Kenjun

July 12, 2007

MacBook drops wireless when on battery and connecting to certain routers

Filed under: Apple, MacBook — kenjun @ 8:03 pm

Quite annoying but:

I’ve just noticed that my MacBook drops its wireless connection when on battery power and connected to a Netgear DG834 router.

It only happens when on battery power and the internet connection is idle for a few seconds.

SOLUTION: Either do not run on battery power OR if you must do so do not let the internet connection run idle.

IN PRACTICAL TERMS:
1. Keep your Macbook plugged in.

OR
2. On battery open a TERMINAL session and run the following command at the prompt.
$ nohup ping -i 10 somehost.com > /dev/null &
where somehost.com can be any server that responds to ping.

http://www.appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook
and
http://kristopherjohnson.blogspot.com/2006/08/macbook-wireless-connection-drops.html

Leopard Update:

Now, using Leopard, I notice that it disconnects periodically and then reconnects which is better than before but, not great. Not sure if this is an Apple or Netgear problem.

1 Comment »

  1. I have experiecned the same problem with my macbook connected to a 2WIRE wireless modem….only happened when using the battery. I was told by someone it was because my macbook was running 802.11n and my modem was 802.11g? I dont know if thats true, but I did upgrade to the Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n and I have NOT had any problems since.

    Comment by Toby — July 12, 2007 @ 11:45 pm

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