Troubles with Belkin N router

[GKaya]

This has been driving me crazy for the last 2 months. I got a new Belkin N router and everything worked fine for the first couple weeks. At some point the wireless connection started to drop when I would wake the Mini from sleep. Most of the time I run the network diagnostics and choose the right network and everything's fixed. A few times, though, I've had to reboot the router. I want to go back to the good old days when I would wake the Mini from sleep and be automatically connected.

Some things I've tried to no avail are: upgrading the firmware for the router (had to do this from a Windows machine), changing the channel from 1 to 6 and monitoring the channels from other networks near my house, changing from N only to B, G or N (not sure what this setting is called...I'm writing this from work).

Prior to the Belkin router I was using a Linksys WRTG wireless router which worked seamlessly for months but started having similar problems to what I'm now experiencing with the Belkin.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[devo]

Try this on your Mac mini.

1. System Preferences -> Network -> AirPort -> Advanced.

2. You should be at the AirPort tab.

3. Under preferred networks, delete everything listed with minus button.

4. Hit the plus sign to add your Belkin N network.

5. Hit the ok button and then the apply button.

See if that doesn't help.

[GKaya]

Thanks for your reply. I should've added your suggestion to the list of things I've already tried (but I'd forgotten that I'd deleted all other networks except the Belkin but still no change).

2 out of 3 times when I run network diagnostics I get the red lights for "ISP", "Internet" and "Server". Most of the time all those eventually go green and I'm back in business.

1 out of 3 times during that process there's a pop up window that states something to the effect of "change detected in network" and right after that all the lights go green.

I wonder what those changes in the network are...also wonder what exactly network diagnostics does that almost always fixes the problem. I have no idea but it seems like something is constantly changing (from the router? the ISP?) and I have to force the Mini to catch up to whatever has changed...which is very annoying and time-consuming.

[scooper]

Are you running the latest firmware on the router? It could be a firmware issue with the DHCP lease time, WPA2 or something.

[GKaya]

Firmware is up-to-date.

One final question: any guess if my problems would be solved if I got an Airport Extreme? The more I poke around the more I'm seeing info about problems with Snow Leopard and third party routers. Airport Extreme costs twice as much as my Belkin router which is a CNET editors choice...but maybe it's twice as good? At this point, if an Airport Extreme worked close to flawlessly I'd be willing to spend the money.

[scooper]

Well, I don't have any trouble using mine with an AirPort Extreme. This also goes back to using it with an older Mac mini and my roommate using a MacBook. It's an awesome router, especially the newer dual-band model. That being said, you should be able to get things working with the Belkin. I mean, unless there is something wrong with it. Have you tried messing around with the security settings and using another protocol?

[GKaya]

Yeah, hopefully I will get the Belkin to work. I haven't changed the security settings b/c I had the impression that WEP is pretty much worthless. It looks like I could change the "authentication" from "WPA-PSK + WPA2-PSK" to "WPA-PSK" or "WPA2-PSK".

And...I don't know what "using another protocol" means...but I'm willing to try it. (-:

[emax4]

I've used a Belkin Wireless G-model and had the same issues. it would work, but constantly drop the signal even to the PC that it was wired to.

My solution that worked was replacing it with a D-Link, and it was trouble-free. I sold that D-link a while back ago and just bought a D-link N-router and have no troubles with it either. I'm never going back to Belkin again.

[GKaya]

I ended up reverting back to the first wireless router I owned--a cheap D-Link G model--and it works great...no drops, performance seems on par with the Belkin N (I've noticed no difference in download speed, which is strange to me). I've now accumulated 3 routers (2 G's and an N) and I might do what a reviewer mentioned on Amazon and just rotate through them as they start to malfunction. In my experience it takes about 3-4 months for something to go wrong that I can't fix. Maybe I'll do the rotation until an Airport Extreme works it's way up my list of prioritized expenses. Not sure if an AE will work perfectly but at least I'd be calling Apple for support.

[billb]

If you buy an Apple Airport Extreme Dual-Band you may need to replace more than your router. Check out this link:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2985422&#2985422

I had the BAD Motorola Modem and replacing it cured a lot of problems.
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20" iMac G4 PPC

[GKaya]

^^^

Thanks for the heads up.

It's been a little over a week and so far the D-Link has worked flawlessly. It's so nice to wake the Mini from sleep and go right on-line without having to go through network diagnostics (that sucked).

[MacDSmith2]

I recently upgraded my cable modem to the SB6120; it's a lot faster and hasn't given me any trouble.
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