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AirPort Software Updated to v3.4
iumacboy writes "Available now in your Software Update, Apple AirPort Software v3.4, which 'provides improved AirPort wireless networking software, and is recommended for all users with an AirPort Extreme and AirPort enabled computer or an AirPort Extreme base station.' New features include: 'improved antenna output control, enhanced logging from your base station which is compatible with syslog, and performance improvements for WPA security implementations.'" Apple also put up some AirPort Management Tools (a management utility for viewing logs and configurations, and a client monitor) but they quickly disappeared.
Maybe I am just crazy, but ever since I did this update last night, my signal strenth on my Airport extreme card (in my 15in PB) seems to have dropped. I am getting 3/4 bars on an access point that is about 4 feet away
You may not want to install this one just yet. Airport 3.4 has cut range considerably for some people. It's all over the Apple Discussion boards and Apple news sites.
I seem to get 0-2 bars less of signal strength on average than I did before the update. For instance, now I don't get any signal out on the patio when I easily did before. I'd think this was likely coincidence except others on this MacRumors thread have noticed the same thing.
www.clarke.ca
The link for Airport Management Tools doesn't work for me - I get Apple's version of 404.
Right now the Airport Management Tools can be downloaded from the Airport Support Page. Look down the right column until you get to the section, Resources.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
See my other comment here on this thread. I used to have service out on the balcony and now I don't. It's quite a dramatic difference, really.
www.clarke.ca
I had the same signal strength until I read this comment thread, and I kid you not, I lost 25% strength the moment I finished the page. How could it know? Oh wait, it's back up to full now. No, now it's back to 75%. BEWARE.
My Ti is 10 feet from the Extreme base station and I'm getting 60% on the bars after running the update.
Test early, test often, test on all supported platforms.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
There also seems to be an update to the Airport Extreme Base Station...
apple.com
Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
I installed the update and don't notice a differe
[SIGNAL LOST]
I installed that one right after installing RealPlayBUFFERING....
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
Oh, bullshit. Despite all the "/. favors platform X over platform Y" memes, the fact of the matter is that /. remains one of the best places to hear about both the merits and defects of just about any OS and/or hardware platform you can name. There is no pro-Apple conspiracy here.
There are certainly those (I'm one of them) who will happily spend mod points to mod down stupid "M4X0Rz 5uX0rz" trolls, but that's not the same thing. As an iBook user, I'm glad to know that I should hold off on the latest software update. A look at the various signal strength posts, most of which are modded "Informative," will tell you that a lot of other people feel the same way.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
It also seems to have brought back the finder bug where finder would crash if you tried to drag more than one item (This had been fixed in the most recent OS update)
It could be that they've actually improved the calibration of the signal monitor. I had a lot of trouble with my PB's AP card with it losing signal (on macstumbler) but failing to notice and thus to reestablish the TCP connection when the signal returned, forcing me to restart AP on my machine. This was part of a bug report I submitted and corresponded with Apple about about a month ago.
It turned out that there was also something wrong with my AP card, as my most annoying problems (silent dropping of connection) went away when I swapped it out for a friend's AP card. Getting a new one from Apple fixed things up nicely for me.
I have asked questions about the lcd issues on the Apple portables.
/. stories about apple than I get every other story catagory on /. put together.
Result - Down Mods
I have said that apples share price and business model depend on high margin products like the iPod and that when others come up with a products almost as good at a lower price that apple will be in trouble because they depend on high margin producs.
Result - Down Mods
I have said that apple RAM is too expensive and people should buy it from crucial.com.
Result - Down Mods.
I have said that Steve Jobs cheated Woz out of money.
Result - Down Mods.
I get more negative comments, mods, emails, and stalkers from posting to
Signal strength seems fine for me.
TiBook867 (10.3.3)+802.11b Airport card on
(a) ABS(Snow) at home
(b) Netgear at work
(Both are 802.11b)
Are there any 802.11b folks having a problem?
cheers- raga
No, DAldredge. It's not just your Apple posts that get modded down, it's your posts on every topic. Why? Because more often than not, your commentary demonstrates a lack of even the most tenuous grasp of the facts (e.g. your vaguely racist conception of India's caste system). If only you would get it through your thick skull that the world neither wants nor needs to hear your retarded ramblings, we would all be better off.
I know how you feel -- I used to feel Linux fans were fanatics until I bought an iBook and began hanging out with the Apple crowd. Since then, I've stopped laughing when people talk about joining a religion with your computer purchase.
I think there is some astroturfing going on here, too. Apple's community is small enough that a few people can make a difference.
Given the fact that Apple -- as the True Believer faction loves to rub in other OS users' faces -- has complete control over the hardware and doesn't have to cover all kinds of variants like Linux or Windows, these things simply should not happen. This is a sign of sloppy testing or bad quality control, just like the famous creaking left handrest on the iBook, the batter cover that is not flush, the vanishing COMMAND-TAB command after using X11, and all the other little things that shouldn't be an issue given the amount of money that we paid for these machines.
Steve, either try harder or open source the bloody drivers. People with three percent market share and products with these price tags can't keep screwing up like this.
Words too big, please use smaller ones. Told you this before I have.
I have a PowerBook G4 and an Airport Extreme base station w/ a Dr. Bott Direct Antenna. Before I installed the update I was getting 3-4 bars of signal just one room away from it. Post-update, I'm getting one to two bars, if I'm lucky (though I've yet to totally lose network connectivity). I haven't tried the tutorial to uninstall the offending software (again, available here), though it looks like it would do the trick. Hopefully Apple will remedy the problem before I'm forced to take such drastic measures, since it's obviously quite a widespread issue.
Interesting theory! But unfortunately for you, completely wrong--as wrong as anything else you've written. Your mistake only serves as Exhibit N against your powers of perception, where N approaches infinity as time marches relentlessly onwards.
I trust it hasn't escaped your notice that somebody moderated my above comment +1 Insightful? My dear pupil. You are attracting a following of curious onlookers who agree that you demonstrate all the intelligence of a fried pea.
I don't login when I reply to you, DAldredge, because that's what you want me to do. Instruction doesn't work that way. My hope is that under my tutelage, you will come to understand what a nincompoop you are and either reform or, God willing, disappear.
DAldredge, I don't think you're in any position to claim the "facts" are on your side.
We are on earth.
Did you know that at room temp that orage is blue?
Look, I'm sorry I started this whole thing. In all seriousness, just promise to be there for your ten-year old daughter, OK? She needs her father. Don't let her down.
I am using the airport extreme base station with my powerbook and a ibm laptop with a 'g' card. After the upgrade the ibm laptop was getting low signal!!!! I manually changed the channel from auto to 11 and got some performance imprvemen, not much. Is there a way to go back to 5.3? thanks
Lots of people are complaining about fewer bars, but nobody seems to have demonstrated worse connectivity. It's quite possible that signal strenght hasn't changed but just that they changed the way they measure signal strength.
Clear, Dark Skies
OK, Wife and I have two laptops we use in the home network: iBook 60MHz, 256 MEG, 10.3.3 Airport 802.11b; pBook 867MHz, 640 MEG, 10.3.3, Airport Extreme (802.11g) and a 1st gen ABS 802.11b along with a Deskjet5800 with built in 802.11b.
After the update, the iBook still works without a problem. iBook print jobs to the Deskjet still process. The PB has far lower "bars" and, when sending a print job to the Deskjet the printer drops all but the first page of the job.
I had to reconfigure the Deskjet to ad hoc network mode and stand next to it to complete the print job yesterday.
I'd say that the response of the printer lends support to negative 802.11g changes in the new update.
The office is 100% 802.11g and has 3 ABS (a base, relay and terminal) and I haven't noticed any dropped print jobs to jet direct / HP printers (laserjet 4100 & Deskjet 1220c).
Hope this helps my *bad* karma2 0040419.AptmG/2Z/AirPortManagementTools.dmg
Apples AirportManagement Download - apple.com
http://download.info.apple.com/Mac_OS_X/061-1087.
...yup...
If you are having problems with the 3.4 update, revert back to 3.3.1. Here's a tutorial on how to do it.
:). My setup does not have the issues listed above. YMMV.
As best as I can determine, a combination of (one or more) of the following causes the problem:
1) Airport Extreme network
2) ABS extreme not updated to 3.4 (only the mac updated to 3.4)
3) Using a network app such as Retrospect/LimeWare/MLdonkey etc.
4) Apple has changed the algorithm to the signal strength display.
It may be a good idea to hold off the upgrade till 3.4.x is released.
Having said that, I should add that I did upgrade without any problems (couldn't wait to play with the new apps
The new Airport Client Monitor is cool. It plots the signal and noise strengths, as well as the transmit rate (which I could also see on MenuMeter, but not as a plot over the last 60 seconds.) The Airport Management Utility seems to be a superset of the old Airport Admin Utility and would probably be most useful if you have more than one ABS to handing off roving clients to one another. It can also "see" all Rendezvous enabled devices.
cheers- raga
Goodbye, sweet bandwidth, and flocks of /.ers speed thee to thy doom.
Those Airport Management Tools are exactly what I have been bitching about wanting ever since I bought my Airport Extreme Base Station. Less expensive WAP's allow you to see whats going on, so you'd think a nice high end piece from Apple would too.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
After installing the update, my Ti800 rebooted and was fine. I closed the lid until the next day and had no connectivity. I ended up having to hard reset the ABS (dual-ethernet, not Extreme) and upload firmware via the LAN port. ABS settings had to be redone, but I got it back up. Docs for doing the above are here.
It's a very dark ride.
Hope this helps my *bad* karma
Ouch! Luck of the mod draw. Sucks it was so bad so early on. My tip to you is to keep trying. One thing you might consider is wait for a story that you have quite a bit of knowledge/interest in and then do some quick googling and provide working links in your post. Thoughtfulness and effort early on in a story's life almost always gets upmodded.
And *do* try to stay on topic. ; )
It's probably because you're a known troll and they're looking to make your account start posting at levels that reflect this. Like below 1.
Ok, that's a -1, creepy right there, pal.
I was having some real trouble getting decent reception last night and was trying various things with the rather useful client monitor open. The noise graph was exceeding the signal so I tried adding interference robustness (first on the AEBS and then the Extreme cards), which made little difference, so I took it off again and suddenly the noise level was driven right down. Something up with the default setting of this not being set/working correctly?