MacBook Wireless Issue

Hello all. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm stuck on what to do. I have a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6.4 and the wireless internet is powered by the Cisco E2000. I just bought the E2000 a couple days ago and everything set up just fine. I'm actually rather blown away by the speed that it runs at (during the day). However, the last couple of nights (and I mean somewhere after 9pm), the internet has been seeming to drop off. Now, I thought it might be an ISP problem or the router is messed up. This is not the case. When I hook straight into the router using an ethernet cable, I'm getting maximum speed. The router is not messed up because my roommate is getting internet just fine on his Windows 7 machine. This means that it has to have something to do with the MacBook. I'm confused on why this is happening. Does anyone have a clue?

 

Hi Recker,

After checking on the net, some people have reported the same problem (great speed initially but slows after awhile) but with the E2000 only. I don't think it's your macbook.

I know that cisco bought out linksys awhile back. linksys was not very good. cisco may be using the linksys firmware for the router which may not be too compatible with mac or pc's in general.

You may want to return the E2000 and go with a different maker. Here's some other offerings...

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10327959-263.html

Techsent

 

Isn't it odd though that it just happens at night? I should also mention that the wireless on my iPhone works just fine (it's what I'm using to post), which is probably irrelevant. I suppose it could just be a coincidence that it happens at night since I've only had the device for three days. I'll look into some other brands. In the meantime, if anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks for your input, Techsent!

I also have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N, which seemed to work fine (minus being a pain to set back up each time it got disconnected the power went out). However, the range on it was not too good or something. My roommate would lose connection and have very slow speeds at only 20 ft away upstairs.

 

Welcome.

It is. It's almost like a neighbor comes home and has some type of wireless going that conflicts with the router.

Admittedly, I have a pet peve against linksys as in the past, I had 3 of them and each one would just stop data traffic to the net out of the blue. After the 3rd one I went with a d-link and never looked back.

Techsent

 

I think you may have just inadvertently helped me. I didn't think of interference! I changed the channel the router is on and all seems to be working well again. Of course, this might not be the fix, but maybe it just is. I googled a little bit and most routers are shipped out with six as their channel. I'm assuming that the average person doesn't change that and I'm living in an apartment complex, so there may be tons of interference if I leave the channel setting to auto. However, this still doesn't explain why my roommate and iPhone had a good connection... or does it? Sometimes I really wish I knew more about networking.

 

I hope that does it. Yes, I know what you mean about networking knowledge.

I think the challenge that we all face is that these companies test out their products on a limited type/number of mac's & pc's, limited type of network setups/locations etc.. so the unknowns fall into our lap.

Techsent