Imac white 17" wireless speed zero on 10.5.8, good on 10.4.11 (Mb/s)

[ppithermo]

I have home a white imac intel purchased end of 2006.
Under 10.4.11 , wireless works juste fine. I have 6 or7 Mb/s download.
On the same wifi network I have a macbook pro running under 10.5.8, with comparable performance. Upload is what is expected fro both machines.
I installed 10.5.8 on an external USB2 hard disk for the white imac.
The wireless connection is dismal in performance. I cannot even load the internet page to measure network performance.
Download speed is practically zero
The imac works very well when connected with an Ethernet cable( this is how I installed 10.5.8).
I have tried to look in various forum and knowledge bases I find nothing.
I feel like I am the only person trying to use a white imac intel with wireless.

Clearly the good performance in 10.4.11 precludes a hardware problem.

To exclude problems related to my modelrouter( zyxel), I tried at work to use a wireless connection on a 20 " imac white of the same vintage, normally connected to the network through an Ethernet cable.
We have a huge bandwidth here ( >100MB/s on Ethernet)
On our wireless network (WPA),I tried my macbook pro and I have a download speed fo 20 MB/s.
On a one year old imac 24"(aluminum) i measure 10 MB/s download.
On my white intel imac 17", 300k/S. RODICULOUS!!

I wish apple would find the solution to this problem. It is frustrating to be obliged to run different operating systems for what is clearly some sort of bug ( software, ROM whatever...)

 

[zmttoxics]

I have home a white imac intel purchased end of 2006.
Under 10.4.11 , wireless works juste fine. I have 6 or7 Mb/s download.
On the same wifi network I have a macbook pro running under 10.5.8, with comparable performance. Upload is what is expected fro both machines.
I installed 10.5.8 on an external USB2 hard disk for the white imac.
The wireless connection is dismal in performance. I cannot even load the internet page to measure network performance.
Download speed is practically zero
The imac works very well when connected with an Ethernet cable( this is how I installed 10.5.8).
I have tried to look in various forum and knowledge bases I find nothing.
I feel like I am the only person trying to use a white imac intel with wireless.

Clearly the good performance in 10.4.11 precludes a hardware problem.

To exclude problems related to my modelrouter( zyxel), I tried at work to use a wireless connection on a 20 " imac white of the same vintage, normally connected to the network through an Ethernet cable.
We have a huge bandwidth here ( >100MB/s on Ethernet)
On our wireless network (WPA),I tried my macbook pro and I have a download speed fo 20 MB/s.
On a one year old imac 24"(aluminum) i measure 10 MB/s download.
On my white intel imac 17", 300k/S. RODICULOUS!!

I wish apple would find the solution to this problem. It is frustrating to be obliged to run different operating systems for what is clearly some sort of bug ( software, ROM whatever...)

Um... Welcome to the forums?

Are you looking for suggestions or just venting here?

 

[ppithermo]

Um... Welcome to the forums?

Are you looking for suggestions or just venting here?

I am definitely looking for some suggestions. If you know something i do not, please do note hesitate to tell me.
I cannot understand why this happens, not why updates, airport fixes (actually none apply to the imac) cannot solve this issue.
This really seems to be an issue with the white intel imac (2006).
I have been searching for a solution without any succes for quite some time.
Also I would really like to know if anyone else has this very problem with this type of imac. and mostly if anyone successfully solved this very problem.
Are there any rotten files I should get rid of? Can there be some systematic approach?
Thanks

 

[minik]

I cannot understand why this happens, not why updates, airport fixes (actually none apply to the imac) cannot solve this issue.

Apple released numerous AirPort Extreme update for Intel Mac.

 

[ppithermo]

Apple released numerous AirPort Extreme update for Intel Mac.

Not very useful. Whatever was released, I applied to my system thru automatic updates.
Did no improve the situation.
If you do not have this very hardware, you cannot know what I am talking about!!!

 

[superted666]

Hmm odd, you obviousley shouldnt see this.

From your tests it would obviousley suggest a software issue on the iMac under 10.5.8.

Things to consider :

- Is Interface robustness enabled on your macbook pro? If so, is it enabled on your iMac?

- Open Network Utility, select the interface from the drop down list that is your wireless connection. What speed does it say? Compare this between the Macbook Pro and the iMac and post back if you could.

Ed

 

[300D]

 

[ppithermo]

Hmm odd, you obviousley shouldnt see this.

From your tests it would obviousley suggest a software issue on the iMac under 10.5.8.

Things to consider :

- Is Interface robustness enabled on your macbook pro? If so, is it enabled on your iMac?

- Open Network Utility, select the interface from the drop down list that is your wireless connection. What speed does it say? Compare this between the Macbook Pro and the iMac and post back if you could.

Ed

Well. I cannot do all of these tests right now. The wireless problem appeared around 10.5.4.
I intend to do a number of things. I will try again making a new user to make sure I am not carrying some funny leftover stuff from a previous installation.
I want to install starting with 10.5.1. I know that then it worked at least not so slow as to be unusable. I will then update via the fastest Combo to 10.5.8 and see if the behavior appears. If so, I will go one system at a time to really characterize when this happens.
I am pretty sure this is a white intel bug! if only from the fact that at work the history of the machine is totally different, and i get very very poor wireless.
I asked some colleague in a different dpt to test that on some machine he has access to.
My guess is that this ia a general pleague of the white intel.
thanks for your interest.

 

[ppithermo]

Hmm odd, you obviousley shouldnt see this.

From your tests it would obviousley suggest a software issue on the iMac under 10.5.8.

Things to consider :

- Is Interface robustness enabled on your macbook pro? If so, is it enabled on your iMac?

- Open Network Utility, select the interface from the drop down list that is your wireless connection. What speed does it say? Compare this between the Macbook Pro and the iMac and post back if you could.

Ed

network utility tells me that my network works at 54 Mb/s,on the imac or macbook pro.
I now prepared installers for 10.5.4 and 10.6 on an external firewire,
I installed a fresh system 10.5.4. Speed on wireless is acceptable even if not as good as 10.4.11.
anything beyond 10.5.4 on the imac leads to quasi zero wireless speed.
I had hoped that the completely "revamped" 10.6 would bring a solution...
forget it.
I installed 10.6 and I get the same crappy wireless speed. When I can measure it, it is about 30k...may be I should use a modem.
Not sure what will be my next step.
Thanks for your help