Macintosh

[jyoho]

My friend has an iMac on OS X 10.7.4   He recently got an updated comcast cable modem - now he has a problem with intermittent wi-fi connectivity.

There is an online discussion about this problem at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3947671?start=0&tstart=0

[BruceW]

That thread has nearly 100 messages. Any chance you could narrow that down for us, or better yet, post the relevant information here?

[Barmar]

Unless there's a problem in the AEBS, there's no way that replacing the cable modem could affect the WiFi connectivity between the Mac and the base station. Wireless connectivity isn't dependent on the Internet connection at all.

[UHFhd]

Unless of course it was a Gateway modem .

[Barmar]

---

UHFhd wrote:

Unless of course it was a Gateway modem .

---

The Apple discussion thread says the router is an Airport Extreme Base Station. I didn't intend my statement as a totally general assertion, I was talking about this case.

And I also wonder if your correction is true. If a gateway modem loses its Internet connection, does it really stop providing WiFi? So you can't communicate between your home devices when the Internet connection is down?

[UHFhd]

He recently got a "updated comcast modem"   did not say which type of modem . Emta , Gateway or just modem .   

                                   Thats what i meant .

[Barmar]

Unless he got rid of the AEBS when he got the new modem, I still don't think it's relevant. His wireless settings should still connect him to the AEBS, and that should operate independent of the Internet connection.

I just read through the entire thread at Apple, and it sounds like 10.7.4 has a general problem with WiFi connectivity. Lots of the posters in the thread said that when they installed the update their WiFi stopped working. So I think the new Comcast modem may be a coincidence.

[jyoho]

Since a Comcast engineer set up the new cable modem for my friend - I thought they should be aware of the problem with OS X 10.7.4 and the 'possible solutions' mentioned in the Apple thread: 1. Change the security type from "WPA PSK" to "WPA2 PSK"  2. Set the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz channels to a fixed value 3. Change the channel setting on your router. Usually your router will be found at http://10.0.0.1 I'm not sure which one(s) will work for my friend - I'll find out...

[Barmar]

Why would you expect a Comcast engineer to know about this, when even Apple didn't?

[jyoho]

I didn't expect Comcast to know before - I thought part the purpose of the forum was to inform

[Barmar]

Sorry, I misunderstood you. I thought you meant that they should have known about the WiFi issue when they were setting things up for you, not that your purpose in posting was to let them know.

But posting here is not likely to help. I doubt many Comcast techs read the forums on a regular basis, nor do I think Comcast has any process to routinely pass on tidbits like this to all the techs. This is a place to come to get help from other knowledgeable customers, not to update Comcast's internal documentation.

[rmiecznik]

so in my case this was a problem caused by the OS X 10.8, the actual operating system

whenever I closed the lid of the laptop and it went to sleep, after coming back from sleep 80% of the time the wifi stopped working, the the os would freeze, become unresponsive and crash, I know!  OS X is not supposed to crash, lol - so the only way it would work is with a total re-boot from command line:

shutdown -r now

and issue root password.

I got so mad at it, that I actually downgraded to 10.6, where I am happilly using the wifi again :- )

it could the the os, Mac is having a lot of issues right now with their upgrades, if you can connect using other OSes, then it is specific to your machine and software

[workin]

To fix the "install silverlight" problem with comcast movies on my Mac- I had to go to tools from my browser, (firefox) select add ons, select plug ins, and enable silverlight plug-in after I had installed it.  This worked and I can now watch movies again.