Flaky wireless network - help!

CluelessWiFi

Hi folks,

First time poster, but I was directed here by someone who told me that you guys are helpful. I'm not hugely techie-savvy, so don't understand a lot of the terms, but here's basically what my problem is. Apologies for the mammoth post in advance.

I've had NTL wireless broadband in my house for about 3.5 years. On my old (Dell) laptop, the internet would usually be fine most of the time, but would occasionally get sluggish. My two housemates never had this problem but it really did my head in. Last September, I bought a MacBook and thought the new software/OS might fix the sluggishness problem - but it didn't, really.

However, last week I walked into the room where the wireless router (a standard 54 mpbs Netgear router) was, and heard a high pitched whine coming from it. From that evening on, I noticed that the internet was running reeeeeeeally slowly, like worse than dial-up. I tried plugging the modem straight into my MacBook and it worked perfectly, so thought it must be the router and asked a few mates advice on which the best one to replace it with might be.

That was until last night, when my housemates came back from holidays, logged on and were able to surf the net as usual, perfectly fine without any problems. Meanwhile, I can't even get a single page to load on my own laptop, even though the AirPort is showing full bars.

Now I'm thinking that the settings on my MacBook might be messed up in some way. The strange thing is that I'm now in a mate's house using THEIR wifi with no problems whatsoever, so how can the settings be messed up if I'm able to log on to their network with no problems?


As I said, I'm crap at the techie stuff, but any help WHATSOEVER would be hugely appreciated. I am at my wits end as I need the internet for work (I work from home), so this is hugely inconvenient for me. Any ideas on what the problem could be? I bought the MacBook in the States last year, if that has any bearing on it. It's only the past week that the internet has been woeful in my own apartment, though.

Thanks.

dub45

Do you use the internet in the same room as your friends? Have you checked to see if there are any other wifi networks around that might be interfering with you? have you tried changing the wireless channel to see if it makes any difference?

Also when you get slow bb speeds make sure that its not ntl that are to blame (by plugging into the modem) just be sure what exactly is the problem.

CluelessWiFi

Hi Dub45,

Thanks for the reply. Sometimes we use it in the same room, mostly not, though. There are a few wireless networks around us (in the apartments either side), but I can't really do anything about that. My biggest problem is that it works fine for my housemates, but not for me, and I'm trying to figure out why that is.

eddhorse

You have to test in the same room as your housemates really.
There could be more interference in your room rather than theirs.

Maybe an upgrade of the netgear firmware might help also..
Whats the model of the netgear router.

You need someone mac savvy really to chime in here for your AirPort Settings.

Also are your house mates using the wireless or connecting via ethernet cable?

CluelessWiFi

For anyone who may stumble across this page with a similar problem, in the end, the problem was resolved simply. Changing both the channel and the band in the 'Wireless Settings' section of the Netgear (or whatever router you're on) homepage fixed the problem and it's now running smoothly. It also explained why my connection had previously been sluggish (the channel I was on was probably too 'clogged' with the other two laptops using it).

Had to figure this out myself as NTL tech support were no use. My advice: trawl Google for the solution to your issue, save money by not ringing a premium tech support number...

dub45

Well I did ask you above if you had tried changing channel?