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bkb · Apr 22, 2004, 11:48 AM

Originally posted by Dennis the Phantom Menace:
No problems with the update here. The number of bars decreased with 3.4, but the signal is the same.
You can check your signal level with an application like MacStumbler:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14746

Same here. Bars decreased but signal strength & general quality of the connection is the same.

barbarian · 12:29 PM

After my 10th reboot to restore my internet connection I finally got fed up and downgraded to 3.3 which has fixed all my problems.

Here's how to downgrade.

Download 3.3

Remove AppleAirport2.kext and AppleAirport.kext from system/ibrary/extensions

Remove AirportSW.pkg and AirPortUpdate3.3.1.pkg from Library/Receipts

For good measure, remove com.apple.internetconfig.plist, com.apple.systempreferences.plist, and airport related prefs.

Install the Airport 3.3

If you only have one drive to boot from you will have to worry about permissions or log in as root to do all this.

If you have a second bootable system just boot from the second system and do it...

As an aside I always keep a "perfect system" around. Basically I have one system that I upgrade and fool around with and if after a month the upgrades are stable, I'll upgrade the "perfect system" otherwise I'll leave the perfect system alone. Also the perfect system has no 3rd party software. It's a great way to troubleshoot and see where the problems lie. In the case of Airport 3.3 vs 3.4 it was obvious after a simple reboot that 3.4 has major problems on my G5s.

macintologist · Apr 22, 2004, 04:44 PM

Is it possible to separately download Airport 3.1 that came with the original release of Panther?

barbarian · Apr 22, 2004, 07:08 PM

http://homepage.mac.com/fishsun/arti..._airport34.htm

Ron Goodman · Apr 22, 2004, 08:16 PM

I had no problem with the update. Have there been any ideas put forth yet as to what happened to cause the reduced signal strength?

Mike Pither · Apr 23, 2004, 06:22 PM

My airport also became almost unusable after the update but fortunately I was able to easily revert back as I had a complete system backup (using ccc) on my external hard disc.

Every update for me seems to have made things a little bit worse though. 9 months ago my airport worked everywhere in my house now after 2 or 3 updates there are several places where it is very weak or not usable even without the 3,4 upgrade.

ginoledesma · Apr 23, 2004, 11:30 PM

I'm reeling from this update. Windows File sharing has become unpredictable. When the Finder "hic-ups" (stalls, spinning beachball of death, etc), that's it for my file copy. I've had to revert to command-line smb or ftp just to get large files across.

barbarian · Apr 24, 2004, 01:47 AM

Note that after downgrading you should also downgrade firmware.

Downgrading the software solved the signal strength issue.

Downgrading the firmware (to 5.2) solved the disconnecting from the internet and having to reboot or sleep issue.

Mike Pither · Apr 24, 2004, 06:54 AM

Originally posted by barbarian:
Note that after downgrading you should also downgrade firmware.

Downgrading the software solved the signal strength issue.

Downgrading the firmware (to 5.2) solved the disconnecting from the internet and having to reboot or sleep issue.

Haven't found it a problem on my setup. My airport firmware is still 5.4 and I don't (so far) seem to have any of these problem.

RealMac · 10:56 AM

Those interested in downgrading their airport base station's firmware (not extreme) can go here:
http://faq.mainelti.org/cgi-bin/faq/...tegory=General
(not sure if there's a way to d/l the older firmware off apple's site)

I downgraded and so far am not experiencing the disconnect issue. Otoh I'm running 10.3.0 (kinda got fed up with 10.3.3, but now Safari won't load so I might upgrade) and haven't run any airport updates. I'm leaning towards the base station firmware being at fault as opposed to the updated airport extreme / airport card drivers.

I downgraded my snow dual ethernet 802.11b base station's firmware to 4.0.6 (from 4.0.8). Prior to this, I would get disconnected and unable to connect to the base station even after multiple reboots and no airport extreme card update.

I'm on a PB 15.2" Al 1GHz also.

4/26/04 - After experimenting with this for a while, I've concluded that it did not address the issues I was dealing with. Upgraded the base station's firmware back to 4.0.8 and downgraded to airport 3.3.1 and so far no disconnects.

11011001 · Apr 25, 2004, 05:51 AM

This is ridiculous. It totally borked the airport on my Al book. Stupid, I played around for an hour at work getting things fixed..

I am disappointed that this was released without more thorough testing from Apple.

for Apple on this one.

:/

Keiretsu · Apr 25, 2004, 07:43 AM

Possible Fix?

Having a network environment with Airport as the first possibility (e. g. "Automatic" with Airport dragged to the topmost line) or a network env with Airport _only_ bith fixed problems for me!

Give it a try ...

But I agree this update stinks!

krove · Apr 25, 2004, 03:44 PM

Anyone want to send me a copy of that Airport Admin utility? Apple seems to have pulled it...

krove [at] mac {dot here} com

wtmcgee · Apr 25, 2004, 04:36 PM

i keep losing connection upon waking from sleep, and at other random times. signal strength is down. guess i'll just make do until we see an update, or if it drives me crazy i'll try to find a way to downgrade to the older version.

Keiretsu · Apr 25, 2004, 04:57 PM

Originally posted by krove:
Anyone want to send me a copy of that Airport Admin utility? Apple seems to have pulled it...

krove [at] mac {dot here} com

http://www.apple.com/support/airport/ has a link ... right side ...

ginoledesma · Apr 26, 2004, 11:21 PM

Guess Apple heard our complaints. A new 3.4.1 update is out.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...ortupdate.html

barbarian · Apr 27, 2004, 01:00 AM

So far so good with the 3.4.1 update. Signal strength is fine (or better) than before and no weird internet drops requireing sleep or reboot...

Let's see if it can keep a connection for several days/weeks as it did before...

tritonus · Apr 27, 2004, 02:25 AM

Originally posted by tritonus:
Same here: from 2-3 bars to 0-1 bars!

AirPort Software 3.4.1 seems to fix all of my problems (week signal, P2P hang-ups).

iNeusch · Apr 27, 2004, 05:04 AM

Same here... seems to be working

The fix was quite fast
Good Job Apple

GENERAL_SMILEY · Apr 27, 2004, 06:19 AM

Just to confirm what others are saying, the apparent drop in signal strength according to the apple indicator, I think is just the result of a change in the representation of the scale of signal strength.

If you use Kismac you will see exactly the same figures as before, easily provable as Kismac saves previous results. So nothing is actually broken, and I can find no noticeable difference in using it post install of the update.

barbarian · Apr 27, 2004, 11:34 AM

the apparent drop in signal strength according to the apple indicator, I think is just the result of a change in the representation of the scale of signal strength.

This was definately not true in our case. We had a real drop in strength with 3.4 as well as real disconnects and total dropouts. All these problems were fixed by either downgrading or upgrading to 3.4.1.

tritonus · Apr 27, 2004, 11:39 AM

Originally posted by barbarian:
the apparent drop in signal strength according to the apple indicator, I think is just the result of a change in the representation of the scale of signal strength.

This was definately not true in our case. We had a real drop in strength with 3.4 as well as real disconnects and total dropouts. All these problems were fixed by either downgrading or upgrading to 3.4.1.

Absolutely!

Mike Pither · 03:11 PM

Originally posted by GENERAL_SMILEY:
Just to confirm what others are saying, the apparent drop in signal strength according to the apple indicator, I think is just the result of a change in the representation of the scale of signal strength.

If you use Kismac you will see exactly the same figures as before, easily provable as Kismac saves previous results. So nothing is actually broken, and I can find no noticeable difference in using it post install of the update.

Not here! Macstumbler showed around 15-20% drop in signal strength confirmed by the fact that in my attic I could no longer get any signal at all. Now the signal strength is back as before although not to the level that I had several updates and 9 mths ago. Up until 3.4.1 every update has lost me it seems a few percent.

GENERAL_SMILEY · Apr 27, 2004, 03:06 PM

Fair enough, obviously not a universal finding.

RealMadrid · Apr 28, 2004, 03:58 AM

YES!

I also found 3.4.1 improving the signal strength over 3.3 and obiously 3.4. Disconnection when using P2P download has also disappeared.

Great!

rishio · Apr 28, 2004, 05:36 AM

Just upgraded to the latest airport software: 3.4.1. Unfortunately - though my signal indictor shows good reception - wireless internet just stops working. The only way to get it back is by restarting the computer - but sometimes that doesn't even work. Interestingly enough, it does work once in a while out of the blue for a good 10-20 minutes before poofing out again.

Have no idea what is going on with the latest airport updates - but it has crashed my wifi internet access on campus (UCSD).

Spheric Harlot · Apr 28, 2004, 09:56 AM

iMac DV 400 as Software base station, 12" Powerbook Rev. A sharing the internet connection.

No problems here, except for the iMac freezing up when I do large file transfers via Airport. Been that way a while, but I haven't checked to see if 3.4.1 fixed it.

-s*

Sarc · May 2, 2004, 11:58 PM

Originally posted by rishio:
Just upgraded to the latest airport software: 3.4.1. Unfortunately - though my signal indictor shows good reception - wireless internet just stops working. The only way to get it back is by restarting the computer - but sometimes that doesn't even work. Interestingly enough, it does work once in a while out of the blue for a good 10-20 minutes before poofing out again.

Have no idea what is going on with the latest airport updates - but it has crashed my wifi internet access on campus (UCSD).

same here, I have a NetGear MR814v1 802.11b wireless router.
client is a PowerBook G4 12in.

for fixing my connection (although it shows good signal strengh), I have to turn off airport power (using the menu extra), then turn it on (here, my PBG4 doesn't get a valid IP or signal at all), then turn it off, and then turn it on again (here it gets IP and signal with no problems).

Sarc · 01:10 AM

double post