iMac + MacBook MacBookPro Internet Connection Problems

Dear all,

Grateful for some assistance with this one which is making us loose the will to live at the moment!!

Just got an iMac, OS is 10.5.5., connects to airport fine on its own and connection to web is great. However, when either our MacBook or MacBookPro is also connected to the wireless it knocks the iMac off every minute or so and in the airport icon it keeps stating "scanning" about every minutes. The laptops have 10.4.11 installed. The laptops connecting to airport / the internet together have no problems.

Spent 4 hours with wireless support at apple with this, with them I have:
- updated airport extreme firmware to 7.3.2
- created a new airport user from scratch
- changed channel to 9
- they recommended iStumbler to see what other channels people were on in the area and have changed to 10, then 2, then 1...doesn't make any difference
- apple judged that this was a high useage area but we have just moved here from a low use area and the problems are the same

I have read a lot of articles about problems connecting to the internet with 10.5.2+ so I don't know if this is a similar problem or not. Since the iMac will connect to the airport / internet running on its own I assume this is a whole different issue. I have a Windows laptop and this connects to the airport / internet without any problems too - this is why I am thinking its a 10.5.2+ issue.

I have been advised that the laptops could run off the wireless and have an ethernet cable from the Airport Extreme could go to iMac so it bypasses the wireless. As we are on cable the modem and airport extreme are two rooms away (only place the cable company could put their devices) this would mean drilling through two walls to get the ethernet cable to the iMac - so I don't want to go down this route unless there is no other way round this.

Any advice or alternatives would be very gratefully received.
Thanks so much,
Steve

Do you by chance have another router that you can try? If not, temporarily turn off all airport security (WEP, WPA, etc) and run the entire system in the clear to see if you can maintain access with all three Macs at the same time.

Regarding running Leopard 10.5.2+, there are many folks myself included, who have no problems with airport wireless. I'm not particularly fond of the Apple Airport Express or Extreme base stations and personally prefer a third party router which in my opinion seem to work with less trouble. But that's my opinion only, lots of Mac owners are successfully using the Express and Extreme.

If you had this problem before you moved, it may be hardware related. That's why I suggest substituting another router if at all possible.

Regards.

I've been lurking on these forums since I bought my MacBook Pro last month. I see many posts about problems with Airport extreme.

You might try another router. I bought the Linksys N router two days ago and I am extremely happy with it. Prior to that I had a Belkin N1 which dropped connections whenever it wanted to.

I had to disable security just to connect to the Internet with the Belkin. Despite what Belkin support says, the N1 is NOT compatible with MBP running either Mac OS 10.5.2 or 10.5.5.

If you disable your security and surf in the open, make sure to turn off SSID broadcasting so your network is hidden from prying eyes.

A word of caution if you buy the Linksys N router: do NOT install the LELA app that comes with the CD. You don't need it! It tried to load a bunch of junk in my registry and it attempted to delete my printer drivers.