Airport Problems : All Intel Models Affected.

[iflipper]

Ok, I've moved my mac mini down a floor so it's directly above the access point. Full strength signal down here, and apart from failing to connect automatically I don't seem to have the same problems at all. There are still some fluctuations, but no odd disconnects and fits and starts. It seems a bit cr*p that the mini's reception is so poor compared to my ibook, but under the circumstances I don't think I should complain! I'll keep it down here for a while to get a longer sample/test period.

For the record core duo, 0.1.16, linksys wap 11 router:

Ping has started ...

PING http://www.l.google.com (66.102.9.99): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=240 time=40.804 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=240 time=42.191 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=2 ttl=240 time=62.558 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=3 ttl=240 time=46.593 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=130.892 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=5 ttl=239 time=51.132 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=6 ttl=240 time=50.571 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=7 ttl=240 time=217.414 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=8 ttl=240 time=150.093 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=9 ttl=239 time=58.770 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=10 ttl=240 time=55.296 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=11 ttl=240 time=218.307 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=12 ttl=240 time=119.309 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=13 ttl=239 time=249.321 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=14 ttl=240 time=69.138 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=15 ttl=240 time=52.312 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=16 ttl=239 time=217.315 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=17 ttl=239 time=41.140 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=18 ttl=240 time=41.537 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.99: icmp_seq=19 ttl=239 time=132.263 ms

--- http://www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
20 packets transmitted, 20 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 40.804/102.348/249.321/70.124 ms

Ping has started ...

PING http://www.l.google.com (66.102.9.104): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=0 ttl=240 time=42.674 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=240 time=52.861 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=40.737 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=48.293 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=61.304 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=5 ttl=240 time=54.059 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=6 ttl=239 time=42.255 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=7 ttl=239 time=40.742 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=8 ttl=240 time=41.381 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=9 ttl=239 time=41.245 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=10 ttl=239 time=39.432 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=11 ttl=239 time=41.009 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=12 ttl=240 time=40.529 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=13 ttl=240 time=51.578 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=14 ttl=239 time=40.325 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=15 ttl=239 time=39.854 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=16 ttl=240 time=43.425 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=17 ttl=240 time=52.534 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=18 ttl=240 time=64.583 ms
64 bytes from 66.102.9.104: icmp_seq=19 ttl=240 time=39.866 ms

--- http://www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
20 packets transmitted, 20 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 39.432/45.934/64.583/7.440 ms

 

[snak-pak]

I have sent my MacBook Pro into an Apple Authorized Service center for repair. They are going to replace the internal airport card and see if that makes a difference. Today they were able to confirm the unusual way that the machine keeps dropping off a WiFi network. Hopefully I will get a different airport card with a difficult chipset (unlikely), or at least a different card with a newer firmware revision of the chipset (likely).

Interestingly, when they checked Apple's internal knowledgebase articles about WiFi issues with the MacBook Pro, there are none. That's right, NONE. So you people who are crabbing here about your problems but not doing anything about them, I have to ask: WHY NOT?!! Crabbing isn't going to solve anything. I wasn't happy with the flaky performance, so I'll have it replaced under warranty. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll get a brand new machine under warranty. I'll keep getting them to work on it until it's fixed. It costs Apple time and money to find a solution. But it's a real problem - for me - to have these wireless issues.

Also, I do not see the point of people posting ping results here, particularly when there is nothing unusual in the output. In case you don't know, ping response time will *always* be somewhat variable. Try it on an ethernet network if you don't believe me, but please don't post the results here. The long post above this one with normal ping results might be trying to be helpful, but it really doesn't help at all!

 

[CybrMike]

AirPort Card Information:

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x86)
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmware Version: 0.1.12
Current Wireless Network: linksys
Wireless Channel: 1

Works absolutely fine.

 

[iflipper]

I have sent my MacBook Pro into an Apple Authorized Service center for repair. They are going to replace the internal airport card and see if that makes a difference. Today they were able to confirm the unusual way that the machine keeps dropping off a WiFi network. Hopefully I will get a different airport card with a difficult chipset (unlikely), or at least a different card with a newer firmware revision of the chipset (likely).

Interestingly, when they checked Apple's internal knowledgebase articles about WiFi issues with the MacBook Pro, there are none. That's right, NONE. So you people who are crabbing here about your problems but not doing anything about them, I have to ask: WHY NOT?!! Crabbing isn't going to solve anything. I wasn't happy with the flaky performance, so I'll have it replaced under warranty. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll get a brand new machine under warranty. I'll keep getting them to work on it until it's fixed. It costs Apple time and money to find a solution. But it's a real problem - for me - to have these wireless issues.

As several people have commented they have complained and had their machine replaced. Every time apple has claimed never to heard of this problem. Hmmm, do you remember something similar when the nano screen crack issue came up? No comment/recognition from apple until they were ready to resolve. That's why its not in the database.

Also, I do not see the point of people posting ping results here, particularly when there is nothing unusual in the output. In case you don't know, ping response time will *always* be somewhat variable. Try it on an ethernet network if you don't believe me, but please don't post the results here. The long post above this one with normal ping results might be trying to be helpful, but it really doesn't help at all!

That would be me. Since you don't seem to have bothered to read the thread I'll enlighten you. Those with problems have a very specific pattern of ping responses (and hence network dropoffs). We are trying to track down the combination of settings/peripherals which lead to the problems and come up with a workaround. If you don't have anything positive to say then don't say anything. Personally I want to provide information to help other people if I can.

 

[OleDK]

Slow too

Brand new MacBook Pro. Everything but Airport works fine. Airport is very slow.
Stumbled over this forum searching the net.
This post will not enlighten anyone. I'm just joining the crowd with the same problem

 

[designed]

How do I change from b/g -> b only?

Love my first mac but I dislike the Airport issues, especially that the wlan doesn't always connect automatically when booting up.

 

[Shaddow825]

I have sent my MacBook Pro into an Apple Authorized Service center for repair. They are going to replace the internal airport card and see if that makes a difference. Today they were able to confirm the unusual way that the machine keeps dropping off a WiFi network. Hopefully I will get a different airport card with a difficult chipset (unlikely), or at least a different card with a newer firmware revision of the chipset (likely).

Interestingly, when they checked Apple's internal knowledgebase articles about WiFi issues with the MacBook Pro, there are none. That's right, NONE. So you people who are crabbing here about your problems but not doing anything about them, I have to ask: WHY NOT?!! Crabbing isn't going to solve anything. I wasn't happy with the flaky performance, so I'll have it replaced under warranty. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll get a brand new machine under warranty. I'll keep getting them to work on it until it's fixed. It costs Apple time and money to find a solution. But it's a real problem - for me - to have these wireless issues.

Also, I do not see the point of people posting ping results here, particularly when there is nothing unusual in the output. In case you don't know, ping response time will *always* be somewhat variable. Try it on an ethernet network if you don't believe me, but please don't post the results here. The long post above this one with normal ping results might be trying to be helpful, but it really doesn't help at all!

I suspect that the database of known issues that everyone keeps saying they get someone looking when they call is one of known issues that have been resolved or has some sort of workaround or instructions for the phone rep and not a list of open tickets. I think all the people calling in have open tickets and this info hasn't made it to the applecare databases yet.

As for ping responses, on a local area network, especially one that is in someone's home, the pings to the local gateway router should be low and consistant otherwise you have a problem. This problem may or may not be the mac, but if no other machines see the same replies, you can safely assume it's probably the mac with the poor pings that has the problem.

 

[OleDK]

I've compared The new MacBook Pro and my old Powerbook standing side by side with Istumbler. After that I did a download/upload test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest with both machines. Not simultaneously of course, but one test right after the other.


Now this is strange.

Istumbler gave the following readings:

New MacBook Pro:
Signal 52. Noise 0
Could even see my neighbors base station with a signal strength of 20.
Sometimes a second reading of my own base station appeared underneath with a signal strength at only 14.

Old Powerbook G4:

Signal 45. Noise 0
Could not see my neighbors base station.

Even though signal strength is lower on the old Powerbook, connection is much faster.

Download/upload test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest gave the following results:

Macbook Pro:

Download: 398 kbps
Upload: 264 kbps

Old Powerbook G4:

Download: 1519 kbps
Upload: 884 kbps

Both machines are configured exactly the same way. The only differences are the types and firmware versions of the Airport cards.

 

[MRU]

I've compared The new MacBook Pro and my old Powerbook standing side by side with Istumbler. After that I did a download/upload test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest with both machines. Not simultaneously of course, but one test right after the other.


Now this is strange.

Istumbler gave the following readings:

New MacBook Pro:
Signal 52. Noise 0
Could even see my neighbors base station with a signal strength of 20.
Sometimes a second reading of my own base station appeared underneath with a signal strength at only 14.

Old Powerbook G4:

Signal 45. Noise 0
Could not see my neighbors base station.

Even though signal strength is lower on the old Powerbook, connection is much faster.

Download/upload test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest gave the following results:

Macbook Pro:

Download: 398 kbps
Upload: 264 kbps

Old Powerbook G4:

Download: 1519 kbps
Upload: 884 kbps

Both machines are configured exactly the same way. The only differences are the types and firmware versions of the Airport cards.

This is exactly my experience..

 

[Whiteapple]

Hi there,

My macbook pro has some of these problems: it doesnt connect automatically to the base station (airport express), while the other computers will do fine. Nevertheless, every feature works fine on the airport express: printing and air tunes work great.
I tested the speed: 982kbps DL and 123kbps UL. Theoretically: 1024 and 128, i'm not gunna cry for that.
I tried a file transfer: 32 seconds to transfer 100mB (of a 1,6GB file)
Is that ok?
according to the "g" norm, it should take 100/6.75 (54mb-->6.75mB)= 14 seconds, twice as less.
Now i know wifi isnt actually wireless "fidelity", but still, tell me what are your impressions.
Thanks!

(file was transfered through a router from a hardwired pc via SMB)

 

[theheyes]

Just pinged the ol' router again and I was shocked to see what look like normal results. Average time was about 1.6ms.

Whats weird is I'm not aware of any meaningful changes to my setup. Same Airport firmware version, same router firmware version. The last OS X update was a security update I installed a couple of days ago, and I was still having connection problems.

Anyone else checked theirs again recently?

Edit - False alarm. I thought 30 packets would be enough but when I left it running for longer it spiked to 250ms again. Oh well.

 

[whooleytoo]

I just tried the speedtest with my MBP (1.83GHz, if that's relevant) and a NY server (none in Europe), and got 958kbps down, 2140kbps up (3Mb up&down, though my ISP tends to have fairly high upload speeds). Obviously the ISP is a big variable here, but this MBP seems ok.

 

[MRU]

I just tried the speedtest with my MBP (1.83GHz, if that's relevant) and a NY server (none in Europe), and got 958kbps down, 2140kbps up (3Mb up&down, though my ISP tends to have fairly high upload speeds). Obviously the ISP is a big variable here, but this MBP seems ok.

958 down is NOT GOOD. You should be getting at least the same or more if you have a 3mb connection. Download speeds seem to be what it affected more than upload for some bizzare reason...

Either way your only getting 1/3 of the download you should. Go try it connected via ethernet and I bet it's more like 2300-2500 down...

 

[whooleytoo]

958 down is NOT GOOD. You should be getting at least the same or more if you have a 3mb connection. Download speeds seem to be what it affected more than upload for some bizzare reason...

Either way your only getting 1/3 of the download you should. Go try it connected via ethernet and I bet it's more like 2300-2500 down...

I've tried running the test several times via Ethernet and Airport, and the only thing I've found is that the test results are wildly inconsistent, but seemed to get faster each time I ran it (though not fast enough to suggest the data was being cached locally, thus invalidating the test.) Using Airport I got as high as 2753 down, 2362 up.

 

[Zaty]

10.4.6 almost ready

According to macnews.net.tc, Apple has seeded another build of 10.4.6 (8I1113) to developers over the weekend. Since current builds (8I120 for PPC) are said to have no known issues 10.4.6 could be released to the public in the next few days. The release notes mention AirPort and Blueetooth connectivity as one of the areas that are improved in 10.4.6. So there's hope this problem will finaly be fixed.

Link:

http://haligon.blogspot.com/2006/03/apple-seeds-mac-os-x-1046-8i1113-intel.html

 

[Opticon]

Three strikes, I'm out

Hello board. This is my first entry to MacRumors, so allow me to chronicle the series of events.

I purchased the MacBook Pro in December. When it arrived, the signal kept dropping out. Whenever it was restarted, brought back from sleep or simply turned-on, there would be no airport connection. Being the type of person that believes in the motto, 'you get what you pay for', I immediately contacted Apple for a return/exchange. They shipped me a brand new MacBook straight from Shanghai, China. This one, unfortunately, had a highly defective keyboard, thus they replaced the computer. However, I had to use it to prove an experiment: does this MacBook suffer from the same maladies as the other? Sure enough, it did!

Number three arrives, and don't you know it, the same issue. So I began the myriad of pathetic work-arounds. Thinking too, that it could be my home network, I tried others to no avail. Then again, wasn't I a double agent/supervisor of the Geek Squad? I know from where problems stem, it was my job! Conclusion:Nothing works, and this is a point I wish to make outright. Tired and frustrated, I figure a buggy Apple is better than no Apple. So I telephone the Apple Care specialists who, after placing me on hold for a length of ten minutes, return to tell me that this is an issue being addressed by their engineering department.

Prior to this, I owned a PowerBook 1.67, the one that only took DDR and didn't have a dual layer drive. But features such as those are minor when compared to a state-of-the-art laptop that fails the most simple of commands: go to sleep, and when you wake-up, automatically reconnect to the wireless connection.

So the bottom line is that there is no quick fix, and no one is immune to this. If you own an Intel Mac, you have the same problem we do. Let's see if 10.4.6 really does the trick. Hell, Itel already fixed this on PCs, what's taking Apple so long. Three strikes, I'm out!

 

[Shaddow825]

According to macnews.net.tc, Apple has seeded another build of 10.4.6 (8I1113) to developers over the weekend. Since current builds (8I120 for PPC) are said to have no known issues 10.4.6 could be released to the public in the next few days. The release notes mention AirPort and Blueetooth connectivity as one of the areas that are improved in 10.4.6. So there's hope this problem will finaly be fixed.

Link:

http://haligon.blogspot.com/2006/03/apple-seeds-mac-os-x-1046-8i1113-intel.html

Very good news if this proves to be the fix. I'm ready to buy

 

[miniConvert]

Hello board. This is my first entry to MacRumors, so allow me to chronicle the series of events.

I purchased the MacBook Pro in December. When it arrived, the signal kept dropping out. Whenever it was restarted, brought back from sleep or simply turned-on, there would be no airport connection. Being the type of person that believes in the motto, 'you get what you pay for', I immediately contacted Apple for a return/exchange. They shipped me a brand new MacBook straight from Shanghai, China. This one, unfortunately, had a highly defective keyboard, thus they replaced the computer. However, I had to use it to prove an experiment: does this MacBook suffer from the same maladies as the other? Sure enough, it did!

Number three arrives, and don't you know it, the same issue. So I began the myriad of pathetic work-arounds. Thinking too, that it could be my home network, I tried others to no avail. Then again, wasn't I a double agent/supervisor of the Geek Squad? I know from where problems stem, it was my job! Conclusion:Nothing works, and this is a point I wish to make outright. Tired and frustrated, I figure a buggy Apple is better than no Apple. So I telephone the Apple Care specialists who, after placing me on hold for a length of ten minutes, return to tell me that this is an issue being addressed by their engineering department.

Prior to this, I owned a PowerBook 1.67, the one that only took DDR and didn't have a dual layer drive. But features such as those are minor when compared to a state-of-the-art laptop that fails the most simple of commands: go to sleep, and when you wake-up, automatically reconnect to the wireless connection.

So the bottom line is that there is no quick fix, and no one is immune to this. If you own an Intel Mac, you have the same problem we do. Let's see if 10.4.6 really does the trick. Hell, Itel already fixed this on PCs, what's taking Apple so long. Three strikes, I'm out!

Hello, welcome!

Good stuff. I hope everyone who has had Airport issues and either posted on or read this thread has called Apple to report it themselves - it's the only way it'll get fixed.

Anyway, rest assured that it's driving everyone else crazy too!

 

[danny_w]

I purchased the MacBook Pro in December.

I didn't think that the Macbook Pro was even announced until February, and didn't ship until this month.

 

[PatrickF]

I didn't think that the Macbook Pro was even announced until February, and didn't ship until this month.

I was thinking the same thing. The MBP was announced on 10th January and started shipping a the end of February.

 

[Wender]

I had SOME improvement setting the multicast rate on my AEX to 24, at least my file downloads and bittorrent activity remains pretty consistent now, without the occasional drop to zero and then back up again after 6-7 seconds.

Ping results to the AEX are however still like you all describe, the problem is still there.

 

[whooleytoo]

I purchased the MacBook Pro in December. When it arrived, the signal kept dropping out. Whenever it was restarted, brought back from sleep or simply turned-on, there would be no airport connection.

<snip>

Prior to this, I owned a PowerBook 1.67, the one that only took DDR and didn't have a dual layer drive. But features such as those are minor when compared to a state-of-the-art laptop that fails the most simple of commands: go to sleep, and when you wake-up, automatically reconnect to the wireless connection.

<snip>

So the bottom line is that there is no quick fix, and no one is immune to this. If you own an Intel Mac, you have the same problem we do. Let's see if 10.4.6 really does the trick. Hell, Itel already fixed this on PCs, what's taking Apple so long. Three strikes, I'm out!

I have a MBP and the airport connection comes back within a second of waking from sleep, every time.Is there some other variable in this?

Does it only happen if the machine is sleeping for a certain period?
Do it occur if you have any TCP/IP applications open when it sleeps?
Is the machine running off the battery or plugged in?
Are you connecting to an Airport Base Station or another Mac?
Could the Energy Saver setting be a factor?

 

[Wender]

A bit confusing, at least two problems are discussed, that could be absolutely independent of each other. I have never had any problems with reconnecting after restart or sleep, my AirPort signal in the menu bar is ALWAYS 4/4, audio streaming NEVER drops out.

My concern is solely the slowdown of the network, the PING phenomenon like this:

Last login: Tue Mar 21 22:26:29 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
XX-XX-XX:~ wender$ ping 10.0.1.1
PING 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=179.159 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=133.519 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=100.400 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=55.018 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=3.252 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=261.606 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.788 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=1.101 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=37.931 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=79.455 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=32.397 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=0.827 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=250.039 ms
^C
--- 10.0.1.1 ping statistics ---
13 packets transmitted, 13 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.788/87.346/261.606/89.281 ms
XX-XX-XX:~ wender$

This is NOT normal, but has nothing to do with reconnecting or loss of "airport signal" but the semantics here could be confusing. What words are used to describe the signal bars 1-4 and what words are used to describe a slowdown of the transmission RATE?

This looks normal to me:

XX-XX-XX:~ wender$ /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport --getinfo
commQuality: 48
rawQuality: 29
avgSignalLevel: -70
avgNoiseLevel: -98
linkStatus: ESS
portType: Client
lastTxRate: 48
maxRate: 54
lastAssocStatus: 1
BSSID: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
SSID: XXX
Security: cipher: WEP 128

As does this, but with the buggy firmware:

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x89)
Wireless Card Locale: Worldwide
Wireless Card Firmware Version: 101.3 (3.120.28.3)
Current Wireless Network: XXX
Wireless Channel: 9

 

[Peace]

A bit confusing, at least two problems are discussed, that could be absolutely independent of each other. I have never had any problems with reconnecting after restart or sleep, my AirPort signal in the menu bar is ALWAYS 4/4, audio streaming NEVER drops out.

My concern is solely the slowdown of the network, the PING phenomenon like this:

Last login: Tue Mar 21 22:26:29 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Wenders-Intel-iMac:~ wender$ ping 10.0.1.1
PING 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=179.159 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=133.519 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=100.400 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=55.018 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=3.252 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=261.606 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.788 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=1.101 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=37.931 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=79.455 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=32.397 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=0.827 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=250.039 ms
^C
--- 10.0.1.1 ping statistics ---
13 packets transmitted, 13 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.788/87.346/261.606/89.281 ms
Wenders-Intel-iMac:~ wender$

This is NOT normal, but has nothing to do with reconnecting or loss of "airport signal" but the semantics here could be confusing. What words are used to describe the signal bars 1-4 and what words are used to describe a slowdown of the transmission RATE?

This looks normal to me:

Wenders-Intel-iMac:~ wender$ /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport --getinfo
commQuality: 48
rawQuality: 29
avgSignalLevel: -70
avgNoiseLevel: -98
linkStatus: ESS
portType: Client
lastTxRate: 48
maxRate: 54
lastAssocStatus: 1

SSID: FigvedNett
Security: cipher: WEP 128
Wenders-Intel-iMac:~ wender$

As does this, but with the buggy firmware:

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x89)
Wireless Card Locale: Worldwide
Wireless Card Firmware Version: 101.3 (3.120.28.3)
Current Wireless Network: FigvedNett
Wireless Channel: 9

I would edit your post if I were you..

You just gave out the MAC address of your Airport card..

 

[whooleytoo]

Interesting. I tried 100 pings, and most (90) returned well under 2ms, the others were as you've seen. In my case it's more likely the spike was just due to other periodic network traffic from some other process on the machine.

I'm using an iMac as my 'access point' though, I wonder if that could be a factor?