Comments on: Tiger Causing WiFi Problems?

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:16:14 +0000

Hi guys! I’ve a problem with DI-624 wireless connection and my ibook G4. I have to surf the net using an old analogic modem because in my town faster connections are unavailable. Because of I want to use wireless internet I installed windows xp and Free Proxy on an old PIII which is cable connected to DI-624 router. In this way I can surf the net using my iBook G4 wireless connection. The problem is that the connection seems to be stable but every 5 minutes stops receiving and sending data for about 30 seconds or more: in this moment I also can’t ping PIII host. I thought the problem was proxy program but connecting my iBook through cable connection works really fine. Do you have some advice? Thanks a lot.
(I’m afraid, my English is very bad… I’m Italian:p)

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By: maxwell

maxwell — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:52:15 +0000

macbook X.4.7, airport through netgear WGR614 v6, no connection trouble except when returning from an type of sleep orlong period of idling without sleep. after waking i can selec my network and it conect fine but i still have to manually connect, have tried various keychain solutions to no avail, tried prefered network settings too, but right now nothing is working to fix the problem

By: Graham Haley

Graham Haley — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:59:57 +0000

Setup: Mac Mini Dual Core running OS X 10.4.6 connected with internal Airport to a Linksys WRT54G. My network is closed (no SSID broadcast) and uses WEP.

I can connect no problems whatsoever, but if ever I lose the connection, I can’t get it to reconnect automatically. It does work if I turn the Airport off and back on again, or if I power cycle the router though, suggesting some kinds of reconnect are working. Also manual reconnect (by selecting my network name from the airport pulldown) works every time.

I’ve tried various combinations of Automatic, Preferred Networks, Keep trying known networks … etc, but nothing seems to work. Very frustrating as I’m trying to keep the mini headless, so every time I need to reconnect I need to plug in a keyboard/mouse!

It seems lots of people are having this type of problem (or variations thereof), so I’m guessing its a software bug. It would be nice to know what triggers it (does anyone know ?) so that I could script a workaround until a fix appears.

By: ThomasM

ThomasM — Mon, 15 May 2006 03:27:07 +0000

Setup: Powerbook G4 with OS 10.4.6 connecting with internal Airport carwd to an Airport Express hub

I fixed my automatic reconnection from sleep problem by going to System Preferences->Network then configuring AirPort in the AirPort tab:

By default, join: Automatic

It had previously been:

By default, join: Preferred networks

Setting it to Automatic fixed the reconnect from sleep problem, without messing with Keychain Access.

By: Sinful

Sinful — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:15:17 +0000

Powerbook G4 1.67 w/ 10.4.5. Had problems where airport lost its mind and did not automatically connect to wifi networks. When I manually connected I would get a password prompt. Even though there were keychain entries in my keychain. Tried repairing keychain: no success. Tried removing individual entries and re-entering them with no success. I ended up backing up my whole keychain and created a new one. Moved my old keychain over to new keychain (mv command) and everything now works.

By: Steve Criddle

Steve Criddle — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:08:36 +0000

I am using an iBook G4 with Tiger 10.4.5 and a Belkin wireless access point. I had very flaky wifi until I changed the channel on the Belkin. iStumbler can see the Belkin on channels 1-8 and can’t see it on channels 9-13. The same iBook works fine at work (Airport Express throughout, although iStumbler isn’t showing me anything on channels above 8). I’m not sure if that means it’s an iStumbler issue, an Airport issue or a Belkin issue.

By: Gary Hayes

Gary Hayes — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:13:36 +0000

Not sure if this has been resolved as the date of each persons post is not made. Just to say that I have a 17″ pb and a pismo (upgraded). I have used the Pismo on wireless networks all over the world on hundreds of different networks and it has an amazing success rate.

Since upgrading to 10.4.4 on both machines the 17″ is fine and the Pismo with original airport card see the network for about 5 seconds or so then drops it and never sees it again.

I suspect that apple have decided that original airport cards on upgraded pismos are not their market anymore and do not test Tiger on them anymore. So roll back time on that machine at least. Shame it is 6 years old and going strong in every other area.

By: rrrichie

rrrichie — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:07:25 +0000

Same problems here a tiBook 400, have several cards (Dell TrueMobile and a RaLink based card) but since tiger the connection is very unstable. Dropping at unforseen times, and not reconnecting after sleep. Worked perfectly before.

I’m thinking about going back to 10.3. Tiger seems snappier and Spotlight is great, but this is very annoying.
I just seems Tiger has had more attention from the intel folks and the powerpc machines are having a lot of trouble.

My Dell laptop drops the connection too, but a few times a day and reconnects immediately. The Tigerbook, needs a lot of coercing to get it going again (re-inserting the card, reconnecting to the network etc)

By: Seamus Phan

Seamus Phan — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:38:24 +0000

Have tried most of what all of you have mentioned, running OS X Tiger 10.4.4, with an iBook 900MHz at home with Airport Express, and the signal just keeps dropping every now and then. Very frustrating. This did not happen before.

By: GrannyApple

GrannyApple — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 03:56:48 +0000

Hi guys, I have a 1.2Ghz iBook G4 and my internet connection is so sketchy, Safari crawls, Mail gives up checking for mail and iChat is unusuble, I have only had these issues since switching to Tiger

So I am reinstalling Panther and will doubt whether I will ever buy another Mac again, those Sony VIAO’s are nice

By: Olivier

Olivier — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 21:17:58 +0000

I just bought a Imac G5 20″ and the wifi do not work properly!

The network connection break after few minute on the web
i cant make software update or use Itune music store.

What should I do ?
So I have plug the eterneth cable and wait tomorow to bring back this machine.

By: John Reich

John Reich — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 04:45:10 +0000

Hi-
I also had the same sort of problems with not connecting to the internet when waking the G4 iBook from sleep. What fixed the issue for me was an upgrade to the firmware of Linksys router. Now everytime it is woken it connects instantly. Cheers!
– John

By: Roger Holtman

Roger Holtman — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 15:13:08 +0000

To Hitesh:
Thank you! The name change solved my problem with connecting to a DLink wireless router. PCS worked fine. iMac on 10.4.3 stopped working. This fixed it. I swear I don’t remember giving my computer that “name” and I can’t figure out why this problem started when I did the 10.4.3 update.
Anyway, thanks.
Roger

By: The Computer Is Your Friend

The Computer Is Your Friend — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:39:08 +0000

I have the same problem of frequent loss of the network (for several months), but I am connecting to the airport express from a PC, not from a mac. So the problem is that the Airport Express is seriously flawed (it seems).

By: Tatie

Tatie — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:14:53 +0000

Update to my last post: the Airport signal now cuts out even during active internet use. Reversing my earlier statement, this is likely a design flaw rather than a feature.

Either way, still sucks.

By: Tatie

Tatie — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 03:18:44 +0000

Same problem as others: got a 1.42 iBook running originally on 10.4.2. No problems, then I upgraded to 4.3 and found the airport signal cutting out after 15-20 minutes idle time. Also, the new airport update proves no solution.

Curiously, if I conduct an internet activity requiring ACTIVE participation, the signal stays open indefinitely. However, if I run a passive internet activity (e.g. downloading), the signal cuts out without fail. I wonder if this is a design feature rather than a design flaw.

By: zwergpirat

zwergpirat — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 23:07:25 +0000

Check software update for fix!

By: Bubba

Bubba — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 17:46:40 +0000

Maybe this extra angle is helpful.

10.3.9 was working well for my house, with just an airport express supporting two wireless G4 laptops.
Express (purchased early 04) fried recently in power spike.
Just purchased *new* Express, and now, with the new firmware from the CD, and still using 10.3.9, I am having the connectivity problems described above in spades. Spotty connection, which sleep will always destroy.
Computer always sees wireless network, thinks it’s connected, but it cannot see my ISP.

For me then, there are a number of options involving software mismatches or even hardware trouble with the newer express.

Think I’ll return the blighted thing and just wait for Apple to sort this out. Nice to see so much good company in this problem though.

By: zwergpirat

zwergpirat — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:01:06 +0000

Read this!

http://earthlingsoft.net/ssp/blog/2005/10/ibook_ram_problem

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:58:46 +0000

I connected to my neighbors WiFi and let my iBook go to sleep for 10mins or so. Guess what, it reconnected just fine to his network after waking up.

Maybe this is just a D-Link issue?

By: shane

shane — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:29:39 +0000

got the same issue
iBook G4+DI-624 both w/ latest updates.

Connections are dropping and when the iBook wakes up, i can’t seem to re-establish the connection.

Anyone get an answer from Apple?

By: lisa

lisa — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 17:44:16 +0000

also another thing, has anyone else tried locking the settings in system preferences > network > lock, as this does not work either has it worked for anyone else?

By: lisa

lisa — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 17:36:50 +0000

yes i have had this problem and it is really beginning to annoy me. everytime i turn off the computer or it goes to sleep o lose the internet connection. have you worked out a solution yet? thanks

By: mokum

mokum — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 10:25:43 +0000

WPA = no matter what networkname [wlan.meij.net OR meijwlan] I choose, with complex or simple password [dfÃ§*%GF%&GF OR password], it does not work.

My DLS modem is a SpeedTouch.

Turn off security and it starts working.

Tiger is just not 100% WPA compatible.

By: Felix

Felix — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 06:18:53 +0000

Ibook G4 with airport extreme + Dlink DI-624 router. Works fine with wep at 128 encry. When using wpa, it will disconnect approx 10mins.

By: trev fresh

trev fresh — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 02:09:34 +0000

yes, another issue, even after the ‘fix’. Stay PC… it works

By: m2bits

m2bits — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 08:29:47 +0000

Memory leak causing wifi to drop?

I’ve noticed that after startup or wake my free RAM starts to steadily decline. From around 1 Gb to about 30 Mb or less (total RAM is 1,5Gb in a 12″ 1.33 iBook G4, system and one or two applications sake up about 500Mb). When free RAM reaches close to zero the wireless connection is dropped and it takes a restart to get it up and running again.

To me this says there is some ‘memory leaking’ going on, that might be leading to the wifi problems. Has anyone any thoughts on this? similar experiences?

By: David Arthur

David Arthur — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:36:26 +0000

Hi Everyone!

Just to compound the problem, here is a summary of my experience|:

I have had a G4 1.33GHz iBook since April. I use a Belkin F5d7630 wireless router. The iBook worked flawlessly with my wireless router up until I did one of the security updates for 10.3.9 I think it was either security update 2005-002 or 005-003 that started the problem. My iBook shipped with 10.3.7.

After applying this patch, I experienced the same problems you have all been having – no automatic connection after sleep and problems connecting after boot…having to turn off wifi then turn it back on and manually selecting the SSID. Really annoying after a while!

I since upgraded to Tiger and the problem has remained. I posted this because I don’t think the problem is Tiger 10.4.2 The problem definately started since 10.3.7 and before 10.3.9. Subsequent updates have made no difference.

I have tried the suggestions listed above relating to Keychain and the length of the computer name. Again, no improvement. I don’t think the problem is hardware – generally, faulty hardware will either work or it won’t.

I am seriously considering downgrading to 10.3.7 to see if it cures the problem. Let’s keep this discussion going. I wasn’t aware of how many ppl were having this problem until now.

By: peterwalsham

peterwalsham — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:24:29 +0000

D-Link DI-624+ Mac Mini Tiger 10.4 Wireless & Ethernet

I have a D-Link DI-624+ which was working fine until introduced a Mac Mini

The Problem
==============
The Mac Mini had Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Using WEP shared keys and Airport, the D-Link DI-624+ crashed almost immediately and had to be rebooted and would only work if Airport on the Mac was disabled

Using fixed Ethernet, the D-Link DI-624+ would crash after 5->20 minutes and had to be rebooted

The Solution
==============
I did both of the following at the same time and so don’t know which one was the fix, but now Airport / Wireless on the Mac works fine with the router

1) All Mac software updates, taking the OS to 10.4.2

2) New firmware on the D-Link DI-624+ (upgraded to 2.07 from 2.02)
ftp://ftp.dlink.co.uk/di_broadband_…_bx_fw_v207.zip
Remember to write down your router settings, these will be wiped in the firmware upgrade
(which includes setting the router address back to 192.168.0.1)

Note the DI-624+ is not the same as the DI-624, which will require different firmware
The DI-624+ was purchased in the UK which has its own dlink.co.uk site (not dlink.com)

_________________
Peter Walsham
Axomic Ltd
OpenAsset Image & Digital Asset Management for Architects
http://www.axomic.com

By: Mark Morris

Mark Morris — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 23:03:32 +0000

I’ve had the same problem with intermittant wireless service through my PowerBook-G4 with Tiger 10.4.2 and a D-Link router. Apple had better get on the ball with this one!

By: Mitch

Mitch — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 06:01:50 +0000

I tried all of the above suggestions but still the problems with intermittent and weak signal persisted. I had to change my router (D-link DI-624) because it broke down (on top of everything else). So I got a Linksys Wireless-G…and somehow my problem has been resolved. I have changed nothing except my router. I cannot explain why it works now.

By: Darcy Muenchrath

Darcy Muenchrath — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 04:09:22 +0000

If it is the extensions what do you do again? I have read through many of these fixes and did notice #25 i think, but did not know if this would be the same fix for 10.4.2.
I an connect fine but the problem iks is when I go into my living room which is 35-40 feet away.

My connection stays strong and then all of a sudden when I am in another room it drops off completely. So I connect to another network from somewhere else and the signal is there and strong for only 3-4 mins and then disappears.

Not sure what to do at this point. Is it a hardware issue or is it software?

Darcy

By: colwn

colwn — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 18:30:29 +0000

Nope, no pin wheel problem for me. Just a connection that’s there and then not there, for no good reason.
I’ve just re-installed Tiger to try and get back to square one but no joy. I’ll try taking off the security from my 3rd party router but I’m not holding out any hope for that because the problem started when I was at a friends on their network. I think it may well be something to with the extensions but god only knows what, and he probably couldn’t fix it anyway. Can anyone explain why Apple aren’t tryng to fix this?

By: HeavyNuclei

HeavyNuclei — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:05:55 +0000

After reviewing most all of these posts, it still seems these problems are still not resolved. This problem came to light for me when I installed 10.4.2 on my G4 Cube with an airport express, and my Ibook G3 with the airport express. I had them kind of working at some point, but I was still getting the fabled “Problem connecting to airport network”. However now it is much much worse, there is one problem that has been occuring since my initial attempts to fix these problems. I have not read about or found anyone else with the same problem at all. I simply can’t even turn on my airport express cards without the system first lagging down and eventually freezing up. I click the “Turn on Airport” button, it waits, then I get the dredded pinwheel, nonstop.

Anyone else having this problem? Is it just me?

Thanks!