iMac Airport disconnects unexpectedly
I installed an iMac 20" 2.0 CD on my home network, using airport and a Belkin MIMO pre-N router, on 17 August. This ran without problems until 27 September when the original iMac was replaced by an iMac 20" 2.16 C2D which was installed in the same position and on the same network. Since the change I have found that the network connection is not made automatically on start-up, or on opening Safari, so I have to run through Network Diagnostics, without changing any of the parameters, to nudge it into life, and then the connection will fail for no apparent reason at intervals of 5-30 mins during use. I no longer have the original iMac for comparison.
When the new iMac is first powered-up in the morning, although it reports that there is no internet connection, the signal-strength indicator in the Icon Bar shows a maximum i.e. 4 black bars. While I am running through Network Diagnostics it drops to nothing i.e. all grey, but once a connection has been made the indication consistently shows 3 black bars which, incidentally, was the indication I always got using the original, problem-free iMac.
Despite the problem having only started when I changed machines, it is my suspicion, admittedly without any evidence, that this problem is not due to the new hardware. I believe that 27 September was round about the date of the change from OSX 10.4.7 to 10.4.8 and that a change to the airport software, if indeed there was one, may have caused the current problem. I have run Software Update regularly on both machines.
My current iMac is running 10.4.8 but was supplied with 10.4.7 disks. If I get fed-up enough I will do a complete OSX delete and install, without updating, and see if going back to 10.4.7 cures the problem.
Incidentally, while I was writing this the connection failed but I was able to restore it by selecting the network name in the Icon Bar menu.
