MacBook Pro wifi connection problem

I bought a new MacBook Pro running Lion about a month ago. I live in an
apartment complex and have permission to use my landlord's wifi but do
not have access to his router and he gave me the password. When my Mac
connects, it is a very strong signal and a good download speed. But
when I wake it up, it often takes a long time to connect. The wifi
signal goes up and down and eventually ends in an exclamation point.
Usually after 5 or 10 minutes it will suddenly connect showing all bars.
It will suddenly disconnect occasionally as well. Originally, I thought
that the landlord might have the router on a light switch or something.

The strange thing is that during the no signal period on my MacBook Pro,
my iPod touch held right next to the laptop, which usually has much
lesser sensitivity to picking up a wifi signal than the laptop, shows
full signal strength and can browse the internet. When I pull up
Network Diagnostics during this downtime, wi-fi and wi-fi settings are
green, network settings is amber, ISP is green and internet and server
are red. Of course, when it finally connects, everything turns green.

Any ideas what's going on and how to correct it? Thanks.

On 2012-08-10, paulfuchs@porkain'tkosher.oink <paulfuchs@porkain'tkosher.oink>
wrote:
> Any ideas what's going on and how to correct it? Thanks.

Hold down the Option/Alt key and click on the Wi-Fi signal in the
top-right corner of your screen. It will show the signal strength after
you connect. "Good" connections are indicated by at least this much
bandwidth:

802.11b: 11 Mbps
802.11g: 54 Mbps
802.11n: 108 Mbps or more

In the same drop-down menu, look at how many Wi-Fi access points are
listed. If there are lots of them, and if they are all on the same
channel, it's possible that all those APs are interfering with your
connection.

There is also the possibility that your iPod Touch, which only uses the
2.4 GHz range, is getting better reception in that band than your
laptop, which could be using either the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz range.

--
Blah blah bleh...

GCS/CM d(-)@>-- s+:- !a C++$ UBL++++$ L+$ W+++$ w M++ Y++ b++

In article <1kolq7l.2bqk7j1pdav7iN%paulfuchs@porkain'tkosher. oink>,
paulfuchs@porkain'tkosher.oink wrote:

> I bought a new MacBook Pro running Lion about a month ago. I live in an
> apartment complex and have permission to use my landlord's wifi but do
> not have access to his router and he gave me the password. When my Mac
> connects, it is a very strong signal and a good download speed. But
> when I wake it up, it often takes a long time to connect. The wifi
> signal goes up and down and eventually ends in an exclamation point.
> Usually after 5 or 10 minutes it will suddenly connect showing all bars.
> It will suddenly disconnect occasionally as well. Originally, I thought
> that the landlord might have the router on a light switch or something.
>
> The strange thing is that during the no signal period on my MacBook Pro,
> my iPod touch held right next to the laptop, which usually has much
> lesser sensitivity to picking up a wifi signal than the laptop, shows
> full signal strength and can browse the internet. When I pull up
> Network Diagnostics during this downtime, wi-fi and wi-fi settings are
> green, network settings is amber, ISP is green and internet and server
> are red. Of course, when it finally connects, everything turns green.
>
> Any ideas what's going on and how to correct it? Thanks.


Does the network have a unique name? Or is it something like "Linksys"?

Your network settings may be confused. Go to Sys Prefs->Network and
uncheck "Ask to join new networks", then at the bottom click "Advanced".
Delete all the networks you don't use and move the one you do use to the
top. Or better yet, delete them all then sign onto your landlords'.

--
m-m
Photo Gallery:
http://www.mhmyers.com

M-M <nospam.m-> wrote:

> In article <1kolq7l.2bqk7j1pdav7iN%paulfuchs@porkain'tkosher. oink>,
> paulfuchs@porkain'tkosher.oink wrote:
>
> > I bought a new MacBook Pro running Lion about a month ago. I live in an
> > apartment complex and have permission to use my landlord's wifi but do
> > not have access to his router and he gave me the password. When my Mac
> > connects, it is a very strong signal and a good download speed. But
> > when I wake it up, it often takes a long time to connect. The wifi
> > signal goes up and down and eventually ends in an exclamation point.
> > Usually after 5 or 10 minutes it will suddenly connect showing all bars.
> > It will suddenly disconnect occasionally as well. Originally, I thought
> > that the landlord might have the router on a light switch or something.
> >
> > The strange thing is that during the no signal period on my MacBook Pro,
> > my iPod touch held right next to the laptop, which usually has much
> > lesser sensitivity to picking up a wifi signal than the laptop, shows
> > full signal strength and can browse the internet. When I pull up
> > Network Diagnostics during this downtime, wi-fi and wi-fi settings are
> > green, network settings is amber, ISP is green and internet and server
> > are red. Of course, when it finally connects, everything turns green.
> >
> > Any ideas what's going on and how to correct it? Thanks.
>
>
> Does the network have a unique name? Or is it something like "Linksys"?
>
> Your network settings may be confused. Go to Sys Prefs->Network and
> uncheck "Ask to join new networks", then at the bottom click "Advanced".
> Delete all the networks you don't use and move the one you do use to the
> top. Or better yet, delete them all then sign onto your landlords'.

M-M,

I followed your directions and the problem seems to have cleared up. It
has been less than a day though, so I will keep my fingers crossed.
Thanks.

Dear all,
Around mle, about 12-15 wifi access points from my neighbors.
And 7 of them are using channel 11.

Is there a way that I can say to my Mac to exclude some of them ?

I will also check whether I can change the channle of MY wifi access point.

Thanks.

Philippe