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I recently replaced my old Origio 802.11b wireless modem/router with a Netgear DG834G. All is well, save I get the exact same symptons as this guy. With my eMac's AirPort Extreme card turned off, I can open Apple's Mail in a couple of seconds. However, with AirPort turned on, it takes upwards of 60 seconds. No solution was reached in the thread I linked to, so I hope that people here might have a better idea.

[hudson1]

Help us understand your problem....

Did Mail work as expected with the former 802.11b router?

Did you enable encryption with the old router? What kind?

Do you have encryption enable on the Netgear router? If yes, what kind?

Have you tried turning off encryption? Does that make a difference?

Can you surf the internet without issue under your current setup?

Is your eMac connected to anything via the ethernet port?

Post back and someone will likely figure out what's going on.

[megasad]

Originally posted by hudson1:
Did Mail work as expected with the former 802.11b router?

Yup, Mail used to open in a couple of seconds, all was well. Only since using this new router have I had problems. Also, over Christmas, I stayed round my girlfriend's parent's house, and they had a neighbour who had an unencrypted wireless broadband connection. I'm pretty sure they had a Netgear router as well, as the configuration website looked identical, and Mail on my iBook also took much longer to open whlst I was there than it used to when at home, using my Origio router. I put this down to my iBook being old and slow, but now I realise it was the same issue that I am having now, with my own Netgear router and my eMac.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Did you enable encryption with the old router? What kind?

Yup, using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a 64 bit hex key.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Do you have encryption enable on the Netgear router? If yes, what kind?

Yup, using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a 128 bit hex key.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Have you tried turning off encryption? Does that make a difference?

Tried it, makes no difference. I have also made it "b only" rather than "g only" or "g and b", as I thought that might help; it has not. In all of the modes, Mail takes forever to open.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Can you surf the internet without issue under your current setup?

Yup, Safari, Transmit, Fire, Remote Desktop (local network), all work fine. On my girlfriend's PowerBook, Entourage also behaves as before; opens in a couple of seconds. This problem seems completely specific to the Mail + Netgear DG834G combination.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Is your eMac connected to anything via the ethernet port?

Nope.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Post back and someone will likely figure out what's going on.

I am super-descriptive. Anyone needs to know anything else that they can work out what's going on? I thought it might have something to do with the router's built-in firewall, possibly conflicting with OS X's own, so I disabled it on my eMac but that made no difference. At the moment, the router firewall says "Outbound Services" are "ALLOW always" and "Inbound Services" are "BLOCK always". I also tried changing the channel from 11 to 6 to 1; no difference. And I just tried changing the region from Europe to USA to France; no difference. I found that thread I linked to in my first post using Google; that's all I could find on the whole interweb about this matter. Anyone with the same router have the same problem?

[hudson1]

What happens if you turn off Airport and link your eMac to the Netgear router with an ethernet cable? Does Mail open normally in this case?

Also, what's upsteam of the Netgear router? Cable? DSL (which protocol?)?

Lastly, what is the maximum transmission unit set to in the router? If your lower it, does it have an effect on the problem?

Hang in there, I'm sure we'll uncover what's going on.

[Grrr]

I know this isn't exactly helpful.. But I use this same modem/router with the Apple Mail app, and have no such issues at all. Using all available updates on a 1ghz 12" PowerBook via wireless. I don't use any encryption at all however, not so much as a password on the network (shh, don't tell the neighbours). Neither did I open any ports relating to the mail app. It just works as it should. I also have a G5 iMac on the same wireless network, and an eMac on the network (wired) but these are not used for mail.
The Netgear modem/router does have the latest Firmware in it however.. I think it initially came with V1.02 and now has V1.05

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First, I reply to people who were kind enough to write to me long ago:

Originally posted by Grrr:
...The Netgear modem/router does have the latest Firmware in it however.. I think it initially came with V1.02 and now has V1.05

I just bought the router recently, so it came with firmware version 1.05 already.

Originally posted by hudson1:
What happens if you turn off Airport and link your eMac to the Netgear router with an ethernet cable? Does Mail open normally in this case?

I never did get around to trying this; the router is on top of a cupboard in the kitchen and my eMac is in my bedroom; too heavy!

Originally posted by hudson1:
Also, what's upsteam of the Netgear router? Cable? DSL (which protocol?)?

Back when I started this thread, I had a 512kb ADSL connection, which had an upstream connection speed of 288kbps. Now I have a 2Mb ADSL connection, but the upstream connection speed remains the same.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Lastly, what is the maximum transmission unit set to in the router? If your lower it, does it have an effect on the problem?

This is something I do not know how to find out or modify or even what it is.

Originally posted by hudson1:
Hang in there, I'm sure we'll uncover what's going on.

And now there is no need! I just installed 10.3.8 and now Mail opens in one bounce / two seconds, like it used to and is meant to. Hoo-hah! I'm guessing it was a problem on Apple's end, rather than Netgear's, and so they fixed it. I can also bookmark pages in Safari now without having to turn AirPort off, which is what I used to have to do if I wanted Safari to not freeze up for several minutes / crash. Again, hoo-hah! I think this is the first time that a 10.x.x upgrade has actually given me so noticeable an improvement; up until now, ever since 10.1, it's just been a case of OS X working exactly like it did before, except About This Mac displayed an ever so slightly higher number. I approve of noticeable improvements.