10.4.3 and router big problems

[newmaccanada]

Sorry this is really long. Just got home from having my tech guy at the university reinstall 10.4.3 (this time combo update).

Since installing 10.4.3 last week I have been having countless problems (not corrected by endless repair permissions, restarts, etc.). The problems only happen at home. When I am at the university and plugged into our network (by ethernet cable), my computer behaves completely normally.

At home, though, where I have wireless (Lynksys Wireless G 2.4 GHZ router), I have lots of problems.

-- lots of spinning beachballs, espcially when changing system prefs (even simple things like switching printers) or using iPhoto -- both end up freezing and requiring force quits
-- extremely long restarts --- my computer will hang at login with spinning beachball for around 30 minutes, consistently. Restarts have taken 45-60mins since last week.

By process of elimination, I turned off my airport and all of these problems were resolved. I was able to do a restart without spinning beachball at login. I could use iPhoto wihtout it freezing and reset system prefs.

I also downloaded the airport update. Turned off airport and installed the update. Did a restart and this was all fine.

Then I unplugged the router from power supply for a minute. When I turned it back on I left the airport off and connected ibook and router with ethernet cable. At this point I played around with iPhoto and System Pref. Both froze (spinning beachballs).

What all of this is telling me, I think, is that it is a problem with the router -- incompatibility??/10.4.3-- and not the airport card (to be sure I'll take it to a cafe with wireless tomorrow).

How do I troubleshoot a router issue? Should I just buy a new one? Any suggestions?

I have done all troubleshooting strategies that I can think of -- repair permissions, onyx, resetting pram...

Thanks so much and sorry for long post.


ibook g4 14 in, 133, 1.25 G ram, superdrive, 60G HD

 

[belvdr]

I'm not so sure it is your router.

By chance, do you have any printers installed on this computer that are only on the university's network? Do you have any network shares mounted that only exist at the university?

 

[newmaccanada]

I'm not so sure it is your router.

By chance, do you have any printers installed on this computer that are only on the university's network? Do you have any network shares mounted that only exist at the university?

I have a printer in my office that is not part of a network. I am not quite sure what you mean by the latter question: but I do have network spaces mounted on my desktop when I am logged into univ network that allow me to back up onto server and also to place files in a common space accessible by my workgroup. These appear on my dock. sorry, I am not a techie.

 

[James Philp]

This kind of problem can occur if you regularly use network drives/location/printers.
Is this the case?
Even in a meagre setup, closing a laptop who's drive is mounted on another Mac causes the finder to beachball a lot. Now add in printers, multiple mounted drives etc, and I can foresee the kinds of problems you're seeing, but yours do seem more severe.
Hope you can figure out what the problem is - don't instantly blame the OS though, I've done that and usually a peripheral or something else you may not even think of is the issue.

 

[belvdr]

No biggie... We'll work through it.

Here's what I'm thinking is happening. I believe that you have something (printer, network share (would be under your hard drive icon on the desktop), application) that only works when connected to the university network. I had a printer that did this once.

What happens is the item above constantly uses system resources trying to connect to something at your university.

Do you have anything installed on your Mac that only works when you are at the university?

 

[newmaccanada]

This kind of problem can occur if you regularly use network drives/location/printers.
Is this the case?
Even in a meagre setup, closing a laptop who's drive is mounted on another Mac causes the finder to beachball a lot. Now add in printers, multiple mounted drives etc, and I can foresee the kinds of problems you're seeing, but yours do seem more severe.
Hope you can figure out what the problem is - don't instantly blame the OS though, I've done that and usually a peripheral or something else you may not even think of is the issue.

Hey thanks,

I often just put my ibook to sleep for the trip home. I guess I should log-out. But it is weird that I only have this problem when connected to my router, either by airport or ethernet. And all of this did begin with 10.4.3.

 

[belvdr]

Hey thanks,

I often just put my ibook to sleep for the trip home. I guess I should log-out. But it is weird that I only have this problem when connected to my router, either by airport or ethernet. And all of this did begin with 10.4.3.

Well, 10.4.3 has caused headaches for many folks it seems.

Here's why disabling the airport or ethernet will fix the problem. When you are trying to connect to your university's network, the packet gets routed and OS X will wait for a period of time before timing out. When you disconnect from all networks, such as your router, there is no network path to any network, so the timeout occurs very quickly.

 

[UnheardOf]

It's perfectly understandable that it happens only when connected to the internet/a network. The OS knows when you're not connected to the internet/a network, so it knows not to try to connect, because it knows it cannot reach it. When connected to the internet/a network, however, it thinks 'Hey, it's gotta be here, I just have to look harder!', and so it tries, and tries, and tries, etc..