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Apple Offers Update to Recent AirPort Update
Milanek writes "Apple has released new version of AirPort Update 3.4.1 which solves problems introduced by the last AirPort update, 3.4." A great many people complained about lower signal strength after the 3.4 update last week.
I'm getting bus error crashes when trying to download the patch on two different Macs, one a G5, the other a G3 iBook. The session goes something like this:
This is very repeatable for me -- it happened three times on one machine & twice on the other. I don't remember the softwareupdate command having a problem like this before.
On the other hand, I was able to use Safari to download the .dmg directly from Apple, and Safari hasn't crashed on me. And the fact that people are reporting success with this suggests that the GUI tool is working, &/or the problem is local to the download option for the command line tool.
Still, it's annoying -- I was hoping to skip downloading it over & over, and this was much more of a kludge than I had in mind...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Had the supposedly "buggy" patch installed, and then got the new one. Never saw a difference in wireless signal strength. All bars lit.
;-)
Of course, the AP is located in a strategic location in the house using sound RF engineering principals to determine the location and not stuffed in a dresser underneath the clean socks, and a pie tin, as it would appear the whiners have done to themselves...
Locating it as close as possible to the client machines and strategically centered in the middle of the desired zone of coverage while moving it appropriately closer to clients that are behind walls and other objects that soak up energy at 2.4 GHz -- works very well.
Knowing the limitations of the signal and being willing to install a second AP if necessary to get the desired coverage is probably also something that helps.
If your signal strength is marginal, fix the root cause -- get better antennas (while remaining with the legal Effective Radiated Power limits) and put them in the correct locations.
The physics of RF at 2.4 GHz haven't changed any recently, last I checked.
If you're running with a single bar for signal strength you haven't designed your RF patterns/system layout correctly. Fix that. Then a silly software bug that lowers signal strength by one bar will be as *yawn* unexciting as it was here...
+++OK ATH
This just goes to show that you always should wait at least a week before installing any updates from Apple. I myself lost a battery on an iBook 500 with 10.2.4, and my airport extreme siganl on my 12" powerbook with this airport update. This will be the last time I ever install an Apple update without scrutinizing the forums first for potential bugs.