Question imac intermittent net connection,help?

[mikehende]

Hey guys, for a while now my imac's net connection has been working intermittently and now this morning hardly working at all. No issues at all with any of the other computers here. I am not networking strong but can anyone help me solve this issue please?

 

[Ralston18]

Wired connection?

What connection path: imac direct to router or are there other connection points or devices? Wall jack, switch, powerline adapters, Access Point....?

Try using a known working Ethernet cable to connect. Start with direct to router if possible.

 

[mikehende]

Thanks. The iMac is connected both wireless and wired to the net. I am a little distance from the router but I have a tp link adapter connected to the wall AC outlet which I connect the iMac directly to and I just unplugged it, waited a few minutes, plugged back in and now the iMac net connection is working again.

Thing is, how do I solve the intermittent problem I face every day?

 

[bill001g]

Most times people say they are wired to the net when they use a ethernet cable directly to the router..or maybe they have ethernet cables in the wall.

What you have most people call a powerline connection, It tends to be better than wifi but it is still subject to interference but only from other stuff in your house. Can be anything but things with motors tend to be the worst. I have a shopvac that can kill them no matter where I plug in the shopvac.

Not sure what to recommend there is almost nothing you can set on the device. If you have the older models sometimes called av500 or av600 where the newer ones are av2-1000 or av2-2000. The newer models tend to be faster and more stable because they are using the hots as well as the ground. I guess you could try the standard try other outlets in the room and hope to get lucky. Also be sure that the unit plug directly into the wall out with no extensions or power strips.

If you have coax cable by the router and in the remote room you could try moca technology. Moca is almost imune to interference and is much faster. The newer units can do full gigabit and this is not some lie number people actually get this rate.

Also do not have both the wifi and ethernet enabled at the same time. In most cases the end device is smart enough to not use the wifi if the ethernet is available but sometimes they are very stupid. You are smarter than the machine so manually changing when you need is best.

 

[bill001g]

Another thought , maybe it is just a bad ethernet cable between the powerline unit and your pc. This would be the first thing tto suspect if you were plugged into the router directly since there is very little else that can cause it.

Make sure you have a quality cable. There is massive amounts of fake cable on the market. You need pure copper cable (no CCA) and the wire size must be 22-24 (no flat or thin cables). You need nothing better than cat5e unless cat6 happens to be cheaper.
Even quality cable can go bad and have a wire work lose in the plug end which will cause intermittent failures. A cable is going to be your cheapest option to try first rather than buy more equipment.

 

[mikehende]

Alright, thank you very much. I have disabled the wired connection for now, let me see first if the issue exists with the wifi, if it does then I will disconnect the wifi and go wired to test, will report back here.

 

[mikehende]

Looks like it was the wireless connection which was the issue. After my last post the wifi connection had started acting up again so I disabled it and connected the wired and no issues so far since then.

 

[bill001g]

Likely it was switching back and forth and messing things up. It is suppose to always use the ethernet when it has multiple options but something may have changed that setting.