Modern Vespa

i've posted this question on apple support discussions but they're not as active over there as we are

I reinstalled the OS on my imac the other day, in an attempt to solve an unrelated problem. the reinstall went fine, with one exception: every time I leave my network connection idle for more than about 20 minutes, it disconnects from the network and i have to go into system preferences to reconnect. It was fine before the reinstall so i'm thinking there must be some setting that was changed - but i can't find what it is. Any ideas? i'm using OS 10.5.4

While this won't solve the root problem, set your e-mail to check for new messages every 5 or 10 minutes. This will prevent the network from staying idle for long enough to disconnect.

yes, that's a possibility .. but i'd rather get to the root of the problem if possible.

my Snow Leopard upgrade has just turned up in the post, so fingers crossed it sorts out the connection problem. or maybe it'll make it worse

There have been updates to Snow Leopard that were aimed at fixing wireless connection problems Genie. I bet updating your OSX version will fix the problem you're having.

Open the Network preferences panel.

Have a look at the TCP\IP and PPP panels. (advanced tabs?)
In options somewhere theres a check box for disconnect in 20 minutes (or similar). Uncheck the box.

nope. that was my first thought .... in the airport section of the network settings control panel, there aren't any such boxes - nothing to limit the connection time in any way.

I don't see anything in Sys Prefs either. In the old modem days you did have that option.

I think it must be in the Airport set up. I don't have an Airport here at work but I'll check when I get home.

Here's the thread on the Apple Support discussion site. I don't have time to read it all but you can start there. Looks like lots of people are having the same problem.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=970070

Is it the connection between your computer and your AirPort base station that's disconnecting, or the connection from the base station to the ISP? Typically, AirPort connections don't disconnect. I would be more inclined to believe that your base station is disconnecting from the ISP.

What specifically are you doing in network prefs to reconnect?

I'm pretty sure it's the connection between the computer and the airport base station. all i did was to reload the operating system - why would that cause the base station to start disconnecting from the ISP?

to reconnect, i've been going to the network panel in the system folder, clicking the 'assist me' button on the bottom, and then clicking 'diagnostics' in the dialogue box that pops up. it asks me to select the location - i've been using 'automatic' - then it asks me to select the network i wish to join - obviously i select my own wireless network. sometimes, following this, it asks for my password, sometimes it doesn't. i then get a message telling me that "your internet connection appears to be working correctly", and all is well again.

It shouldn't, but I wanted to make sure since AirPort connections, errr... don't disconnect... usually... Okay. Stumped. There's no good reason your AirPort should disconnect. And if it did, it should reconnect as soon as you do anything network-y, like clicking a link or checking email. It's all automatic, theoretically.

When you're in this disconnected state, what does the AirPort icon in the menu bar say? Does it go entirely gray? If you click on the icon, what does the menu underneath it say?

yep, the icon goes entirely gray. i'll have to wait until the next disconnect to see what it says underneath .... stay tuned ....

Genie can you do the ichat thing with somebody. Allow them into your computer and then hook up the airport. I love the ichat feature. Good luck

on the advice of some numpty on the apple discussion forum, i updated to OS10.5.8 - and i'm now unable to connect to wirelessly at all. it doesn't seem able to find any of the available networks unless i restart the computer - oh, and it's still losing the connection after 20 minutes of inactivity. fuxsake

i've gone back to using the ethernet connection which means yards of ugly yellow cable snaking across the floor and down the hall. yay.

I we're all assuming you've rebooted the Airport after your latest system update ?

I should have thought to ask this earlier, but have you rebooted the modem? We had a cable outage several weeks ago and when it came back on we were having intermittent connection problems. Once I power cycled the modem we were back to normal.

It's possible you're suffering from interference as well. Some cordless phones (the Panasonic spread-spectrum models, in particular) will obliterate all WiFi signals within 100 meters.

i reset the hub after the initial reinstall, but i haven't reset it since the OS10.5.8. update - i'll try again and see what happens.

jess - wireless interference was suggested as a possible cause on the apple discussion forums - but why would an OS reinstall suddenly render the machine susceptible to wireless interference when it was working perfectly before? and why would the wireless interference only be a problem if the network connection sits idle for more than a few minutes? if there was sufficient interference to knock out the connection, wouldn't it do so regardless of whether or not i was actually using it?

Don't use "Automatic"

Setup a preference, "Name it" and use that preference as your connection,.
If you use "Automatic" then it will revert to default and timeout.

Bigfoot - 'automatic' has always worked fine in the past - and in any case, since the OS10.5.8. update, neither automatic nor the named connection is working at all.

hang on a sec. just off to reboot the wireless hub and see what happens.....

Automatic is based on a selection of known working connections,
I only use it if my server is being picky, Otherwise I use a known connection.

Since you've reinstalled, How many known connections do you have?

Always back up,
I have a backup on an external drive using a clone software called "Super Duper"

It's cheap and you can always just clone the external drive back to your main drive,
Much easier than doing a reinstall.

Here's the link to Super Duper

We recently solved a nagging problem that affect both apple pc. We would lose the link intermitently It was the 2wire dsl modem. ATT replaced it and problem solved.
Best
Miguel

BTW symptoms were that sometimes the wireless wouldn't connect and sometime the modem would lose lock with AT&T.
Best
Miguel

You could also try using "Open DNS"
I use that instead of "Automatic", My surfing speed is greatly increased because of it.

You still need to do your network preferences though,
PPPoE needs to be filled in, Even if you don't use it and your TCP-IP needs to be filled in.

Wait, wait, wait... the WiFi base station should be the one taking care of that, so she shouldn't be filling out the info in her network prefs.

The problem appears to be corrupt system network files. Delete your network configuration file and keychain Airport password.

The Airport routers probably fine. You can check with a borrowed laptop or another wireless machine.


Have a read through here. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=777038

Bring back the good old days of typing AT modem commands to get a Mac online.

several hub reboots later, and everything appears to be back to normal cheers all for your help.

i've also learned that the annoying 'could not open the communication device' message that appears regularly and without apparent reason, is a bug associated with OS 10.5.8

If she's gone through all the wired network pref's properly,
Then the wireless pref's should be a breeze.

Just thought that something may have been forgotten on the wired modem side.

Yes that's a well documented bug with an easy fix. I can't remember what files you delete but it's an easy Google look up.

well my Snow Leopard upgrade has just turned up in the post, so with any luck that bug will disappear I did follow the suggestions for the recommended fix but although it reduced the frequency of the error message it didn't get rid of it altogether. Eventually it went away on its own, but made an unwelcome reappearance with the upgrade to 10.5.8

There is a whole slew of possible remedies at MacFixit

At the bottom of that page you'll find some instructions for removing plist files

I've never had this problem and I'm using OSX 10.5.8

Hope you get it all sorted out.

gah bloody photoshop CS2 doesn't run with Snow Leopard

thank goodness for educational discounts

I've been reluctant to upgrade from OSX 10.5.8,
There are quite a few programs I have that won't work with Snow Leopard.