments)