mac4mac.co.uk

Hiya you lot!

I know I only tend to post here when I have an issue, but this is what this place is primarily for, right...?

Anyway, had my 2 ancient iPods half-inched whilst I was up in York a fortnight ago (didn't really give a crap about the Pods - cared more about the Sennheisers that were with 'em and, quite possibly worth about 4 times as much as the combined value of the 2 Pods (they were both 5th gens).

Of course, being an Aspie, I can't live without me tunes, so I came back down to Bucks, via the Bullring, and picked myself up a 64GB touch as an early birthday pressie, it being the species of most use to me.

Anyway, got it home, spent all night (literally!) reloading me tunes, and then attempted to connect to the router (it's just a bog-standard Thomson, supplied by Eclipse).

This is where all the fun and games began: it picks up a full-strength signal in the front room (that would be where the Mac and router live and I'm sitting typing this about 6ft away from it). However, if I take it upstairs to my room (which is probably where I'd be using it the most) it probably locates it about 1 time in every 20, and then only at 1 bar strength; it doesn't, however, appear to have any problems with connecting to next-door's Sky router, at full strength, in any part of the house (which, sensibly, has WPA enabled).

I emailed Eclipse, usually so helpful, even with things that aren't really their remit, but really got no dice, just a pointer to a not-very-helpful Apple KB article (1398 is the article number). I did work my way through it, of course, but still no dice.

This is really beginning to frustrate me, as is the fact that I can't remember what the password for the ruddy thing is anyway so, even if I did manage to sort out the signal issue, I'd not be able to connect anyway!

Any help folks...? If you need more info, just yell!

Cheers, dudes,

Sarah

_________________
I REALLY ought to give up procrastination - but it can wait 'til tomorrow...

Hi Sarah,

Nice to see you back.

More questions => more input. Need input!

1) What router?
2) Any other devices connected to the router apart from your Mac and are their connections fine or not?
3) How much masonry etc. is there between your room and the router?
4) G or N?
5) Is the Touch only fine in the same room as the router but not outside it?
6) Link to the kb article? Apple's search is abysmal - I couldn't locate it.




How can you connect to it if you don't know the password? If the Mac is connected, you should be able to look at it's Keychain to find out the router password. Suggest turning off encryption to make network as simple as possible to troubleshoot, only re-enabling it when it's working properly. In any case what's the worry? Neighbours can only piggyback your connection for a bit, and is that really likely? If they are on wifi they will have their own network and not likely to be wasting time stalking yours. They can't get into your computer without it's password anyway, I would not worry about that in the short term.

Connect to router from the Mac over wifi or with ethernet cable, check settings. Simplify.

Could try sharing internet using Mac's airport, connect it to router with cable to do that.

Bad luck with the York thieving bar stewards, sounds like you made up for it though.
Home Insurance cover it?


Inpuut! Need More Inpuuttt! Cannot compute!

_________________
J.P.



"The Macintosh may only have 10% of the market, but it is clearly the top 10%."
Douglas Adams

Hiya Leewave,

The KB article, to which JP's just linked, is sh**te anyway.

To answer your questions: -

1) What router? Thomson TG585, supplied by Eclipse
2) Any other devices connected to the router apart from your Mac and are their connections fine or not? Nope. The Mac Pro doesn't possess an AirPort Express card, either, so basically it's just a box to plug the router into.
3) How much masonry etc. is there between your room and the router? It's directly above the kitchen, which is 'through the wall' from the room containing the Mac. Funny how it can pick up next door's, though, isn't it (it's also begun picking up next door's the other side now (they're on Orange Business) and, ISTR that when I had an lappy (2008 MBP before that was nicked) I had no problems with that. That wasn't connecting to this router, but a previous one, which was an earlier model number.

4) G or N? N
5) Is the Touch only fine in the same room as the router but not outside it? Correct, think I did say that, but you being a gruff, grumpy, old Lakes bugger (kidding! ) probably got fed up with reading all the intervening crud! Yes, it can locate it if I'm in the same room, no problems at all but, if I leave the room, and go to the end of the hall, or halfway up the stairs, for example, no signal. Probably find that, tomorrow, it starts picking up over the road's (and I've no idea who they're with!). It also has no problems in shopping centres/restaurants/pubs with wi-fi (I can connect fine in the local Costa for example). I did take it back to Brum a couple of days ago and, coincidentally, saw the same bloke who'd sold it me. He did, of course, confirm what I already knew: - there was bugger all wrong with the touch, it was an issue with the router (and I'm actually surprised at Eclipse; their download speeds are crappy, but they've always been hot on the customer service before now. Didn't recognise the name of the bloke who replied to my email, though, so I'm assuming he was new.)

As for the ancient Pods, sadly no, I was kipping rough at the time. Hoping to move back up to Yorkshire, eventually, mate, as I'm sick of festering here getting zero support. This is, however, proving to be rather difficult at the moment (for reasons probably far too unsavoury to mention on this board, but let's just say this problem's caused me to be locked in several supermarkets (most of 'em Tescos) and has even got me arrested (and, no, I've not been caught shoplifting!) But there you go, I don't want to drag this even further off-topic.

Hope I've answered your questions sufficiently well enough, matey!

Hugs,

Sarah xxx

_________________
I REALLY ought to give up procrastination - but it can wait 'til tomorrow...

OKay,

Still no dice here mate (and Eclipse ain't helping!) Still picks it up if I'm sitting right next to it. There's one thing that I DID neglect to mention and that's the fact that the kitchen's now about 2x longer than it was, owing to my mother demanding an extension, but that shouldn't make a difference, should it...? I mean my room's not moved!

Ah, it's my turn to look as I've just turned the ruddy thing upside down and seen it's only b & g, not n, so have I just solved my own problem...?

The specs state "802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)", so does that mean I need an 'n' enabled router for it to work properly (but, if that were the case, why would it pick it when I'm practically sitting on the damned thing...?!)?

Does this mean I'm going to have to replace the router? Would an AirPort Express AirTunes thingy be what I need...? Would it work without an AirPort card (cos I can't find one of those on the Apple Store)?

I don't really want to have to throw more money at this a) because I don't really have it and b) I don't really know how long I'm going to be round here (though I can foresee it being for a while longer yet).

If you've got any more ideas, which aren't gonna require me emptying my bank account, then let me know (something involving bullying Eclipse into being useful would be good...).

I REALLY would like to get this working; I mean, if I'd merely wanted something for tuneage, I'd have bought a Classic and saved myself £140.

Cheers, matey!

Sarah xxx

_________________
I REALLY ought to give up procrastination - but it can wait 'til tomorrow...

Your touch should work with a g router, (or b router even, as far as i know. They are backwards compatible, I believe). So that is not the problem. An Airport express could replace your Thomson wifi, you'd connect it by an ethernet cable to the router alongside the Mac. Then enable it as a wifi distribution point (by logging into it with Airport Utility) You could turn off the wifi on the router then. In AU you tell it what channel to operate on and what network name/password.



You could instead use it to extend the range of the existing network (more sensible just to connect it directly to the router though).

I have no idea why your existing wifi router only works at short range. You have proved it's not the touch's fault I think. Do you have any other wifi device to test the router with for range and reliability?

Next step is to replace the router I guess. You could use an Airport Express, it is very portable. You can take it with you and it can come in useful to you later for networks or airtunes.

Ask Eclipse for another router on loan for a week, to test. They sent me one on loan for a week, and were very helpful to me when my internet went down. (BT's fault, in the end I think but I bought another router)

- And it's nothing to do with the size of your mother's kitchen!!

Put an ad in the wanted and for sale section for someones castoff freebie router, you never know, someone may have one they don't need.

Why can't you upload songs to the touch, then you wouldn't need to stream them from the Mac? Or do you just need the wifi for the connection for the internet?

Is there a phone line upstairs near your room? You could move the router closer then. The phones can stay where they are.


Another thought: You could replace the router's antenna for high gain one. (If it has a standard RP-SMA socket).
But the antenna may not be at the root of the problem, so it would be a gamble...

One of these:
or
or similar.