I recently made the switch over to Mac, dumping my Dell Inspiron laptop in favor of a 15" 1.5Ghz Powerbook G4 (with and integrated AirPort Extreme wireless card) running OSX 10.3. Not anticipating any problems, I left my networking setup the way it was: a DLink 614+ Wireless router (802.11b).

I never had any problems with the router when I was accessing it through my Dell, but now when I attempt to use it with my PowerBook, I will intermittently lose my connection. The Airport Extreme still shows a strong signal, it just quits recognizing the connection is there. If I turn the AirPort off and on, the connection starts working again. I have tried doing all the updates I could find, but nothing seems to help.

Anyone else experience this, or have any ideas on how I can fix this problem?

Another easy check is to confirm your AirPort card is seated properly, and the antenna cable is fully plugged in.
It's in the battery bay on my AlPB.

This is going to sound stupid but I had the same problem with my PB when I first got it. While G is backwards compatible with B, sometimes there are errors.

I changed my router to G and the issues went away. That is not to say this is your definitive answer but I'd give it a try. Even find a friend that has G and spend an evening surfing at there place. See if the issue appears there. If so, it is likely a warranty issue but I doubt it.

Also, if share your security settings(not Wep keys or passwords), some of the highly tech people here may be able to diagnose.

jtmac: I've removed aned reseated the AirPort card (it's still located in the same place) and double checked the antenna, but still have the same issue.

iPetie: I always assumed that G would be fully backwards compatible, but maybe it wasn't a valid assumption. I'll have to hunt down someone with a G router and give your suggestion a try.

If there are any settings that someone thinks would help them diagnose the problem, just ask and I will gladly post them. (not WEP keys or passwords of course)

jtmac: I've removed aned reseated the AirPort card (it's still located in the same place) and double checked the antenna, but still have the same issue.

iPetie: I always assumed that G would be fully backwards compatible, but maybe it wasn't a valid assumption. I'll have to hunt down someone with a G router and give your suggestion a try.

If there are any settings that someone thinks would help them diagnose the problem, just ask and I will gladly post them. (not WEP keys or passwords of course)

I'm currently having the same sort of problem. I have a T20 with a Netgear 54g card and it's connecting to a Linksys WRT54. It seems to be dropping the connection regularly and, then, finding the signal once again. Weird and it's also using a static IP rather than getting it dynamically from the WRT54. :mad:

If Ironmac is having the same issue connecting to a G router, it would kind of rule out iPetie's suggestion of backwards incompatability. Is this possibly an issue with the way OSX handles wireless connections? I have 2 static IP's assigned to my laptop one for the AirPort, and one for the built-in ethernet. I never have the problem with the built-in ethernet, just the wireless connection.

Are there any wireless settings in OSX that we can tweak to maybe improve our performance?

I had a quick look at Wireless Networking Starter Kit and the answer, for my setup at least, seems pretty simple and I should have remembered this...it's potentially interference. :confused:

Being as my router sits right between my computer and printer, I assumed interference early on. However, I can set my laptop right beside my router and it will still lose the connection. Your problem being caused by interference, does however, make iPetie's G-B incompatibility theory potentially valid again.

I'm hoping to get a chance to run over to a friends sometime this week and test it out.

Oops, my post got double posted somehow. Since I can't delete the seocnd post, I am editting it with this message instead.

[ November 02, 2004, 09:47 PM: Message edited by: bhil ]