Why a delay when connecting my Mac to the network?

April 30, 2007 11:12 AM

After waking it from sleep, why is there a thirty second delay in connecting my Mac Book Pro to our wireless network?

I am powering OSX 10.4.9 and have an Airport Extreme via a cable modem. This has been going on for a while, but last year I could wake my MBP from sleep (open it) and be connected to the net. Is there a simple way to eliminate the delay. I'm impatient.

What say you oh great hive mind?

posted by UncleHornHead to computers & internet (3 comments total)

I have pretty much the same setup as you, MacBook to Airport Extreme, and have noticed this delay. It is intermittent, and seems to correspond to how long my MB has been asleep. After a certain point, it takes some time to find the network, but if it hasn't been too long, it comes back instantly.

Try resetting the airport preferences. I've found that can fix up some airport problems. Deleting other files in that folder may also help. (Be sure to make backups just in case!)
posted by AaRdVarK at 11:18 AM on April 30, 2007

I don't have that problem. The delay is maybe 5 seconds on a new Airport in a mixed n and g setup. But try to set your DHCP lease to a longer time period so the macbook doesn't need to get a new address [which 99% of the time will be the same as your mbp had before but the client and the base station has to go through the motions]. Also, it might depend on the security you're using. WPA2 seems pretty zippy to me, but when my Tivo was on the network last year on WEP it seemed to take a second or two longer for the mac to get online again after a nap.
posted by birdherder at 11:23 AM on April 30, 2007

Yeah, what you are experiencing is the computer getting the DHCP information from the router. The easiest way to speed this up is to set your machine to use a static IP address instead.

Basically, go into your settings and make note of what you are being given by DHCP, (the default gateway, subnet mask, IP address, etc.) Then change from DHCP to Manual. Reenter those settings and make sure you use an IP address that isn't being used by anything else on the network.

That should fix it.
posted by quin at 11:33 AM on April 30, 2007