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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 installed the update and can confirm that my signal strength is back to what it normally is..
Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
The lack of signal strength was causing some severe crashes here and there. It's good to have both NLS and GlideSlope back up to working levels, because without them it's virtually impossible to let the system auto-handle itself (requires extensive manual control to get it to work correctly when those two utilities are down).
Good work to Apple, and don't let it happen again!
I have been pwned because my
All is well over here with the 3.4.1 update. Now I can finally dig into those Airport Management Tools.
linkity link
Apple also put out a doc on the tools (link to PDF article)
clickity click
Like Teddy with an elephant gun.
...on my 900MHz iBook G3 12". Better reception that 3.4 it seems, but I didn't suffer a major hit to signal when upping to 3.4.
A great way to check your strength is MacStumbler which also has some tasty war driving applications if you're so inclined.
With 3.4, I was getting a signal of as low as 81 in my room in some places (as far as 30 feet from my router), and now with 3.4.1 I'm above 100 everywhere in the room. Rock!
Because I have learned my lesson: don't live on the bleeding edge if you have real work to get done.
I'm fat, dumb and happy and staying with 3.3.1 for the next few weeks. I'll let others play around with this update till the bugs are worked out.
Thanks to ^Fish Sun^ for the reversion page. That saved my entire day.
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... ;-)
Conversely I had the AP located 40cm away from the PowerBook, passing through 3cm of wood, and got repeated loss of signal (I'd still be joined to the network, but would be unable to pass IP traffic anywhere: even to ping the base station).
This was a 1.25Ghz AlBook connecting to an original Graphite base station. A G3 iBook connecting to the exact same base station from 2 rooms away was absolutely fine with the update installed, but the AlBook was lucky to last 5 minutes before losing the connection.
The physics of RF at 2.4 GHz haven't changed any recently, last I checked.
Although a lot of people complained about the signal strength dropping, there were definitely other problems with the previous release. I was still getting 5 bars, yet was unable to make a stable connection - absolutely nothing else changed on the Mac or the AP apart from this update, and since rolling it back I haven't lost the connection once.
Nae bother