problems with network connectivity on iMac

Recently I have been having problems with network connectivity either through ethernet or wireless on my iMac. The connectivity seems to be intermittent with access to the web dropping out. Other devices connected to the same wireless point work just fine, W7, android mobile and iPad.

IS there anything that could be causing a problem with the network connections?

I had similar issues and it took me many calls to Apple to try and find a solution which they unfortunately did not find.

I used to get connection drop outs and really slow connectivity to the point of basic dial up download speeds if i was lucky.

Anyway my problems which were very similar to yours were the netgear home plugs i have connected to the router,1 in the office and 1 downstairs in the living room.

Dont ask me why but these things all along were causing my problems yet it took me at least a month to find out,in the network settings my Netgear router ip kept on changing to 192.168.0.2 and i had something like WAG150N which is a linsky router in the Search Domains area of the imac settings...........This was my problem and dont ask me why these homeplugs picked up on this.

Also i know when i turn the mac on if the green lights are not all green on the homeplug in the office i will have issues,normally the middle light of the 3 will be red and the network settings will have changed and my ip of the router 192.168.0.1 will have changed to 192.168.0.2 and there will be this WAG150N in the domain area which is not there when everything is fine.

If i turn of the homeplugs my connection then gets better and i get my usual download speeds of about 12 meg,when the homeplugs play up im lucky to even be able to run a speed test and most web pages dont even load.

Netgears solution was buy some more homeplugs and they have no idea why this is happening ?

Edited by time2die (Sat 11-Feb-12 08:59:56)

Check out your network settings see if anything has changed and something is listed in the domain area of the settings.

You can also try changing the location from automatic and calling it something else,before i found out about the homeplugs causing my issues this did help on and off for a while which Apple suggested i do on initial phone call.

In reply to a post by time2die:

Netgears solution was buy some more homeplugs and they have no idea why this is happening ?

A couple of years ago PCPro did a comparison review of homeplugs. The Netgears they tested had throughput around 2megabit, whereas all the other makes had throughput around 40megabit. In the same house, and on a test harness they created. They never did get an answer from netgear as to why that was the case.

So are you saying that Netgear home plugs do not have enough power or something because if what you say is true then the next set i invest in will not be netgear.

I have to say without home plugs i would be lost using my consoles downstairs for online play.

I've no idea on the Netgear units, but I have used Devolo in the past and am currently using the Solwise Gigabit rated units - throughput to my NAS has doubled over the Devolo 200Mbps units (probably maxing the write speed n RAID5 now)

Edited by deleted (Sun 12-Feb-12 09:55:34)

how recently? didn't the last OS-X update screw up some people's networking?

Sounds like its time to get a set of these Solwise then .