ok, I have a dell desktop in the home office and a macbook, the desktop has no issues but the wireless connection on the mac is intermittent. I am generally 15-25 feet away from the linksys router and my connection fluctuates from no connection to 4 bars showing on the airport icon. I called att and they said the connection to the modem is fine... so I called linksys and after several hours speaking with people in the Philipines they are telling me this is normal? anybody know how I can get a strong steady signal to the mac?

Maybe try a different wireless card

Are you wearing pants with a metal zipper on them? Ok, first of all, you'll need to take them off. Next, you'll need to shake the residual metalization from your body. Go open the curtains or blinds in whatever room in your house faces onto a street.

Now, remove your underwear. Jiggle your balls a bit, to demetalize them. First the left...good, OK, now the right...repeat a couple times on each side. Ignore your neighbors and passers-by, they probably don't have a wireless connection, so they don't understand this.

Now, leaving the blinds or curtains open in the room with your computer, try to log on. If this isn't working, try rebooting your balls in the window.

Try changing all of your wireless equipment to a different channel. Do not use 1, 6, 9 or 12.

(those are the most popular - you could be dealing with interferance.)

Get outta Starbucks,,

You'll get a better connection and meet decent people...

wheel,

Sounds like there is an issue with you wireless access "window".

try this.....

Position the computer at the extent of your usable range. note the time of day. Move the computer about 10 angular degrees (w.r.t. the location of the router). Note the time again.

Repeat this until you have gone full circle.

Then walk to the nearest window and throw you MAC through it.

#2 -no wireless card used

#3 - you wear pants when browsing the internet...seems like they would come off when some good porn is found...as a rule pants are not worn when browsing the internet.

#4 - I was hoping you would see this...tried every channel on the router with the same result for all. linksys said 6 or 11 works best with mac?

5-6 - bite me 😉

as far as interference...no cordless phone, not sure what else could be causing interference. Should I get a new router or will that be a waste of $$?

take it someplace that has free wifi and see how it works.

maybe your router sucks (like mine does).

#7 The pants thing depends on whether Mrs. Pacman's asleep yet or not.

Line of sight or is there a brick wall in the way?

"tried every channel on the router with the same result for all. linksys said 6 or 11 works best with mac?"

The part about 6 or 11 working best for Mac I've never heard before. I guess it's possible that the apple airport works better on some channels than others.

So, basically, your dell PC is connected wirelessly and it has no problems yet the mac does have problems, correct?

Are you sure all the settings are correct on the mac? I seem to remember there are some options that you can only access though manual mode and they're burried under advanced or soemthing like that (sorry, no mac here to referance - this is all from memory).

Is your mac current on all patches?

try moving the MAC nearer the router. if you have 100 percent connection at half the distance, it is probably a function of the power of the wireless card in the MAC, as the PC has known connection success at that distance.

Is you no longer have connection issues at half the distance, you can:

- move the MAC closer as a default -or-

- buy a signal booster for the router -or-

- buy another wireless card for the MAC -or-

- try another router with longer range

If the connection problem persists at half the distance, it is almost assuredly the card in the MAC and I would recommend replacing it

The thing to do is to keep eliminating the component pieces as a problem until you have identified what the problem is, then address that problem.

a sound approach........one I learned when troubleshooting circuit boards for a living...

"Divide and conquer"

TG, the dell is hardwired into the router, so no problems with it. Yes mac is current with all updates.

12 - I have tried sitting next to the router (did that while on the phone with linksys) and the connection was intermittent no matter the distance. also having the same problem with my iphone so I dont think the problem is the wireless card.

right now I am as far away from the router as I can be while still being in the house and have had a full signal for at least an hour....sometimes it is great, then it will drop for no reason I can figure...and after several hours on the phone with linksys I'm not sure the manuals they give the reps in the Phillipines are all that accurate.

I went to apples website and there are a bunch of threads on the discussion board there about a safari update that seems to be causing this issue with a lot of people (going back to 2008) and after replacing routers, wireless cards etc. people were still having a problem...the last comment on most of the threads I found were about six months ago which makes me think the problem was resolved but I cant find the fix anywhere.

Just a vicious circle....call the ISP and they blame it on the router, call linksys and they blame it on the computer, call mac and they want $100 to talk to you.

I have talked with people in India twice, the Phillipines 3x...it cost too much to talk with someone in english that can help fix the problem...#6 is heading to the top of the list as far as solutions!!!!!

What's the router's firmware version? Are you current?

yep, updated the firmware today.

Sounds like you've covered your bases. One thing... did you try reducing/changing your security encryption from WPA to WEP or WPA2?

If that doesn't work. I suggest you return it, get a new one, or get one of Mac's "AirPort" units. If you can't get that, make sure yours has 802.11N enabled and that your mac has that turned on.

Here's some info for research:

http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/ 

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/03/03/apple_updates_routers/ 

http://37prime.wordpress.com/2006/12/20/linksys-wrt54g-v11-wpa-and-airport-extreme-incompatibility/ 

I had that problem with a 2Wire router. Replaced it with an airport extreme. Worked fine & still does.

However, the Mrs got an iMac a year ago, which has the same problem as the iMac i had at the office: for whatever reason, the intel macs drop connections all the damn time, and it isn't just wifi. Sometimes it's the printer (hard wired), sometimes it's bluetooth, sometimes it's wifi. Rebooting restores all connections, but needing to drives me crazy--it's like having a freakin PC again.

Sounds like you are tracking through all of the possibilities except the

settings and preferences that TG mentioned.

I have both Macs and PCs on my wireless network ( NetGear ) at home with no problems whatsoever with dropped singles or strength, except when I wander outside with one of the PC laptops.

Have you tried the network setup assistant under Network preferences on the Mac?

I have a "Intel" MacBook that connects without issue to any wireless router I have tried it with..

See if you can borrow another router, my bet is it is a router issue.. Or just buy another one if it solves the problem your good to go, if not you can just return it and start over...