[ghporter]

I'm not very social when it comes to my network, that's true. I've spent way too many years as a computer security officer, and I simply don't trust that every neighbor is 100% trustworthy-along with every guest and visitor they have.

I do not offer up my bathrooms to just anyone and I don't offer up my network either. I have limited resources and prefer to be able to use them myself. I'm not "anti-social" at all, but I am paying for this service and I choose to keep it usable and not let others who don't even ask load down this resource.

[dimmer]

My comment was very much tongue in cheek Glenn (although on reviewing it, that didn't come across well). On the issue of security though, I think that's something best handled on the host computer -- tougher to do I know, but it does mean that using other "Public" WiFi nets isn't a big deal.

Thanks for not responding to me as a damn troll though, which is kinda how my post came over, even to me.

[dzp111]

I read this entire thread as I've been experiencing problems staying connected with my new Cisco router. I troubleshooted for hours and even re-connected my old d-link. The problem (dropped connection) happened out of the blue. So I retraced my last installs and what-nots.

Turns out that my connection dropped only while using my browser (FF) and the same happened with Safari. For the heck of it I checked my email and it was fine. So the connection was there but dropped only while surfing.

I came to the conclusion that it was a port issue. Turned out that Little Snitch was acting up. As soon as I quit it, problem was solved. Go figure.

[misterdna]

I've never used little snitch, but I can't help but wonder if your router thinks suspicious behavior is going on (because of little snitch's network activity), so it's shutting down your connection to the internet in order to try to protect you. If you have similar problems again, I'd recommend playing with the router's firewall settings. I used to have similar problems, and had a really difficult time figuring out why my connection would shut down so often... Thanks to forums like this, I found one minor tweak of my firewall settings, and my problems went away (and I finally was able to use GoogleMaps, which can trigger some firewalls to shut down).

[abbaZaba]

alright this is getting extremely frustrating. the mini is constantly dropping wireless connection and being unable to reconnect! what the heck can I do to troubleshoot this?

[Simon]

How about you first delete all the keychain entries and wireless plists to try and solve the not reconnecting issue.

Once that's solved, you should try to solve the connection drops. What channel are you on? Is that automatic? What other networks are there (iStumbler will give you an idea). Are their noise sources (cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc.)? How is your base station set up (large conducting surfaces close by)?

If I were you I'd keep the hidden SSID (by itself it's not a security measure, but it is one more obstacle) and 'd try to use WPA2. In my experience WPA2 works very reliable with Macs. And since WPA is now officially broken... You get picture.

[ghporter]

What Simon said, especially the keychain and plist stuff. AirPort cards seem to get a bit confused from time to time, perhaps through having changes not get properly written for some reason or other. This impacts both their keychain entries and the plists that involve AirPort. The only thing you lose by deleting these is the customizations you've entered (including your passwords, of course), so dumping them with this sort of problem should be no big deal.