iMac wireless issues - which router?

[Jazzman25]

Apple are investigating it, but in order for them to take it more seriously, if you have a problem with wireless performance, please log a call with their tech support department.

Will do my best. I am still recovering from the shock earlier this morning when I called Apple Belgium-French support and got to a condensating lady who didn't know (or understand) what I was talking about and tried to put the blame on my ISP before finally telling me that if I did not have an Apple base station I cannot get support!!!!
I gave up and called tech support at the reseller which sold me the IMAC. They seem to be more professional, so will try to pursue this further.

There's lots more info on the Apple support forums about possible workarounds. Me, I've just bought a wireless bridge instead.

How exactly is your setup working?

 

[ascender]

Will do my best. I am still recovering from the shock earlier this morning when I called Apple Belgium-French support and got to a condensating lady who didn't know (or understand) what I was talking about and tried to put the blame on my ISP before finally telling me that if I did not have an Apple base station I cannot get support!!!!
I gave up and called tech support at the reseller which sold me the IMAC. They seem to be more professional, so will try to pursue this further.


How exactly is your setup working?

I've basically turned off my Airport in the iMac and instead have a wireless bridge plugged in to my Ethernet port. Its a cheap device you can pick up from any decent computer store and just acts as a wireless link for your wired Ethernet port.

The problem is definitely with the Airport itself, the wired Ethernet port works out just fine.

 

[RobTuck]

I was hoping for it to be driver related, but I get the same awful performance whether im in Windows (boot camp) or Mac OS X. Ive now tried a Netgear DG834G (worst), Fujitsu Siemens Wifi Router (no different), 2Wire 1800HG (better, but had to crank up antenna power beyond 'safe' setting), DLink DSL-G624M MIMO (better when connected, but would regularly stall or drop the connection).

I was considering buying the new Apple Airport base station, but im not forking out £120 if its not going to help.

 

[wizzerandchips]

i have a netgear which has gradually got worse,both my macbook and imac G5 have lost strength over night, if I move nearer to the netgear I get 897kbps, I move ten metres away I get 27kbps. time for a new router.

 

[Liong612]

Network check

I really think that people should check their configuration of their network before making any conclusion. For example, whether or not there are other wireless router in the neigborhood that uses the same channel. This can seriously affect wireless performance. Or whether you have wireless handset phone that may be in the same frequency. There are many possibilities.
I have iMac core 2 duo, and i am very happy with its wireless performance.

 

[RobTuck]

I have iMac core 2 duo, and i am very happy with its wireless performance.

What do you do on your network though?

I suspect that those who claim that their network runs fine are either very close to their router, using 11b (which works flawlessly for me), or only use their network connection for internet use.

My network connection is fine for internet usage, but trying to transfer a file between computers is just not on the cards. The connection is too unstable.

Ive also ruled out interference. I have 1x iMac, 1x Powerbook G4, 1x Acer laptop, 1x Dell laptop. Ive also had a Belkin 54g USB adapter plugged into the iMac. All of these have no issues at all with any of the routers I previously mentioned.

Whatever Apple did to cripple the 'N' out of these new multiband airport cards, theyve screwed 'G' too in the process. 'B' works with no issues.

 

[plinden]

I have one of the original Core Duo iMacs, bought last February, and a netgear WG614v4 router. Right from the start, I had 20% packet loss between the iMac and the router, which was two feet from the iMac. That resulted in wireless speeds 1/4 that of wired. This was true even when bootcamping into Windows.

However, I never got around to taking it to the Apple store, since the router and iMac were so close to each other I just used an ethernet cable. And I'm lazy.

But last week, we were getting some work done in the study so moved the iMac to the kitchen, which is at the other end of the house, about 40 feet and three walls away, while keeping the router where it was. I was resigned to slow wireless for the week, but to my surprise everything's working flawlessly (except when we run the microwave), with < 1% packet loss, and no difference between wired and wireless speeds.

Sometime between the release of 10.4.7, when I tested wireless before, and now, Apple seems to have changed something.

Hmm, that doesn't help you. Sorry.

 

[ascender]

I really think that people should check their configuration of their network before making any conclusion. For example, whether or not there are other wireless router in the neigborhood that uses the same channel. This can seriously affect wireless performance. Or whether you have wireless handset phone that may be in the same frequency. There are many possibilities.
I have iMac core 2 duo, and i am very happy with its wireless performance.

If you have a look over at the Apple forums you'll see that there's obviously a problem affecting a large percentage of iMacs. I've not got a problem with any of the other Windows and Mac machines in the house, only the iMac unfortunately.

Running diagnostics on the network side of things only confirms it.

 

[Cypress]

Hi,

I'm a mac newbie, and thought that I was having problems with the set up of my iMac 24.

I seem the same problem in that the wireless network just drops out every so often.

I have a Laptop and Wii connected to the same network using a Netgear DG834G. I'm using WPA personal for encryption, changing to WEP does not seem to make a difference

802.11b works fine, but 802.11g is having problems, even when the router is set to g only.

I installed airmagent on my laptop to check if there where any problems with interference and as a result changed to a channel that was not being used. This did not improve matters much.

I also installed istumbler and that showed that the wireless signal would drop out . . .

Using a broadbandspeed tester showed that throughput was only 400kbps on the Mac and 4000kbps on XP.

Has anyone spoken to apple support about this to find out if there is a solution to the problem ?

Regards

Paul;

 

[Jazzman25]

I had serious troubles with both my old wireless router (Philips SNA6000) and the new one I got last week (Belkin G+). Imac (1 meter from the router) had dropped internet conenction speed by 80% while a laptop just next to it - no problem. Had to switch the IMAC to a wired connection. Yesterday I went to the shop and replaced the Belkin with a Linksys WAG300N. This works perfect and iMac is back on wireless. I cannot explain this really. Strange.

 

[abadr]

Hi there. I'm using a Netgear DG834N - damn expensive router that I bought about a month before my C2D imac 24".

Terrible speeds. Just complained to my broadband provider but now realise that it's the iMac at fault. iBook works fine and i'll test on my friend's PC tomorrow. This is a major issue. I'm going to call apple support tomorrow.

This sucks

 

[EM87]

I get full signal strength using my Belkin router to my iMac but the speed is so slow and I'm only around 8-10 meters from the router with two walls between. When transferring files from my main PC (the one that is connected via Ethernet) to Mac I get 120kb/s max and this is using a 108mb/s router. The thing that is even worse is the internet speed, for some reason I can only get around 90kb/s on my iMac but on my PC I can get close to 300kb/s, both are using the same wireless connection. I thought that I would have at least been able to get the same speed that I can transfer files.

 

[Jazzman25]

Hi there. I'm using a Netgear DG834N - damn expensive router that I bought about a month before my C2D imac 24".

Terrible speeds. Just complained to my broadband provider but now realise that it's the iMac at fault. iBook works fine and i'll test on my friend's PC tomorrow. This is a major issue. I'm going to call apple support tomorrow.

This sucks

I am quite curious to see the answer you get. I basically got no where with Apple support. After a dialog with a nasty ignorant rep, she told me that they cannot support me if I don't use an Apple BS......It is a real shame. I managed to solve this by switching to a Linksys N router. How come it works with this router and not with the previous one (a brand new Belkin G+) is a complete mistery for me....

 

[shikimo]

I am quite curious to see the answer you get. I basically got no where with Apple support. After a dialog with a nasty ignorant rep, she told me that they cannot support me if I don't use an Apple BS......It is a real shame. I managed to solve this by switching to a Linksys N router. How come it works with this router and not with the previous one (a brand new Belkin G+) is a complete mistery for me....

You called the European French-language support line, right? I've lived in France for some time, and I recognize the sort of conversation you detailed in an earlier post. I have no experience with Belgium, but this is certainly a fairly common customer service strategy in France: "not my fault, I can't help you, go away." I love many things about France, but customer service isn't one of them . In any case, even though the American Apple support geniuses aren't perfect I call the US number (with Applecare purchased here) and get reasonably helpful folks most of the time. And if you really want or need to speak French, how 'bout the Quebecois line in Canada? I've never tried, but I would bet money they're easier to deal with...and what cool accents they have .

 

[storage]

I have these issues too with my 17" C2D iMac.

The Airport utility will only show 5 bars of signal strength, while a PC laptop next to it will get full (99-100%) reception at all times.

At first I thought it was my router, a Linksys WRT54G V5 (tried both original and Linux firmwares) so I bought a D-Link DGL-4300 (pretty expensive ), and now I actually get even worse reception, but the speed is a tiny bit higher.

I just hope the 802.11n enabling firmware has a fix for these issues included .

 

[Jazzman25]

You called the European French-language support line, right? I've lived in France for some time, and I recognize the sort of conversation you detailed in an earlier post. I have no experience with Belgium, but this is certainly a fairly common customer service strategy in France: "not my fault, I can't help you, go away." I love many things about France, but customer service isn't one of them . In any case, even though the American Apple support geniuses aren't perfect I call the US number (with Applecare purchased here) and get reasonably helpful folks most of the time. And if you really want or need to speak French, how 'bout the Quebecois line in Canada? I've never tried, but I would bet money they're easier to deal with...and what cool accents they have .

Indeed it is the French call centre that serves also the French speaking part of Belgium. It is true that bad customer service is a common phenomenon in this part of the world, but this one was a radical example. First of all, total lack of training to serve Belgian customers, than exquisite rudeness and finally ignorance at a level rare even for first support call centre. Unfortunately I was forced to call them. I tried first to call the US one (it was a Sunday and the the local call centre was needless to say closed), but they told me they are not able to serve me and that I have to call the Belgian number!

Incidently, the Belgian reseller who sold me the iMac was no better. They did not even bother to answer the email I sent them.

 

[shikimo]

booooo.

That sucks...although it doesn't surprise me much. I had some weird hope that Belgians would be easier to deal with, but it doesnt look good.

French customer indifference (and Sundays off ) aside, what I want to know is why you can't call customer support in the US. I called before buying Applecare to make sure, and I've called the 800 number there with no problems twice since then. The excuse I give is that I don't speak French, when in reality I fear the indifference and/or rudeness and/or lack of training waaay more than I fear the language.

***NOTE TO ALL: I don't want to come off as an anti-French, freedom-fries American. In fact I rather like France...but people here have a different way of looking at business than we do, which can indeed be challenging. However, they treat each other the same way, and expectations are reasonably consistent: once you learn that "it'll be done Friday" means Tuesday morning at the earliest, and that you have to be on fire before you can get any attention during lunch or on a weekend, it's not so bad...except when you need computer help .

 

[ViM]

Is this wireless problem widespread with C2D iMacs? Or is it just only a small minority because I'm going to buy iMac within the week and I'm starting to get worried .

 

[shikimo]

Is this wireless problem widespread with C2D iMacs? Or is it just only a small minority because I'm going to buy iMac within the week and I'm starting to get worried .

Seems to be pretty sporadic to me. Also, with wireless issues there are so many links in the chain that it can be really difficult to source the problem; you can be sure that at least some of the comments you will find in this and other forums have nothing to do with the iMacs themselves. A quick perusal of the wireless forum at the Apple support page doesn't seem to lead one to the conclusion that there is a particular wireless problem with C2D iMacs, although as always some people are having issues...this is the "small minority" you refer to, i.e. the ones who look for help here.

If I were you it wouldn't stop me from buying .

 

[ascender]

Is this wireless problem widespread with C2D iMacs? Or is it just only a small minority because I'm going to buy iMac within the week and I'm starting to get worried .

Remember, you can buy a very cheap wireless bridge to plug in to your Ethernet port instead.

I had organised a return for my 24" iMac and the courier was due to collect it on the day where I went out and bought a wireless bridge to use. I changed my mind because upon looking around to spec up an equivalent PC, I realised that the 24" is totally unique. There's nothing else out there which compares to it IMO, especially the fact its all crammed in to such a small footprint of a machine.

 

[storage]

Remember, you can buy a very cheap wireless bridge to plug in to your Ethernet port instead.

Could you link to one of those bridges (preferably in Europe)? The cheapest one I've seen was around $115.

 

[Passante]

Did you change the channel

Did the original poster try changing the channel his airport broadcasts on ?

 

[storage]

Could you link to one of those bridges (preferably in Europe)? The cheapest one I've seen was around $115.

Nevermind that, I'm now using my old WRT54GV5 router as a bridge, 4433.33% (60KB/s vs. 2660KB/s downloading) faster than the built-in stuff .

 

[Cypress]

Hi,

I've had some success improving my wireless performance.
I installed the latest firmware update for my DG834G, this now supports WPA2, since I've moved to using WPA2 the wirless link seems to be much better.

Might be a co-incidence or maybe netgear fixed some other stuff to make it work better ?

Regards

Paul;

 

[longmang]

Old iMac and Wireless performance

I have a similar issue but on an old iMac G5. I can't be sure when it started to get slower, but now wireless performance is poor, it may be perception, as everything else around it, Linux, Windows and Powerbook fly.

I have several routers, the iMac is the same on all of them, I have stuck with an airport for the Macs as the Powerbook G4 mentioned above is perfect, no issue, even next to the iMac. If I stop using the built in wireless and switch to an external bridge (Belkin) through the ethernet port I get the performance I expect.

I've tried B and G only on the Airport, changed channels, switched everything else off, setup interference robustness, nothing, WEP and WPA2 (which I use now). All the same.

So I've plumped for the bridge, until we get something from Apple that says, Ahhh ........