Intel iMac keeps randomly dropping Airport connection

My Intel Duo core iMac keeps randomly dropping its Airport connection. It never used to do this until a few months ago. The Airport menu bars randomly show half grey, or all grey, and either I have to turn Airport on/off from the menu to get all the bars back to black, or sometimes they just come back on.
Logically, I guess it can only be three things, a problem in the (a) Intel iMac (eg. airport card), (b) my Airport Express Base station, or (c) my ADSL 2+ NetComm modem router. Now, fortunately I have a first generation white G5 iMac set up side by side to help diagnose the problem. When the Intel iMac airports bars go half grey or all grey, the Airport bars on the white G5 iMac stay black or at worst show one grey bar.
At face value, I guess this points to the Intel iMac itself being the problem? Or could it be that the Airport Express Base station is the problem, and the Intel iMac is more sensitive to the problem than the white G5 iMac? I'm sort of leaning to the Airport Base station as the problem because when the Intel iMac drops out, the white G5 coincidentally drops out albeit by only one grey bar generally.
Its quite annoying because its so unpredictable and intermittent. My Intel iMac has full Applecare, but I would feel stupid to haul it into Apple only for them to say I wasted their time and the problem must be the Airport Base station/modem router.
All comments welcome!
Fox
null

Well, for what its worth, I'll give you the update to my problem. The Apple technician said during all their testing, my Intel iMac never dropped the Airport connection once - and the problem might be some interference between the iMac and the Airport Express unit. That didn't quite make sense because my white G5 iMac seems fine; the occasional variable signal but not a full drop out. Anyway, the technician said he applied a 'few software updates' - although I don't know what these updates were, especially since I always apply Apple public updates as they are released.
Now, when I got my Intel iMac back about a week ago, I am very happy to say the dropout/weak signal problem appears to be no more (touch wood). Thus, I don't know what was done, but it has seemingly fixed things so far.
Would anyone know what updates Apple might have applied - and I assume its something that is not readily available to the public, since I always keep an eye on public software updates.
Fox

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I am having a similar issue. I have not yet tested with standard Ethernet, only Wireless using WPA2.
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Okay, a little history here. I've been a Mac user for 20+ years. I know my way around these machines. I have a Mac Pro and a Mac Book, and when they were running Tiger I had zero problems with Airport connections in either case.
However, since I upgraded to Leopard about a year ago, I've had nothing but problems with Airport. The connection drops out every few minutes on both of my machines. Sometimes it re-establishes itself, but other times I have to do it manually. About 50% of the time, it doesn't connect at all. It asks me for my password (which is saved automatically) and when I hit 'return' it says the password is incorrect (it's not).
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This is driving me crazy!

Mac OS X doesn't have a clean install option:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607614
So unless you did an erase and install, you can't say you have eliminated any potential hardware issue with your machine.
Linda P, Astriker, and anyone who does not have a solution for Badlydrawnboy, please start a new topic thread below:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1222&start=0
You'll make it harder to get a solution for them as the causes of wireless failure are many. My FAQ* here below discusses the most common reasons, which have existed since the first version of airport many years ago:
http://www.macmaps.com/WIFI1048.html
The fact that multiple base stations were tried, and multiple machines were tried, says the issue is external to both! It means to me, that you have something interfering with your wireless connection that you haven't considered. Piping in the walls, file cabinets in line of sight, external wireless networks on the same channel, microwave ovens, wireless land line phones can all contribute to WiFi's demise.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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Thanks for the quick reply.
I have not had this issue outside of my home wifi so I suppose this points to a router issue.
When I read that others have had the same issue I presumed it was a bug.
"Updates" does mean router firmware updates.
I am using WPA2-PSK security but have tried WEP and WPA-PSK setting with the same result.
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Intel iMac keeps randomly dropping Airport connection

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