Genius Confirms MB/P Airport Flaw

[orangemacapple]

ok. so i bought the new airport extreme "n". took it back for refund.

airport kept clipping out a lot, especially when visualizer is on; losing usb drive and printer was a problem. error code (-3256)

spent close to 20 hours with applecare. they couldn't figure out the problem.
took MacBook, extreme "n" and express into apple store to talk to genius.

he wouldn't even bother to test it. he said it's normal -- MacBooks won't communicate with multiple base stations. he has the same problem with his setup since may. he replaced airport card in mb; replaced base stations (express and extreme). he even bought a macbook pro. all to no avail. he can't find a fix for it.

he thinks it's a software issue. maybe something with itunes and visualizer both being heavy processor users. or multiple signals that interfere with each other.

i think it's a macbook flaw. i had no problem with it on my emac -- only the macbook. i told them to email me when they get it figured out and i'll come back in and buy another extreme.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

ok. so i bought the new airport extreme "n". took it back for refund.

airport kept clipping out a lot, especially when visualizer is on; losing usb drive and printer was a problem. error code (-3256)

spent close to 20 hours with applecare. they couldn't figure out the problem.
took MacBook, extreme "n" and express into apple store to talk to genius.

he wouldn't even bother to test it. he said it's normal -- MacBooks won't communicate with multiple base stations. he has the same problem with his setup since may. he replaced airport card in mb; replaced base stations (express and extreme). he even bought a macbook pro. all to no avail. he can't find a fix for it.

he thinks it's a software issue. maybe something with itunes and visualizer both being heavy processor users. or multiple signals that interfere with each other.

i think it's a macbook flaw. i had no problem with it on my emac -- only the macbook. i told them to email me when they get it figured out and i'll come back in and buy another extreme.

Very interesting, why am i not suprised?

 

[orangemacapple]

Very interesting, why am i not suprised?

I was surprised. I thought the idea behind the multiple base stations was already worked out and it would be an "Apple-No-Brainer". Maybe I misunderstood something about the advertising.

The biggest surprise was that AppleCare didn't know anything about this little idiosyncracy. The AppleCare case was handled by their "extreme 'n' tech team" that are trained especially for the new extreme.

And why is it only the mb/p has the problem?

I already sold the emac. the girl is going to pick it up this weekend. makes me wish i had kept it just for the music, but NO! i was going to have my music on an USB wireless drive and stream it to my express.

I take umbrage to the fact that I trusted Apple and made a fool of myself. made a whole new desktop out of a macbook, 24" monitor, external fw/usb drive -- spent 3G's to get a system to replace the old emac i had and "gave" away, figuring i had exactly what i wanted and needed.

Everything was copacetic before.
I can't even think of a proper expletive to describe how I feel. DARN!!!

 

[Gokhan]

yep

yeah my macbook pro wont even connect to my wireless base even though i updated all software on both the laptop and base station just something i live with !

 

[orangemacapple]

yeah my macbook pro wont even connect to my wireless base even though i updated all software on both the laptop and base station just something i live with !

how many bases are you trying to connect to? it should have no trouble with one base - either extreme or express. it's the multiples that seem to give it the problem.

since i turned in my extreme, i found some things that may help. i plan on getting another extreme in a few weeks when i get back from vacation. i'll play with it again for another 2 weeks and if i still can't get it to work to my satisfaction, i'll tke it back again for another refund. hopefully apple will eventually figure out the problem. i can keep buying them and returning them every 2 weeks. if everybody did that, apple would figure out a solution in a hurry (they'd have refurbs coming out their ears....) (ah, little problem there -- apples don't have ears

if there was only some way to have itunes play straight to the express without having to go through the extreme first (or maybe if the express ran at 'n' speed).

but it'll still might clip-out because throughput is cut in half for each repeater it has to go through. i think that was my problem -- the itunes had to go thru the extreme to get to the expres.

but that still doesn't explain why it all worked fine on my emac.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Another bug is sharing internet connection on the new Intel machines. You cannot use your macbook or Intel mini as a wireless access point for some reason.

And with Leopard being so close, I doubt Apple will do anything about it.

 

[orangemacapple]

Another bug is sharing internet connection on the new Intel machines. You cannot use your macbook or Intel mini as a wireless access point for some reason.

now that makes more sense than anything i have heard yet...

the only thing that makes more sense is to come out with wireless electricity. and with all the cloning going on, we should bring back tesla to perfect it.

 

[unsolvedmistere]

Another bug is sharing internet connection on the new Intel machines. You cannot use your macbook or Intel mini as a wireless access point for some reason.

And with Leopard being so close, I doubt Apple will do anything about it.

Thats not true... I use my macbook pro to connect my wii to the net. I connect to the internet through an express card, share via airport, and connect using the wii with no problems. Of course there are ports to open and what not, but that isnt the issue at hand.

 

[ChrisBrightwell]

ok. so i bought the new airport extreme "n". took it back for refund. [...]

How was the Express configured? As a wifi client or as a WDS node?

As a wifi client, it should be no problem, as you're only "talking" to the base station. As a WDS node, it m ight be a little different, but your MacBook should still only "talk" to one base station.

I suspect you got a Dunce instead of a Genius.

 

[orangemacapple]

i dunno about dunce or genius. i talked to applecare close to 20 hours before i took it in to applestore genius.
applecare (4 or 5 techs) couldn't figure out a solution and genius had the same problem with his own system.

i had it set up ad client; wds; just aobut every different config appecare could think of. no fix.

 

[The Stig]

Really... that is odd...

You are trying to run your music from the wireless HD on the basestation and then to an express??

That is a odd setup. It seems to be going all over the place. From the HD to BS to MB to AE. That is a lot of stuff to stream all over the place. You said you are using the visualizer? Have you tried turning it off?

I take it you are running the whole thing through G? Maybe it is switching from N or G or G to N and that is mixing things up. Have you tried going to G only or N only. If you basestation using N/G mix?

I have a new base station too but I don't have an AE or a HD. I'm getting my HD this week... I hope I don't have a problem with it

The Stig

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Thats not true... I use my macbook pro to connect my wii to the net. I connect to the internet through an express card, share via airport, and connect using the wii with no problems. Of course there are ports to open and what not, but that isnt the issue at hand.

Have you tried using the ethernet port? My big brother had a problem with using his Mini, so it might only be the mini's ethernet port sharing that has the problem.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

now that makes more sense than anything i have heard yet...

the only thing that makes more sense is to come out with wireless electricity. and with all the cloning going on, we should bring back tesla to perfect it.

It might be due to my hangovers or I might be slow altogether but I totally miss the point you are making. Clarify please?

 

[orangemacapple]

The stig,

the way i understand it is:

well, it's complicated and i really don't quite understand how it does everything it's supposed to do.

i originally wanted my itunes library on an external hdd but never got it set up that way. i was having too many problems just sending itunes out from the mb to the main base station (extreme) to be routed to the client base station (express).

even though the extreme and mb are 'n' (with 'b/g' compatible), the express is only 'g', so that slows things down to about 'g'. and i guess there's a certain amount of lag time as the radio waves are re-transmitted thsrough the router (extreme) to the client (express).

and then there's something about processor usage that complicates things too. the store genius says he thinks there's a software problem that apple needs to fix to make them communicate properly, but probably won't happen because the itv will be running on 'n' and and will run fine with the extreme making the express obsolete. i guess they want you to buy the tv module just to play music.

i don't totally understand it, but i do know that apple doesn't seem to know much more abut how to fix it than me, and the store genius just gave up on his because he was trying to do the same thing.

 

[Gokhan]

k

let me clarify i have a d-link router/ap but my macbook pro wont connect
to it !

my friends wintels all do and so did my old powerbook and my ibook but the £2k machine wont great product apple realy great

but hey i use ethernet so its no biggie !!

but the macbook's and pro's are all quite finiky to connect with compatability issues( i mean my mbp would not even see my router with ssid turned off WTF wireless security my ass