Bootcamp flummoxes wireless connection.

January 26, 2009 10:21 AM

I've got two Macbook Pros and a wireless router. Everything works great, except when I restart one of the MBPs in Bootcamp (XP, Service Pack 3), suddenly the wireless connection on both MBPs gets spotty -- off and on, off and on -- although a hard ethernet connection from the Bootcamped MBP works fine. Flummoxing. Any ideas?
posted by It ain't over yet to computers & internet (12 comments total)

In other words, for all intents/purposes, when one MBP is running boot camp, the other can't use the wireless. :(
posted by It ain't over yet at 11:25 AM on January 26, 2009

Maybe you can try fixing the network settings on both machines to use assigned IPs?
posted by fusinski at 11:36 AM on January 26, 2009

What model and make of wireless router do you have?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:09 PM on January 26, 2009

There are issues with boot camp and XP SP3. Roll back to SP2. Should fix it.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:07 PM on January 26, 2009

Ape: actually I experienced the problem with SP2, then updated to SP3, thinking it might fix things: nope!

Blaze: router is Linksys SRX200.

Fusinski: I'll try that. But what's happening is the wireless signal, while strong, drops in and out. One second there, next second gone. So something tells me this may not be related to how the IPs are assigned...
posted by It ain't over yet at 2:05 PM on January 26, 2009

Are you running the 1.36 firmware for the linksys? Are there any boot camp driver updates for XP?

Do you have SSID hidden? Are you running WPA or WEP encryption? Have you tried switching the linksys to use a different non-overlapping channel yet?
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:12 PM on January 26, 2009

Wow. *Same* problem happening in our house, but we're not running Bootcamp. It happens any time both Mr. dancinglamb and I are both using our MacBooks at the same time. Quite infuriating, isn't it? It started happening a few weeks ago when he re-installed Windows on his machine.

I'll have Mr. dancinglamb pop over to this question and see what he has to offer and what he's been trying to do to fix the problem (he's the Mac nerd in the house - I only play on the computers).
posted by dancinglamb at 3:52 PM on January 26, 2009

Ape --

Thanks for staying on this!

I am, as far as I can tell using the most up-to-date firmware for the wrt54gx2v1 model.

I don't have SSID hidden (not even sure what SSID is) but my router control panel indicates that it is enabled. What is it? And should I disable it?

I am running WEP encryption. Should I switch to WPA?

Haven't tried switching channels. What would it be overlapping with? Everything works fine when both MBPs are running MacOSX...

Many thanks for your continued support!

(Still flummoxed)
posted by It ain't over yet at 6:13 PM on January 26, 2009

Definately switch to WPA. WEP isnt secure. It might not solve your problems but its the smart thing to do. Who knows, it might help.

Changing channels is kinda a crap-shoot, but you might as well try it if nothing else works.

Did you do an antivirus scan yet?
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:39 PM on January 26, 2009

Macs get viruses?

There goes my innocence....
posted by It ain't over yet at 6:41 PM on January 26, 2009

When XP runs its just like any XP computer. You should scan the XP install from within XP.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:55 PM on January 26, 2009

Macs get viruses?

OS X is relatively safe. Windows XP can get a virus or trojan; it's no safer than any other XP box.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:06 PM on January 26, 2009