How do I fix terrible Mac Pro airport?

[Latisha]

Right now it's pretty bad.

When I connect, sometimes it gives me full performance for an hour or two. When it's actually performing, it really screams: it tests 5MBPS on whatever bandwidth test I use. Then it kicks down to almost dialup!!!!! Absolutely terrible performance! Latency goes through the roof and the highest speeds I can get are 50kbps, while if I check on the other computer that's connected with an Ethernet cable to the same router, I see the full 5MBPS again.

I've seen this problem all over the place, apparently it affects most Intel-based Macs. I've found no way of fixing it: sometimes it holds steady for an hour after I disconnect and reconnect from my router, sometimes nothing fixes it, even temporarily.

Does anybody have any idea of what's going on and how to fix it?

 

[floam]

.

 

[miniConvert]

As silly as it sounds, have you tried changing the wireless channel on your access point? It shouldn't matter, but it has helped my Mac mini out a couple of times and the other Windows machines that use the wireless connection don't seem to care.

 

[Latisha]

I don't think you understand, there isn't any interference or anything that could possibly be causing this.

Firstoff, my Powermac G5 NEVER did anything like this.

Secondly, this is an intermittent problem. It's not like it's mediocre all the time, which would signal some problem with my router or that there was radio interference: it just drops to horrible speeds for the kick of it often.

Thirdly, this seems to be a pretty major problem with nearly all Intel Macs! Other people have compained about it.

 

[knome]

search this forum there was a 13 page article where they found the solution by chaining the antenna pattern. Its either on this forum or on apple's discussion boards.

 

[Latisha]

Sounds great, any idea where I'd look/what I'd look for?

 

[Carniphage]

search this forum there was a 13 page article where they found the solution by chaining the antenna pattern. Its either on this forum or on apple's discussion boards.

If you mean the idea of swapping the antenna wires around to fix the problem, I think that solution has not really shown any benefit.

The Mac Pro + Airport module for many people seems capped at 3-4 megabits of throughput. (460kbytes per second) and no amount of antenna swapping makes it better.

C.

 

[THX1139]

It might be your network card. I have wireless on my MacPro and it's working great. The only trouble I've had is an occasional disconnect, but that might be because I'm using a Netgear wireless router. When I reset the router, I get right back on my network. Besides, I doubt the drop is coming from my computer because I can get on other networks in my building. As a side-note, I'm surprised how many people with wireless don't bother with a password. When my internet goes down, I just log onto another network to borrow the bandwidth. Anyway... back to your problem. As I mentioned, no wireless trouble here. I was actually going to hook up a CAT5, but when I got such decent reception, I decided not to bother. If I were you, I'd call Apple.

 

[Carniphage]

THX -

This is not a config issue. Other machines in the house are working fine. It something about the Mac Pro.

but I am glad to hear you have no problems.

So far I have yet to hear from anyone who has been able to get more that 460Kbytes per second from their Mac Pro + Airport module.

C.