For two days running my router (Netgear DG8934 wired router) has refused to perform on start up. Network Diagnostics instructed me to restart it on each occasion, after which it is now fine. I normally leave it switched on for years and it has been no trouble. Last week I gave the Macs and their desk a spring clean, and everything was switched off. It's all been fine since until yesterday. Could the router be feeling it's age?
PowerPC G5
Eric: Disturbed dust can be a great enemy to electronics (as well as to photographers). I remember an original iMac that had been retired under some young person's bed, but was hauled out a year or two later, switched on, and worked fine. It was then transported (upside down in a nest of duvets) to the new owner upon which it chimed, but had ceased to work properly.
After some serious internal de-dusting (CAUTION: see note below) it returned to life and so far as I know is still working fine several years later.
Here's the caution:
strong flows of air past circuits can create static which could zap the chips etc. leaving you much worse off. This is also true of the aerosol cans of clean air much used by photographers.
Here's the method:
DISCONNECT from the power etc. By all means use the aerosols but use short "dust-dislodging" gentle bursts -- with a vacuum cleaner hose the other side to catch the debris. Gentle zephyrs to a good sailing breeze is the aim. A deep breath and a few sharp puffs from healthy lungs achieve the same end where there is good access. Hurricanes and gales are not useful.
Above all, don't use sustained blasts in confined spaces, and don't put the vacuum cleaner nozzle close to the electronics.
Sometimes this can help laptops whose fans seem to become more and more active as dust accumulates on the fan blade edges. I prefer a small stiffish artist's paintbrush (dampened, exceptionally, with a little methylated spirits). Otherwise, with Lion, try zapping the P-RAM, it worked for me.
Those whose housework is perfect or who like to avoid these issues, may enjoy Philip Pullman's allegories.
So special thanks to those unsung heroines who keep the world's nerds and geeks (more-or less) dust free…
ummm: is that PC these days? Let us know how you get on.
Thanks, Euan,
I didn't know that about strong currents of air and static; machine is fine today. As to Mr Pullman's 'Allegories', is this about Tony Blair?
No. (Or, in the words of another parliamentarian: No, No, No.) Any more than the 'Blair Witch Project' is. A cursory glance at the "allegories" link should have made this abundantly clear, but it seems no one bothers to read these days ;-)
PS. my smilies have noses because they are human cheerfulnesses.
Still got the same problem. The green light on the front of the router that looks like a candlestick keeps flickering, and it takes ages to get through to anywhere; this site in particular as it's the first one I go to. I have to restart the router at least once a day, and this usually improves the speed. This morning it didn't, until I allowed Network Diagnostics to talk me through the procedure. It's been OK for the last few minutes but now that poxy candlestick is flickering again!
I shan't mind buying a new router if that really is the problem BUT:
Since restarting the device only works when Network Diagnostics talks me through it, is there something wrong with the G5 ( Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC running Leopard 10.5.8)?
Eric, I assume you have tried the obvious things like connections from router to Mac, router to filter, and that the filter is firmly into the BT socket. Also worth trying another filter. (all this is assuming you are on ADSL via a BT line).
If that fails, try a 'quiet line test' on your phone (dial 17070 and follow the instructions). If there is any audible noise, then report it as a voice fault.
After that, you are into reporting a line fault to your ISP. They will almost certainly ask you to do connect via the BT test socket, repeat the above tests and also to try another router before setting up an engineer visit, in order to reduce the risk of you being charged if the fault is found to be with your equipment.
Personally, I doubt it's the router - unless you have been switched from ADSLmax to ADSL2+ which, being a newer protocol, could possibly be giving your router a bit of a headache. If you haven't done it already, it would be worth logging into your router and looking at the router stats which will tell you quite a bit about the condition of your line.
1) See if you can ping the router. Load Network Utility found in Applications>Utilities and select the Ping option. Enter the IP address of the router which if you haven't changed it will be 192.168.0.1 and click the Ping button. You should see some results with a final line which says something like "10 packets sent, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss". If you don't see this but have a long(ish) wait with only "Ping has started" showing and get 100% packet loss then your Mac cannot connect to the router - see point 3.
2) If you get a positive result from 1 above, open a browser window and type into the address bar the IP address of the router. Enter the user name and password (the defaults for Netgear are admin and password respectively) to go to the configuration page. In the left hand menu, under Maintenance, click on Router Status then at the bottom of the page that opens, click Connection Status. A small window will open. The Connection Time is how long the router has been connected to your ISP in hours, minutes and seconds. Connecting to Server should say Connected. If it doesn't and the time is 0:00, click the connect button to see if it will. If it won't then you may have a router problem but I'd investigate the possibility of a line fault or ISP problem before buying a new one.
3) If point 1 fails, try another ethernet socket in the back of the router and/or the second ethernet port in the Mac (I believe there are two).
However as part of the the "getting the ISP to check things out" process they will want you to try to see if using a different router fixes the problem.
So beg borrow or steal a different router ad see what happens.
Thank you very much Gentlemen,
I'm slowly working my way through the enormous 'to do' list. I changed the ADSL filter yesterday , as I had a spare new one, and today it's been downloading from the iPlayer at great speed. We shall see if it lasts!
Eric Jervis 