I need A LOT of help, but I'll stick to just the problems with my Mac for now.<br><br>I've had a 17" G4 Powerbook for about 2.5-3 years now. Until recently (about a month ago) I have had zero problems with its WiFi reception. In fact, it was such an improvement over my old TiBook.<br><br>Not too long ago my wife complained that it kept dropping the connection with our home router (Linksys WRT54G). Sometimes all the bars disappeared and she would get a "not connected to the internet" error message in the browser and other times the bars were present but she would get a persistent beachball. Usually putting the machine to sleep and waking up would restore net connection at least temporarily.<br><br>Looking on the Apple forums I noticed a fair amount of bitching about the latest OSX update and WiFi (but there probably always is) and assumed it would be fixed in the next update (maybe it still will?). It does seem to be this machine (and not the router) since its having trouble connecting to networks at the college as well.<br><br>It also seems to be steadily getting worse, unless it has been something I have done since then, which isn't much.<br>1. Restart<br>2. Repair permissions, restart<br>3. modify and reorder the ports <br>4. download and install the latest router firmware (I was years behind)<br><br>The weirdest thing is the slow degradation, which makes me worried that it isn't software related. At present I can put the laptop in the same room as the router and it doesn't drop the signal but it acts as if it has about 1/50th of the bandwidth. <br><br>Any help would be great. Do you think its worthwhile to trash all network preferences, locations, keychains, etc?<br><br>

Do you have a 5.8 ghz phone nearby? Or any other wireless devices? Or do you live close to another building that might also have a wireless network. Finally, have you checked the airport card to make sure it's properly seated or that the antenna isn't damaged? Just a few things that can mess with reception.<br><br>

No other wireless devices (same phone for the last year), and I've never picked up another network, but I'm not sure what could be going on the neighborhood. But, as I mentioned in the parent post, it seems to be this particular machine, and not the router, because it no longer even picks up a weak network here at school.<br><br>I haven't checked the card itself. I'll do that. That would seem weird that it would become unseated on its own, no? I've never even removed the battery, let alone open up the machine. Either way, that's a good idea, I'll have to check it out tonight. Thanks.<br><br>

A gentle bump, a little dust, even a little moisture can compromise the card's physical connection. Had sex with a gnome lately? That can cause signal loss too. Just a thought. <br><br>

I don't know how it happens, but some cards seem to go bad. Could you borrow another card and see if that solves the problem? I have an old Airport card (not extreme) if that would be of any help to you.<br><br>____________________________________________________<br>Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,<br>But to be young was very heaven!

Thanks guys.<br><br>Humph! A little more looking into this on the Apple forums and it looks like this isn't uncommon for this model, and it most likely is a hardware issue. The test will be to boot from a different disk (e.g. repair CD) to rule out software.<br><br>I'll have to look into this more this weekend, and even if it is a hardware issue its gonna have to wait until the end of the semester. This is my work machine and I can't do without it. In fact, I've always been a bit afraid of what would happen if it took a complete dive. I may need to be getting a new MacBook, so that I'll always have a backup. Oh look, they've just been updated! Now just need to wait for my wife to leave town for a weekend.<br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Now just need to wait for my wife to leave town for a weekend<p><hr></blockquote><p>As long as there are no gnomes involved. <br><br>

<br><br><br><br>Or pummeling.<br><br>

Thank you MacMinute Frontpage (I'm convinced it's a robot, no need to get personal) and Thinkertons.<br><br>The frontpage linked to this little piece of freeware called Airstatz. It displays your WiFi signal statistics (getting info from the Terminal, I think) in real-time, making it much more useable than the little menubar thing Apple provides.<br><br>Well, it didn't fix anything, but because I could see what was happening immediately, I noticed that by closing the lid of the PB a little more than halfway my signal shot up to normal (and wouldn't even get dropped in other rooms), and would immediately drop down as I opened the lid up fully. So, it clearly has to be an antenna connection issue. I dug through the paperwork and found that my Applecare is good for several more months so I shouldn't have too much trouble convincing them to fix/replace the faulty part.<br><br>