Losing Connectivity With WIFI

teqsun · Dec 12, 2007

Hello all,

this is my first post here so here goes!

I have done a search (mostly thru google) and I cannot come to any sort of conclusion on this...

I just recently upgraded to leopard and I am loving it but with it my problems started.

I use my laptop from work to SSH into to do various tasks at home. It seems somtimes that my laptop will lose its connectivity to the internet.

I have to click disable wifi and then re-enable it and it comes back to life.

Do you think this is a hardware issue? or a software issue?

I was thinking of a workaround but im not quite sure how to do it. I was thinking of writing a Terminal script to ping google.com and if it failed to disable then re-enable the wifi service.

I don't think its my router because my other laptop (a gateway with vista... I KNOW) does not have this problem.

Any help would be greately appreciated.

ps. This problem did not happen in tiger.

mathogre · Dec 12, 2007

Welcome and thanks for searching first!!!!!!

I think it's a Leopard issue. Are you up to 10.5.1 yet?

At 10.5.0, I had the same trouble, though it seems to be more of a temporary (if annoying) freeze rather than a complete loss of signal. With 10.5.1, I will still get an occasional freeze, but it's momentary.

Also, the net connection doesn't come up as quickly as in Tiger when I wake my MB from sleep. If I was connected to my .Mac volume, the probability of losing the connection is about 0.5.

teqsun · Dec 12, 2007

mathogre said:
Welcome and thanks for searching first!!!!!!

I think it's a Leopard issue. Are you up to 10.5.1 yet?

At 10.5.0, I had the same trouble, though it seems to be more of a temporary (if annoying) freeze rather than a complete loss of signal. With 10.5.1, I will still get an occasional freeze, but it's momentary.

Also, the net connection doesn't come up as quickly as in Tiger when I wake my MB from sleep. If I was connected to my .Mac volume, the probability of losing the connection is about 0.5.

I did upgrade to 10.5.1 so that isn't the problem (or maybe it is). I thought it was my no-ip updater that was causing the problems so I shut it down and it seemed to fix it for a few days.

If I can't fix this stuff, I think I might just go back to tiger. SAD cause this is reminding me of the XP vs VISTA thing going on. I never had a single problem with tiger except my battery is completely gone (got a replacement from apple and that didnt fix it) So I have to find sometime that I can bear to part with my laptop for a month to have apple fix it

But untill then Id still like to SSH into my laptop.

Eric559 · Dec 12, 2007

I have this problem off and on. I am using Tiger so it's not a Leopard only problem.

MacGirl · Dec 12, 2007

Eric559 said:
I have this problem off and on. I am using Tiger so it's not a Leopard only problem.

I also have this issue and I use Tiger. Have you found any workarounds?

bobtomay · Dec 12, 2007

The issue the OP is describing is definitely related to Leopard as far as I am concerned.

Have used the same router, same settings, same MBP in Tiger and never had any connectivity issue for 10 months. As soon as Leopard hit the machine, a wireless connection was almost impossible. With 10.5.1, a portion of that has been fixed. I do exactly what you are describing. As soon as I see a page load pause, I turn Airport off and back on. Fixes it everytime. It might stay connected for a day, and sometimes not even 5 minutes. If you let it sit there without doing anything, typically it will eventually load the page - seen it take 2-3 minutes. Happens with every browser exactly the same.

It's a real pita. Had previously wired the Living Rm, so for now am keeping it wired.
Don't know what the difference is, but my wife's newer MacBook does not exhibit this issue.

I've made sure all firmware is up to date. Tried both g and n networks. Even stopped the automatic channel detection and went through selecting a channel at a time. Have not found any fix through my searches yet. Have not tried lowering the security. Tried reducing MTU. Don't even remember what all else I've done.

teqsun · Dec 12, 2007

bobtomay said:
The issue the OP is describing is definitely related to Leopard as far as I am concerned.

Have used the same router, same settings, same MBP in Tiger and never had any connectivity issue for 10 months. As soon as Leopard hit the machine, a wireless connection was almost impossible. With 10.5.1, a portion of that has been fixed. I do exactly what you are describing. As soon as I see a page load pause, I turn Airport off and back on. Fixes it everytime. It might stay connected for a day, and sometimes not even 5 minutes. If you let it sit there without doing anything, typically it will eventually load the page - seen it take 2-3 minutes. Happens with every browser exactly the same.

It's a real pita. Had previously wired the Living Rm, so for now am keeping it wired.
Don't know what the difference is, but my wife's newer MacBook does not exhibit this issue.

I've made sure all firmware is up to date. Tried both g and n networks. Even stopped the automatic channel detection and went through selecting a channel at a time. Have not found any fix through my searches yet. Have not tried lowering the security. Tried reducing MTU. Don't even remember what all else I've done.

thanks!

I was thinking the best way to go would be with a CRON-JOB if its at all possible on macs. to test connectivity if none exists, shut down wifi and re-enable it. is this possible?

Eric559 · Dec 13, 2007

MacGirl said:
I also have this issue and I use Tiger. Have you found any workarounds?

Nope none at all. It just acts up all of a sudden and other times it's great. Usually happens when I am reading a long page and I don't click on a link for a while. When I have Bittorrent running in the background with constant data transfer I don't have any problems.

bobtomay · Dec 13, 2007

teqsun said:
thanks!

I was thinking the best way to go would be with a CRON-JOB if its at all possible on macs. to test connectivity if none exists, shut down wifi and re-enable it. is this possible?

Someone else will have to answer this one - know next to nothing related to writing scripts.

Rephrase - know nothing.