Looking for some help with wireless connection..

[Brizo]

Hi, first post on here and ive stumbled upon yous to seek some help please.

I have an iMac 2017 5k and i use virgin broadband in UK. The router supplied is a hub 3.0 for anyone that uses them and has any knowledge im in need of some help.

Ive been using this for around 1.5 years and had no problems via wifi, he router sends out a dual 2.6ghz and a 5ghz signal. He iMac started losing signal a couple of weeks ago and started playing up, becoming laggy, losing signal to my wireless keyboard and mouse aswell.

I called apple support and they had me do a fresh install on mac and wipe everything... and i reset my router. It seemed ok for a couple of days then started the wifi issues again, becmoning very laggy and not recognising my keyboard etc.

Reset router again and i noticed it would connect to one of the signals from my router (2.6ghz one) but as soon as i try to connect to the 5ghz one it crashes my mac.

My macbook has no problems connecting to them both via wifi and every other device connects fine to both of them.. just my imac

I ran a router cable from hub to my imac and it works fine, and dosent play up.

But as soon as i go back to wifi, its giving me issues.

Can anyone shed any light for me or had similar problems... ive spent a few days now trying to work out whats wrong and apple seem none the wiser and have booked me in to the genius bar this week.

I could live with wired connection, but i like operating sonos etc via imac and i cant now do this.

Sorry for the length of the post and hope for some feedback

Cheers

 

[dtravis7]

Interesting issue. I have never worked with a newish iMac 27" 5k before but what has me concerned is that the Bluetooth to your keyboard and mouse seems to also be acting up. I wonder if Apple on the 5k Retina Macs uses a combined Bluetooth and Wifi card and it's having issues? You said you had an appointment with the Genius bar. I would wait and see what they say as it very well could be an hardware issue. Has anything changed at all in your setup since this issue started?

 

[Brizo]

Interesting issue. I have never worked with a newish iMac 27" 5k before but what has me concerned is that the Bluetooth to your keyboard and mouse seems to also be acting up. I wonder if Apple on the 5k Retina Macs uses a combined Bluetooth and Wifi card and it's having issues? You said you had an appointment with the Genius bar. I would wait and see what they say as it very well could be an hardware issue. Has anything changed at all in your setup since this issue started?

Hi, thanks for the reply. No, nothing has changed in my setup that I can think of. So weird. As I say my 2014 (I think) connects to both channels off the router fine, as does iPhones and iPads within the house. Also the iMac is working fine currently with a wired connection via power lines just now, with WiFi turned off.

 

[IWT]

Also the iMac is working fine currently with a wired connection via power lines just now, with WiFi turned off.

Which is exactly how my setup works. By a "wired connection", may I presume you mean an Ethernet Cable from Router to iMac? That always provides a faster and more robust signal than WiFi, even if the iMac and Router are just feet apart. And I recommend you keep it that way.

Of course, whilst that is a "solution", it doesn't address the basic problem or problems. As far as I know, WiFi and Bluetooth (BT) work separately and a fault with one should not affect the other. Admin Dennis, came up with an interesting thought, but I've not come across a combined WiFi/BT card - yet!! Could be wrong.

As regards your Sonos speaker(s) - how are they "connected" to your iMac? WiFi, BT? Is there any way you can connect them via USB cable? I ask because I have a Bose system which connects via USB.

Ian

 

[Rod]

Brize, I feel really sorry for you getting that bog standard reply from Apple support. When they don’t have an immediate solution they suggest reinstalling your operating system.
It’s a bit like using a sledge hammer to drive a tack.
In the past problems like yours have been solved by simply erasing the old network settings and creating a new location profile and that still may help but like your other replies I’m puzzled about the failure of your Bluetooth connections.


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you were experiencing issues with both WiFi and your keyboard/mouse (these use Bluetooth), you might be having an issue with the wireless antennas. Now that you have gone the hard-wired route, do you still have issues with your keyboard/mouse or are they gone as well?

Assuming the Sonos is accessible over your network, it shouldn't matter if you are connecting over Ethernet or WiFi from your iMac, you are still joining the same network and should be able to do whatever you were doing before.

 

[Brizo]

Which is exactly how my setup works. By a "wired connection", may I presume you mean an Ethernet Cable from Router to iMac? That always provides a faster and more robust signal than WiFi, even if the iMac and Router are just feet apart. And I recommend you keep it that way.

Of course, whilst that is a "solution", it doesn't address the basic problem or problems. As far as I know, WiFi and Bluetooth (BT) work separately and a fault with one should not affect the other. Admin Dennis, came up with an interesting thought, but I've not come across a combined WiFi/BT card - yet!! Could be wrong.

As regards your Sonos speaker(s) - how are they "connected" to your iMac? WiFi, BT? Is there any way you can connect them via USB cable? I ask because I have a Bose system which connects via USB.

Ian

well, my router is plugged into a power line adapter, so where my Mac is situated in my house I have a power line plugged into wall and an ethernet from that to my Mac. I'm normally getting 220mb wireless from the 5ghz channel from my other devices, but from my wired power line connection I'm getting 100mb.

I did try an ethernet from router directly into my Mac when I unplugged it yesterday and plugged the Mac in next to my router and received the full speed. these power lines do create a loss though which I can live with.

my Sonos was connected wirelessly to my Mac with no issues before this happened. unfortunately I cannot connect to it via usb as its a wireless setup for Sonos. again, no issues with other devices connecting to it

 

[Brizo]

Brize, I feel really sorry for you getting that bog standard reply from Apple support. When they don’t have an immediate solution they suggest reinstalling your operating system.
It’s a bit like using a sledge hammer to drive a tack.
In the past problems like yours have been solved by simply erasing the old network settings and creating a new location profile and that still may help but like your other replies I’m puzzled about the failure of your Bluetooth connections.


Sent from my iPad using Mac-Forums

to be fair some of the steps they took me through were erasing old network settings, but once that happened and they realised it wasnt gonna connect to the 5ghz (fastest one) they told me just to connect to the 2.6ghz one and take it to apple genius

 

[Brizo]

If you were experiencing issues with both WiFi and your keyboard/mouse (these use Bluetooth), you might be having an issue with the wireless antennas. Now that you have gone the hard-wired route, do you still have issues with your keyboard/mouse or are they gone as well?

Assuming the Sonos is accessible over your network, it shouldn't matter if you are connecting over Ethernet or WiFi from your iMac, you are still joining the same network and should be able to do whatever you were doing before.

for last 48 hrs I've had no problems with keyboards or mouse disconnecting, lag, or any issues I had previously when trying to connect to the 5ghz wifi signal

unfortunately its not working as they need to be on the same wifi signal I'm sure, I tried searching for it and it hasn't found it

 

[Raz0rEdge]

You are not connecting directly to the Sonos but rather to it through your network. To that end, it doesn't matter how you join the network, as long as you are on the same network. The only issue might be that if you have the dual WiFi networks (2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz), they might actually be separate networks (with different SSIDs). You can confirm that by going to your Mac and going to System Preferences->Network and selecting the Ethernet (green) connection and looking at the IP Address and Router values. Now go to the Sonos (assuming it can display that info on it) or the Sonos app that you use to manage the device and see if you can grab the network info for it. If they are both in the same IP range (the first 3 values should match) and the same router, then you should be able to talk. But if the numbers differ, that's your culprit.

 

[Brizo]

You are not connecting directly to the Sonos but rather to it through your network. To that end, it doesn't matter how you join the network, as long as you are on the same network. The only issue might be that if you have the dual WiFi networks (2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz), they might actually be separate networks (with different SSIDs). You can confirm that by going to your Mac and going to System Preferences->Network and selecting the Ethernet (green) connection and looking at the IP Address and Router values. Now go to the Sonos (assuming it can display that info on it) or the Sonos app that you use to manage the device and see if you can grab the network info for it. If they are both in the same IP range (the first 3 values should match) and the same router, then you should be able to talk. But if the numbers differ, that's your culprit.

yeah I do, only thing is I can't see what the Sonos Mac address is on my router settings.

my Sonos seems to be having issues currently just now as its not responding to voice commands via Alexa

 

[Brizo]

managed to get the Sonos setup @Raz0rEdge, thanks.