Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with connectivity and mac

OSX wifi connectivity issues.

cmoj — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:46:50 -0800

OSX 10.6.8 on MBP doesn't seem to be playing well with Motorola SurfBoard SBG901. I've got Comcast cable and my own modem/router. The iPhone is connected to the wifi too and doesn't have the same issues as the computer. It hangs up a lot on sending requests, and tends to do so in spurts. Sometimes it's one-ff and refreshing or re-clicking a link will make it go through fine. Pinging the MBP from the router configuration doesn't show any dropped data. It's always been like this (about six months).

Any ideas?

Connect Four? No, just one.

BlahLaLa — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:49:55 -0800

Please -- please! -- help me troubleshoot a vexing wireless connectivity problem. Just to put this front and center: I am not knowledgeable about computers. Hello, smart people. Thank you in advance for helping little old me.

Here's the deal:
I have a desktop (Mac Mini) that is connected -- wired -- to my modem and Airport Extreme. I have a PowerBook G4 that connects wirelessly to the network via the Airport Extreme. Until this afternoon when it suddenly stopped.

Some facts about this situation:

-- The PowerBook does view other networks (my neighbors') and will connect to them. It just doesn't seem to "see" my own network now.

--The Airport Extreme has a green light. The connection is working fine on the wired computer.

-- Prior to this problem I hadn't installed any software, done any updates, etc.

-- I have no other wireless devices around the house to check the wireless connection.

Could you please explain in plain and possibly babyish language, what steps I could take to troubleshoot this?

All sorts of WiFi connectivity issues. I think it's my router.

aquanet — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:45:53 -0800

After 4 months of smooth sailing, my WiFi has started acting up and (first temperamental page loading; then lock icon disappears when connecting to my secure network; now work computer won't connect at all). Is it my ISP, router, computer, or something else? I bought a new router when I moved into my apartment last August. It's a Belkin Wireless G; Time Warner Cable supplies my service; and my computer is a MacBook running 10.5.8. Setting everything up back then was a breeze, and I never had any WiFi troubles. Things started going awry on January 1st, and I've been in various circles of Hell ever since.

For the first two or three weeks in January, I started having a problem almost exactly like the one described in this post. Some sites would load with no problem, every time I tried (typically big ones, like all Google and Gawker Media sites). Others would simply refuse to load. The sites that would not load seemed very random, and were different every time I restarted my computer; turned my airport off and on; reset my router; or unplugged and re-plugged my router. For example, sometimes MetaFilter would load, and other times it would not. The problem sites would always fail immediately (displaying a "Problem Loading Page" message), rather than trying to load first and then giving up. The problem was the same across browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome), and computers (my best friend's MacBook, my work MacBook). The comments to the post I linked to were very helpful, but nothing cured my situation.

Finally, I called Belkin out of frustration. They were very nice and walked me through re-setting up my network, step by step, using an ethernet cable, renaming the network, setting a new password (WEP), etc. My WiFi was working again!

The only strange thing: I started noticing something like the issue described in this MacRumors post: Whenever I turn my computer on or wake it from sleep, it defaults to an open network that isn't mine. When clicking on the AirPort icon, my network is displayed – among the others – with a lock icon next to it. When I select my network, my computer connects (the password is stored in my keychain). But: when I'm connected to my network, the lock is gone when I click on the AirPort icon and view my network in the list. Since switching to Mac in 2006, I have never been connected to a secure network and seen the lock disappear. The most I can glean from that forum thread is: "Yes, it appears that this is happening to you. Huh. Interesting." No other explanation.

I might have been able to live with this entire strangeness. Except: Tonight when I tried connecting to my network using my work computer (a MacBook running 10.6.2), I wasn't able to connect. I typed in the correct password, but my network's status under System Preferences says that my computer has a self-assigned IP and cannot connect to the Internet. The AirPort icon is greyed-out, with an exclamation point in it (I can take screenshots of any of this if it will help). Before January 1st, I was always able to connect to my home network from this same work computer. No settings have been changed on it (and unfortunately I can't get in there to fiddle around anyway because I don't have admin access).

I called Belkin in a panic again. The gentleman I spoke with didn't seem to understand the Mystery Of The Disappearing Lock, nor could he help me with my connectivity issues from my work computer – he kept adamantly saying that it was a problem with my computer, and that I should contact Apple for help. This may be true, but scheduling a call with an Apple expert could be problematic since my work schedule is very unpredictable and I most probably would have to be in my home, ready to tinker, in order to walk through anything with a representative.

Now, I haven't been able to find a single thing online or a single person to help me with this. Sir Belkin also adamantly told me that no it is not my service provider that is the problem (and he's probably right – hardwired, everything works perfectly). Does anybody know what could possibly be causing this? Let me know if I can provide any more information, or, as I said, screenshots of any of these recent happenings.

Anybody who can shed some light on this issue: thank you so much in advance; my sanity will thank you as well.

Diagnosing intermittent connectivity problems

ottereroticist — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:03:11 -0800

I'm experiencing intermittent periods (several hours every couple of days) where web pages are extremely slow to load and/or hang while partially loaded. How do I figure out what's causing the problem and fix it, ideally without wasting a lot of time on the phone with my ISP? Specs:
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Firefox 3.0.1 (Safari 3.1.2 and iTunes 8.0 are also affected)
Netgear mr814v2 wireless router with 64 bit WEP encryption
Motorola SB5120 cable modem
Comcast internet service

Thanks for any clues, Internet superfriends!

MacBook wireless connectivity issues

proj — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 07:56:15 -0800

Why does my wireless connection on my Macbook spontaneously die and prevent me from reconnecting for a minute or so? I have a MacBook Core 2 Duo with OS X 10.4.9. Frequently, the wireless connection will die (connectivity stops at first and then I am disconnected from the wireless access point). The odd thing is that, after I am disconnected, I frequently cannot see any wireless networks for anywhere from 5-120 seconds.

For example, I am currently in a building with 12 access points. After being disconnected, I will be able to see anywhere from 0-4 access points for a minute or so, then they will all reappear. During this time when only a few are visible, I get an error message when I try to connect to any of them.

This has happened here in this building as well as at home. There does not seem to be a specific time period that must elapse for this to happen and I have also reinstalled OS X (not because of this problem, but coincidentally). I am hesitant to take it to the Apple Store just to replace a wireless card if there is another fix.

Network speed varies from PC to PC--why?

teddyb109 — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:30:47 -0800

I work in an office with several not-for-profits share a high speed internet connection. My internet connection on my Mac Book seemed slow, so I tried the online test at Speakeasy. (I disabled the Airport connection so that I could test Ethernet) I ran the test several times and always found I had around a 400 K connection. Wireless, same test, circa 150 K. So I asked my collegue to run the same test from his Dell desktop---he got almost 1200K across several tests. I thought maybe it was the jack in my office, so I tried yanking out the plug and trying it in my collegue's office with another Dell desktop--she got 1200k--I got 400. I thought it might have been the MBP, so I dug out a Dell laptop--guess what--the most it would get in any office location was 400K. Same for a Mac mini that's on the same network. Now here's the thing--if I take that same MBP laptop home I get 3000K over my cable modem. Why would some computers get higher throughputs than others? They have an outside vendor administer the network and they seem to have disabled ping and traceroute. I started to wonder if maybe they limit bandwidth to the IP address, but all I really do during the day is work in Basecamp and reply to emails with an occassional look at Bloglines. Any ideas for the MeFi community about why this might happen and how I can intelligently describe the problem to the network admin so it doesn't sound like I'm nuts?