Ticket Options

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Airport & Netgear Wireless Routers

applyn - Apr 9, 2006 - 3:35 pm

I am using my first Mac, a 12" PowerBook. When it comes to windows I am one of those tech support people. The Powerbook is a great piece of kit - leaves me wondering why I didn't get one ages ago - .

So to the question with some background, when I access my wireless network at home with the various windows PC's and laptops scattered around the house I have absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Using the PowerBook and its AirPort, I get a slow to non-existant connection and occasionally its fine. I must emphasize that I do get a connection every time but it is inconsistent and I don't have this problem with my windows wireless machines.

I have spent some time talking with Apple Care and got the problem down to "issues" with Netgear" wireless routers.

I was wondering if anyone had experienced something similar or has had any "issues" with Netgear Routers?

Thanks

earthsaver - Apr 9, 2006 - 9:51 pm

I haven't personally used Netgear routers before but mostly because they have a horrible reputation of lacking compatibility with Macs. You're likely to find this if you browse Apple's discussion forums or MacFixIt forums, among others. Recommend you but Belkin, D-link, or Linksys.

- Ben

applyn - Apr 10, 2006 - 6:55 am

Thanks Ben

I see your list of recommened routers, have you had any experience with the Buffalo ones? (they are on special offer here)

Andy

earthsaver - Apr 10, 2006 - 7:59 am

I thought Buffalo would be good because they used the same Lucent chips as Apple was using (may still), but I don't think the last review I heard was good. If you're just looking for an easy home wireless router, I recommend one of the two 802.11g Belkin routers you can find at newegg.com. How do those prices compare?

applyn - Apr 10, 2006 - 3:32 pm

Thanks

I will have to do a bit of research before I buy, although the pices are good at newegg I live in the UK and the prices are comparable to UK outlets. I'll ask around and see if I can try a few routers out before buying.

Andy

applyn - Apr 12, 2006 - 2:40 pm

Interesting Update

When I run the PowerBook with it connected to the mains supply I can use the internet wirelessly with no problem. As soon as I unplug and run on the battery the internet access becomes really slow. Could this be a power issue on the airport antenna?

nhmac - Apr 14, 2006 - 8:59 pm

Hi,

That sounds like there is an issue with your powerbook using wireless while running on battery power.

I can't tell you how to fix that, but I did just want to let you know that lots of Mac users do use Netgear routers successfully. I have a Netgear WGR614 (rev.4) successfully serving a household using Airport and Netgear wireless cards, on G3, G4 and G5 Macs, and I've had no problems with the router. So you might want to try a bit more to isolate what is going on with your powerbook.

--Beverly

applyn - Apr 15, 2006 - 5:31 am

Thanks, I am currently resigned to plugging into the mains supply to access the wireless at home now...

the interesting thing here is that I tried a wireless connection to a Belkin router the other day on battery power an had no problems.

this is not an easy problem to diagnose!

Andy

nhmac - Apr 15, 2006 - 9:48 am

Not sure why that would be, but maybe someone else does, so I am going to put your question back in the Open Questions list.

Beverly

applyn - Apr 15, 2006 - 11:20 am

thanks

stottm - Apr 16, 2006 - 10:09 am

You are not alone, NetGear routers are causing many headaches for many Mac users. Although some users have success, many do not. It may be certain models that have trouble. Have you checked to see if there is a firmware update for the NetGear router? i.e. there might be a fix from NetGear.

I would recommend a Linksys Router, there is a reason that Cisco bought out Linksys. It's my opinion the easiest and most trouble-free router on the market. Yeah, you can get cheaper Belkin routers, etc. But nothing quite works like a LInksys. Cisco spent years trying to make their own consumer retail router and they just couldn't make it easy to use. So they evaluated the technology of all the routers out there and decided on buying Linksys.

Try buying one with a return policy, keep the receipt. Test it out and see if it works for you. FYI - If you have to program the router from a Mac, make sure you use FireFox instead of Safari as Safari has trouble with the admin configuration pages on the Linksys. FireFox works just fine with the Linksys admin pages.

I'll leave this open if anyone has other suggestions.

applyn - Apr 16, 2006 - 3:34 pm

Thanks again -

I don't think this a router issue.

As I said, when the Powerbook is running from the mains supply I have no trouble with wireless access to my Netgear. Its when I run on battery that I have the problem.

This leads me to conclude that the power output from the Powerbook Wireless antenna is reduced when on battery power and the Netgear is more sensitive to this.

This (lower antenna output power) is not what I would expect from the Powerbook. I should not have to change my router to
be able to get wireless access or to have to run it on the mains supply to do so, especially whan all my Windows laptops (on battery power) don't have this problem.

Honestly, I don't know how to work around this problem and its a small dissapointment to what is a great machine. I guess I may just have to put up with it, but I will bring it up with Apple if I can.

Andy

ericl - Apr 17, 2006 - 11:52 am

My Daughter just got a 12" Power Book:

(1) It works on 802.11g with an Asante Wi-Fi

(2) Her PB has a "signal stregnth" icon & strength as measured by this icon is variable even when the PB sits in the same spot

(3) There is an option to enable "robustness" on the PB Wi-Fi interface

(4) The PB also has some mode selections that conserve batery power at the expense of performance

(5) Iv'e heard that Wi-Fi ethernet is a major battery power drain

So, in conclusion I would expect that this Wi-Fi technology would work similar to cell phones: it kinda works . If you are interested in measuring actual network performance, you will need to use the UNIX spray & netstat commands. I do not know their MS equivs, but MS has a free UNIX shell called Services For UNIX & you could use that to generate the test load (spray0 & use netstat on the PB to measure what got received. You might also be able to plumb both I/F's on the PB & spray between the Wi-Fi & hardwired I/F's

God luck, Eric