I¹ve serendipitously noticed an oddity with my wireless connectivity, and in the process seem to have solved an ongoing problem of mine. I thought I'd post it in case it helps others.
I use a MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo running 10.4.11. Since I use wireless pretty much all the time, I generally have just Airport selected in my Network Port Configurations (which are within the Network settings of System Preferences). I was trying to access a Billion router wirelessly via web interface the other day. Each time I tried to access the router, a little bit of the Billion interface came up in my browser, but not the whole lot. It was like something was stopping the download of the html part way through. Refresh upon refresh didn't work. Changing between Safari and Firefox didn't work. I remember this happened a few weeks ago as well. Completely different router. Completely different country in fact. I gave up. I thought I'd try hard-wiring my MacBook to the router, so went into Network Port Configurations and turned on Built-in Ethernet. Before hard-wiring the MacBook and router though, I tried again to access the router's interface wirelessly, keen not to have to go scratching around for an ethernet cable. Presto, it was working. The only thing that had changed was turning on Built-in Ethernet (and leaving Airport on). I turned off Built-in Ethernet, and I could no longer access the router interface; turned on Built-in Ethernet, it worked. The ongoing problem I've had is this. I have a Billion wireless router connected to the phone socket at one end of the house. The range of the Billion doesn't reach the other end of the house, and so I have an Apple Extreme 802.11n base station in the middle of the house, which accesses the Billion via WDS. In the past, whenever I've been at the end of the house where the Billion isn't, I try and access the network via the Extreme and WDS, but it takes me numerous attempts, sometimes so numerous I give up. But eventually, if I try enough times, it works. Occasionally it works right away. Trying involves turning airport on and off, and repeated attempts to log into the network. What it is that eventually triggers a connection I have no idea. But then I had a thought. What if I turned on the Built-in Ethernet port within Network Port Configurations? I gave it a shot and it works! Now I seem to be able to log into the network from the wrong end of the house without a multitude of failures beforehand. Very happy! Why it is that keeping Built-in Ethernet turned on, as well as Airport, makes a difference I have no idea, but it seems to. Perhaps someone can explain. Cheers, Steven -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
