I know others have had problems with their wireless connection cutting out, but my situation seems to be somewhat unique and kind of weird. So I'll give some details:
I have a 4 year old Black MacBook that's had minor problems in the past, but I take really good care of it, so I've never had any major issues. I'm a college student and I've always had perfect wireless access on the different campus networks (AirWireless in the academic buildings, Bookstore in the campus bookstore, and Woodframe for the dorms, etc.) About two weeks ago I was sitting in the library connected to AirWireless with 3/4 bars, when the connection suddenly cut out. I went back to my room and I could get a signal on the Woodframe network, but it was very weak (just 1 bar) and intermittently cut out. It's never been a perfect signal, but it was never THIS weak. When I went to the bookstore, I could connect to the Bookstore network no problem (3/4 bars). This situation hasn't changed in two weeks. I now get a very weak signal in my room. I can get a perfect signal in the Bookstore. The weirdest thing is that I'll go to the library and connect to AirWireless (we use Cisco Clean Access Agent and use our university ID and password to connect) and everything works perfectly with full bars for like 5 minutes or so, then completely cuts out. AirWireless won't even show up on the drop-down menu of available wireless networks!
I went to System Preferences-->Network and moved AirPort to the top of the list under "Network Port Configurations" and that didn't help. I then reset the PRAM using the command-option-P-R buttons at startup, and that also made no difference.
I brought it to the IT folks here at school and they suggested that I replace the AirPort card because it's probably old and broken. This makes perfect sense to me except for the fact that I CAN connect to SOME wireless networks with no problems and strong signal strength. And why does it connect to AirWireless in campus buildings perfectly for just a few minutes before cutting out completely? Is this the normal way that an AirPort card goes bad? I'd really just like to avoid spending the $$$ on a new part if I don't actually need it and there might be some other explanation.
I'd really appreciate any insight on the matter.
I have a 4 year old Black MacBook that's had minor problems in the past, but I take really good care of it, so I've never had any major issues. I'm a college student and I've always had perfect wireless access on the different campus networks (AirWireless in the academic buildings, Bookstore in the campus bookstore, and Woodframe for the dorms, etc.) About two weeks ago I was sitting in the library connected to AirWireless with 3/4 bars, when the connection suddenly cut out. I went back to my room and I could get a signal on the Woodframe network, but it was very weak (just 1 bar) and intermittently cut out. It's never been a perfect signal, but it was never THIS weak. When I went to the bookstore, I could connect to the Bookstore network no problem (3/4 bars). This situation hasn't changed in two weeks. I now get a very weak signal in my room. I can get a perfect signal in the Bookstore. The weirdest thing is that I'll go to the library and connect to AirWireless (we use Cisco Clean Access Agent and use our university ID and password to connect) and everything works perfectly with full bars for like 5 minutes or so, then completely cuts out. AirWireless won't even show up on the drop-down menu of available wireless networks!
I went to System Preferences-->Network and moved AirPort to the top of the list under "Network Port Configurations" and that didn't help. I then reset the PRAM using the command-option-P-R buttons at startup, and that also made no difference.
I brought it to the IT folks here at school and they suggested that I replace the AirPort card because it's probably old and broken. This makes perfect sense to me except for the fact that I CAN connect to SOME wireless networks with no problems and strong signal strength. And why does it connect to AirWireless in campus buildings perfectly for just a few minutes before cutting out completely? Is this the normal way that an AirPort card goes bad? I'd really just like to avoid spending the $$$ on a new part if I don't actually need it and there might be some other explanation.
I'd really appreciate any insight on the matter.
