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yticolev · Aug 23, 2005, 11:56 PM

I have an original Aluminum 1.25 running 10.4. My wireless reception is all screwed up. I am piggybacking a neighbor's wireless DSL and generally there are never more than two bars showing on the menu bar. iStumbler reports a wide range of signal and noise. A couple days ago, iStumbler (while I was watching), went down to 17 signal and -2 noise and stayed there. After returning some time later, iStumbler reports normal (for me) signal strength of around 30 but the menu bar reports full strength - never did that before - and it stays full strength even when moving to a bad reception area with iStumbler reporting very low signal (where the menu bar strength has been no bars in the past).

The Network Preference pane reports that I am connected to the internet but no internet applications connect. Turning Airport off and on does seem to have appropriate initial traffic (with MenuMeters) with the Network pane showing no connection and then connected to the internet.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm guessing a software issue. I've trashed all the Airport preferences I could find and shut down and restarted - no change in behavior. I can't think of anything else to do.

Thanks!

budster101 · Aug 24, 2005, 12:00 AM

Does your neighbor know you are piggybacking on their connection? If not, it's not nice.

ibook_steve · Aug 24, 2005, 12:08 AM

I'm guessing you should get your own Internet connection. You can't troubleshoot something you don't have control over. If you can't afford it, dial up is cheap.

Steve

NateEssex · Aug 24, 2005, 12:22 AM

I can only hazard a guess, as I own my own Airport Extreme and have been playing with it to try to improve reception in my house. I have changed the frequency of the Airport to try get one that collide/clash with microwaves and cordless phones. Alas, you probably have no control over your neighbor's selection of frequencies...
Personally, I may just break down and buy an Airport Express to put at the other end of my house, which should solve my problems.

d.fine · Aug 24, 2005, 02:59 AM

Not nice to piggyback without permission, not smart of him to run an unsecure network.

How can you troubleshoot an internet connection that's not yours?

Kvasir · Aug 24, 2005, 07:15 AM

For all you know, your neighbor has moved the wireless router to a new location, changed the connection channel, bought a new 2.4GHz cordless phone (they can massively screw up wireless when in use), or wallpapered a room or two in aluminum foil

As other's have said, you can't possible troubleshoot a network you have no physical nor admin access to.

NateEssex · Aug 24, 2005, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by d.fine

Not nice to piggyback without permission, not smart of him to run an unsecure network.

I'm running 128 bit WEP security on my AE and using an access list. Does anyone think I should change to WPA Personal? Someone told me it was more secure.

yticolev · Aug 24, 2005, 10:26 AM

Does anyone have any real thoughts? I do have permission to use my neighbors wireless, there have been no changes to the base station, any interference would be reported by iStumbler, and the behavior of my internal Airport is definitely screwed up independent of any wireless source. My computer reports I am connected to the internet, no applications are able to connect. Safari, for example, immediately says that I am not connected while Network does. Normal behavior for Safari with a bad connection is to take several minutes to time out a navigation request.

d.fine · Aug 24, 2005, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by NateEssex

I'm running 128 bit WEP security on my AE and using an access list.

that'll do

ibook_steve · Aug 24, 2005, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by yticolev

Does anyone have any real thoughts? I do have permission to use my neighbors wireless, there have been no changes to the base station, any interference would be reported by iStumbler, and the behavior of my internal Airport is definitely screwed up independent of any wireless source. My computer reports I am connected to the internet, no applications are able to connect. Safari, for example, immediately says that I am not connected while Network does. Normal behavior for Safari with a bad connection is to take several minutes to time out a navigation request.

I still don't buy it and I still don't like helping someone who may be doing this, but can you ping the router? Have you done any of the normal network troubleshooting? Ping the router, ping the name server. Make sure you have connectivity on the network before worrying about applicaions. Are you getting assigned a valid IP address? This is a networking question that is not Powerbook specific.

Steve

Kvasir · Aug 24, 2005, 12:36 PM

Well, attempting to connect to a WPA network without knowing the WPA password, can produce this kind of behaviour - ie. you are wirelessly connected to the base station, but your network connection is still an internal IP since the base won't give you a DHCP IP until you authenticate, hence Safari can't go anywhere (EAP-TLS also behaves this way, if you don't have a valid certificate).

So, if you do indeed have permission from your neighbor to use his internet access, take your laptop over there and ask him about it. Has he changed anything lately? Can you connect alright when in his home and right nearby the base?

NateEssex · Aug 24, 2005, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by d.fine

that'll do

So someone won't be able to stand outside my home and use some utility to get on my network and capture my online credit card transactions? Or is it just highly unlikely?

yticolev · Aug 25, 2005, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

I still don't buy it and I still don't like helping someone who may be doing this, but can you ping the router? Have you done any of the normal network troubleshooting? Ping the router, ping the name server. Make sure you have connectivity on the network before worrying about applicaions. Are you getting assigned a valid IP address? This is a networking question that is not Powerbook specific.

Steve

I don't know how to ping the router but I'm happy to take hints. I don't believe this is a networking question as again, there is a discrepancy in my Airport menu bar (full strength all the time no matter where I am) and iStumbler. The Network preference pane reports that I am connected to the internet and does have a valid outside IP address. It can and does report when I'm connected to a network and not to the internet. iStumbler reports an open network. Yet Safari and other applications immediately report that I am not connected. This does not sound like a network configuration issue but a software or hardware problem.

ibook_steve · Aug 25, 2005, 01:20 AM

Yes this is exactly a networking problem. Ping the router from Terminal:

ping <ip address of router>

and ping the name servers too to see if you get a response. You say you have a "valid" IP address. Does it start with 169 or 192? This is most certainly networking. Trust me on this. I worked for an ISP for 2 years and Apple for 4.

Steve

[APi]TheMan · Aug 25, 2005, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by NateEssex

So someone won't be able to stand outside my home and use some utility to get on my network and capture my online credit card transactions? Or is it just highly unlikely?

Even if they were to get in your network to sniff traffic, thank goodness for SSL (https://)...:)

DavisH · Aug 25, 2005, 09:12 PM

I don’t believe it’s the router! I am having the same problem it’s just another one of those problems that came with 10.4. The signal bar will not update or is extremely slow at doing so. I know exactly what this guy is talking about! Using 10.3.9 I could walk around the house and watch the signal strength very from room to room. After going to 10.4. I walk around the house and the signal bar doesn’t move. Stays full strength even though iStumbler tells a VERY different story. I own the router and I have not made any changes. Apple has done something to the software that monitors signal strength. I don’t know if it’s to hide there poor reception compared to pc laptops. It’s anyone’s guess, but something was defiantly changed in Tiger.

yticolev · Aug 27, 2005, 03:03 PM

Well I still don't know what the problem was but it has gone away. I "fixed" it by taking a walk downtown and connecting to a couple of open networks at local coffee shops. With no changes in configuration or restarting, it just worked when I got home.

Still seems like a software issue to me, not a hardware or networking issue. Take OS 10.4 for a walk, introduce it to some new networks, and it now has a more objective understanding of networks?

The issue seems to be confined to Airport. I used my cellphone tethered to my laptop to connect over the last week. There are some issues there as well but I know the workarounds. For example, if the laptop goes to sleep, the USB cable must be disconnected and reconnected to not get a "modem" error. And this may be a combined issue with Verizon, but generally after about an hour of uptime connected, my computer refuses to send internet traffic although it shows my cell phone as still connected to the internet (much like my Airport issue). The solution for this is to terminate the connection, unplug and replug my cable, and go online.

When I posted my original query, I was hoping for some similar workaround, like resetting Airport? Still don't know what might work when this happens again, but I now know that this is much of a morality forum as a technical forum. Still.... thanks to all!