Could a Macbook Pro be causing my network drops?

[dan]

I know this sounds odd and I have no idea if it's even possible for one computer to cause a connection to drop but there is my analysis so far.

For the last 4 months my Internet connection has been working just fine, I recently went to London for 2 weeks and my girlfriend stayed behind and she reported that it was fine when I was away. Within a day of me returning every so often the Internet connection would drop. So I went through what may be wrong:

• Was the modem dropping the connection?

I could browse to the router still and perform pings and trace routes just fine whilst still not being able to browse from any of our wireless devices (until a router reboot).​

• I have a Vonage box plugged in and a connection testing device by Visualware plugged in, was it these?

I unplugged both form the router and the connection still, eventually, dropped. Even when the connection drops from all wireless devices the Vonage phone is still useable (the box has a direct connection obviously).​

• Was it my computer (ASUS N76V Series, iMac, Macbook Air)?

The Macbook Air and iMac are rarely used and haven't been in use when this issue occurs so I ruled them out. I searched for the problem I Was having and a few suggested that unchecking the "allow computer to turn off device to save power" on my Wireless adapter may be causing it. I unchecked this but the router still dropped the connection.​

• That leaves the router itself

I tried setting it to Access Point mode, re-entering my static IP details, rechecking these details with Time Warner Cable, resetting the entire device to factory settings and starting from scratch. Nothing worked! So off to Office Depot I go....​

• New Router

A new $200 D-Link Router later and I thought I'd finally got over the issue.....and then the connection drops!​

So, I've tried a LOT of things but still can't figure it out.

That leaves my girlfriend and her 1 or 2 year old MacBook Pro (she has taken it to college so can't verify details yet). I started to notice that whenever she was using her laptop the connection was dropping. She's always used Mac's but has never understood computers/memory/updating etc. Needless to say over the last year or two I'm sure it's become quite a state. She always has more windows open than I can possibly fathom and (using an app) her memory is always dropping down to less than 40Mb free. I also noticed that she has iMovie and iPhoto still awaiting download, if that has anything to do with it I'm not sure. The connection doesn't stay up long enough for me to download them.

So:

1. 
   [*]Is there any way her Macbook Pro can be causing the entire connection to drop and require a router reboot to re-establish?
   [*]Is there any software/app we can get that will revamp/clean up her entire system? Recommendations welcome (I use mainly Windows).
   [*]Is there anything I haven't checked that could be causing the problem I'm having?
   

Thanks a lot in advance!

PS: She's away for about 5 hours and has taken the Macbook with her so if the connection stays up the entire time and drops when she's home then I think we have the answer. (it's been an hour already and no drops yet).

 

[johnb35]

Yes, it can be her computer causing the issue. Does she connect wireless or through an ethernet cable? Could be a hardware issue with either the lan port or wireless card, maybe try updating the driver for it. Also if she is connecting with a cable then try a different cable.

 

[dan]

Yes, it can be her computer causing the issue. Does she connect wireless or through an ethernet cable? Could be a hardware issue with either the lan port or wireless card, maybe try updating the driver for it. Also if she is connecting with a cable then try a different cable.

Thanks John, she's connecting via Wireless. I will try and update it all later. Wouldn't using the software update option pick up on any firmware updates?

 

[johnb35]

I'm not familiar with Macs so don't know what you are talking about with the firmware update.

 

[dan]

I'm not familiar with Macs so don't know what you are talking about with the firmware update.

Hi John,

I had to do something on my iMac and started to have trouble too so I think it's an update that's occurred on Macs that is causing the issue.

I read a solution that involved removing the Wi-Fi connection and re-adding it which appears to have worked so far. I will try this with my girlfriends laptop when she returns!