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Wireless at school timing out

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13 replies

by 5jgibbs

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Right now, when we go onto an iBook, and try to connect to the wireless internet, most of the time we just wait forever, and finally get an error saying our \HOME folder could not be found. We are thinking it?s a BW issue, because when we plug em in to the cat5, most of the time the success rate of connecting to the X server is much higher. Does anyone know of anything that could be causing this? I know.. MAC..

BAHHHUMBUG

Thanks a lot

Jeremy

13 replies

by jdclyde

Server you are accessing.
CPU/Memory. Is it maxing out?
Is it a switched or hubbed network?
10 or 100 base?
How many users?

Do you time out with the wireless doing other applications?
do an extended ping to somewhere on the internet and see what you are dropping.

by 5jgibbs

well, we use ibooks, we are on a 11mbs wireless access point.. it worked last year fine. the access point is connected via 10/100 mbs cat5 that goes to a switch that is converted to fiber back to the OS X server. the os x server is running a raid 5, but its a very very high bw thing we use.. we have a interactive desktop, were if i login on 2 diffrent computers via the x server, and i make a new file on the desktop, it will show up on the other.. so everything is pulled directally from the server.. i thought that was a dumb idea.. but you know.. in the line of command i am prob dead last..

by dafe2

If it's worked fine for a year, I'd look to the access point.

Your backbone/infrastructure sound more than adequate.

As others have mention - Either AP overload or Signal strentgh. I'd add antenna or AP faillure at this point.

Good Luck

by 5jgibbs

well, our signal strength is fine. A teacher at the school can log in using the x server by plugging in the domain.. and i authorize it.. the domain is
osx-high.nhart.org

he logs in fine. he has a power book. when we try to use an ibook, that?s the problem. i was thinking that maybe the DNS was not configured right or something.

you know how if you dont have your DNS set correctly it takes forever to log in.. well, it almost seams like that. but sometimes we will get right on, but most of the time it just sits there.

sometimes even the wired connection is bad. i have noticed during 3rd period classes, its BAD all over the school, in the library, labs, everywhere, in the office there is a 10/100/1000 connection between an os-x computer and the server, and that takes a while when there are problems.

some upgrades are being done over this short vacation, hopefully we will have the problem fixed by then.

Thanks
Jeremy

by dafe2

We don't have chrystal balls :-)

From what you say here & re-reading your post your problem lies with the network settings....and your right it's likely a DNS issue.

I don't know the I-Book but someone else may offer some advice here.

Good Luck

by 5jgibbs

i understand that, i just talked with Jason, works for the school on the network.. and he said it may be a problem were the access point is assigning the wrong DNS to the laptops, and he things that there may be a bottleneck somewhere from the switch to that single aria, i will post back with some results when i find out.

thanks
Jeremy

by jdclyde

Is there just one access point or do you have a few?

If you have more than one, I would try to swap the access point out.

I just had to replace one because it would not feed the DHCP setting sometimes. I would have to reboot the access point and then the systems would connect.

Is your switch a smart switch that you can log into? If so, look to see if there is excessive traffic coming from somewhere. If you have a bad switch/hub/NIC somewhere that could cause the network to slow down.

by 5jgibbs

well, it was the LDAP server timeing out, but we will have that
fixed with the next update of mac os x

by jdclyde

Yes, I remember when Toys-R-Us had the special so people went out and bought MAC's instead of computers.

(Sorry, had to throw that in there)
Good luck when the update comes out.

Isn't there a work around that MAC has till then?

by 5jgibbs

well.. the school went with the 4000 series switch for the core insted of the 6000 series so we think that could be a problem, also, the ldap server is located on a older computer, but its fast enough to do the job, but i suggested the idea of trunking, that would work.

Jeremy

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