IMAC Wireless trouble-Linksys

J

JPZ

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We just bought a brand new iMac and are so frustrated with the wireless connectivity with our current Linksys wireless home network. We were so excited to switch from a PC to a MAC however it is so frustrating for the internet to keep dropping on the MAC when we never had this issue with our PC- Apple support states that there may be interference with other household items- (well, i am not going to stop using my mircowave that's for sure)

Let me start from the beginning if I could- we could not contect to the wireless network from day one-

then we diabled the encryption on the wireless network and we got a connection on the MAC- (we are not happy that the encryption is turned off-

first question- can we get around this and still use encrytion on the MAC using Linksys and still get internet? IS this possible-

Second How can we stop the internet from dropping? It is so frustrating -----We saved and saved for this computer and the sales person at the APPLE store said all we do is plug it in and it will pick up the signal- well that was a week ago and we are still fighting to get online- our budget does not support buying a new wireless network- please help- thank you
 
I have a Linksys WRT54G and an iMac G5 that have been working with wireless for about a year now.

What you might want to do is change the channel on the Linksys to either 1, 6, or 11 (if you're in the US). I have mine set to 11 as I've read that it is less susceptible to interference from wireless phones and microwave ovens.

You also might want to enable Interface Robustness on your iMac's Airport Interface. Open System Preferences and click on the Network pane. Select to configure your Airport card and then click on the Options button. Tick on the "enable interface robustness" option and then apply all your settings. Hopefully this should help out with the dropped connections.

For the record, I'm using WEP encryption and that's only because I still have one PC that has a card that only supports that. However, I have configured Macs to use WPA/WPA2 without any problems as well. Just make sure you have configured the Airport card properly, supplying all the necessary information (encryption key, SSID name of the access point, etc).

Have you thought that maybe it's your ISP dropping the connections? I have Earthlink and since they have to use BellSouth's lines it's possible that BellSouth is causing the problem. Didn't have that issue when I used to have BellSouth as my ISP before Earthlink.....make you go "Hmmmmmm." ;)
 
I had same issue with my ibook and Linksys and wep. Some Mac's will work if you put a $ in front of you password for wep. I have seen alot of Mac have issues with both Linksys and Netgear routers. Go to wpa or wpa2 and they will work fine.
 
hawki18 said:
I had same issue with my ibook and Linksys and wep. Some Mac's will work if you put a $ in front of you password for wep. I have seen alot of Mac have issues with both Linksys and Netgear routers. Go to wpa or wpa2 and they will work fine.
Click to expand...

Weird. I've never had to do that to any of the OS X Macs I've come across. Maybe it's with the newer Intel Macs? I don't know. Either way, it's a good tip to know. :)
 
thank you for your help-to respond- we do have the channel set on 11- and have the Interface Robustness working- it is interesting we will go about two days without a problem then out of nowhere it will not work each time we get on the computer --we have to choose the network again and refresh it- It may be with the new intel apples-do I have any recourse with apple on this issue- I should not have to refresh the network every ten minutes- so frustrating--I will try all your suggestions before proceeding- thank again so much!
 
I have a 17" Intel Imac and it is connected to a Linksys modem router using the configuration for my previous pc. I have been able to connect with no problems aside from having to use the drop down menu box to enter the correct type of encryption key ( I am using 128bit hexadecimal).
My G4 Ibook also connects without a problem.
Setting up a Mac is slightly different from a WinPC but not drastically so.
I would suggest going over the wireless setup again step by step.
BTW, I am using channel 6 plus interference robustness.
 
Interesting about piteetan's comment- we have gone step by step with the set up for the airport and Linksys-we have been on the phone with both linksys and Apple to ensure we were folowing each step correctly- they stated that it was beyond their support and we need to look into forums such as this one- we are still having issues with the signal dropping - I have to refresh each time I wake the computer up-but since we at least can get the connection I did not want to mess things up until I had time to try the suggestions below- our router is the basement and the Apple is three floors away- our PCS never had a problem but maybe I need to move the router up stairs- (a huge pain for us but if it helps??) thanks
 
JPZ, I believe your last post explains quite a few problems.
Three floors is somewhat a distance for a wireless signal, and as I understand it, correct me if i am wrong, wireless signals tend to travel in a horizontal plane.
Moving the router upstairs would be a good choice, and more than that, since you will not be using the iMac as a portable computer, why not run a LAN cable from the router to the iMac?
I believe the setup would be simpler.
Give it a try.
 
thank you- I guess I am just frustrated b/c we switched to MAC to be more user friendly and it is turning out to be a difficult situation to just get on the internet-I understand what you are saying- at the moment we can't attach a wire b/c of where the cable outlet is the upstairs room -it just is not possible and that is why we got wireless some years ago- It is interesting that the three floors never was a problem with the PC???

A MAC friend said that it is normal for our computer is disconnect when the computer is sleeping that when you wake it up you may have to reconnect is that correct? in that case that is what we are doing at the moment- thanks agin all the support is great!
 
Well, any machine will disconnect from the network when it goes to sleep, so that's not just Mac related. The same thing happens with my HP laptop from work when it goes to sleep.
 
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