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icruise · Nov 12, 2006, 10:23 PM

My Intel iMac worked perfectly until a week or two ago, when it started randomly dropping its wireless signal. When this happens, no networks show up at all, even though there should be half a dozen or more in range. It seems like after a fresh reboot it will work fine for a while (maybe a couple of hours or more) and then it will start dropping the signal. It will drop for a few minutes, then come back, then drop, then come back. But eventually it seems to completely die.

I have tried turning airport on and off, putting the computer to sleep and waking it up, logging off, etc but the only thing that will restore it is completely restarting the computer.

I think this problem started around the time I installed the 10.4.8 update, and looking on the Apple discussion forums, it seems like a lot of people are having airport trouble with this update (although a cursory look didn't turn up anything exactly like mine). Is anyone else having a similar problem? Any ideas on how to fix it? (Short of going back to 10.4.7, although I guess I can try that if I don't have any other choice.)

Tuoder · Nov 13, 2006, 02:22 AM

The only thing that I can think of offhand is going back to the old Airport software. Maybe you could trash Airport prefs?

ghporter · Nov 13, 2006, 08:13 AM

What kind of router/access point/base station do you have? I've seen a lot of reports of newer Macs having problems when other computers just keep ticking along on the same network, and there are a few things you can try.

One really simple thing you can do is give the iMac a static IP (in Network Preferences with the AirPort card selectes). This will tell you if it's just that your mac quits listening or gets booted.

Also, you might just dump your current network locations and build a new one. This has been reported to be effective in "no network found" situations.

icruise · Nov 13, 2006, 11:53 AM

I'm using a Netgear 802.11g router. It's worked fine since I bought the iMac 7 months ago, so I don't think that's the culprit. Besides, when I lose connection I also lose the ability to view ANY wireless networks. This is why 'm not sure any of your suggestions would help -- it's not just that it loses the connection to my router. It loses the ability to see any access points at all.

ghporter · Nov 13, 2006, 12:23 PM

It definitely sounds like the iMac and not the router. You might want to try moving to an earlier version of the AirPort software (and I'd tell you how if I knew, I've had my very own Mac for only about a month).