Apple iPad

My Mac drove my daughter to tears today. For some reason unknown, it would not connect to my wireless network. She has a paper to write, and she writes all of her stuff in Google Documents, so without a network connection she was dead in the water.

The ultimate "solution" was to restart my router. WTF? My two Windows machines, my wife's Dell laptop, my Wii, PS3, and TiVo all had no problems with connectivity. Why would the Mac be so finicky about it?

That last question is bona fide: if anyone knows a fix for this that does not involve rebooting my network, I'd be interested to hear.
 
flaminio said:
That last question is bona fide: if anyone knows a fix for this that does not involve rebooting my network, I'd be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

Had the same problem with a Dlink router and my GF's Macbook Pro. For some reason, the two didn't play nicely together under the best encryption the router offered but worked well without the encryption (which is useless). No other notebooks, and I tested several, had issues. Ultimately replaced it with a Netgear model that has a bunch of blue LEDs in a circle pattern and haven't had problems since.

I've seen similar issues with PCs as well, but the Macbook Pro is much more finicky when it comes to wireless routers for some reason... I recently had a problem with a notebook and a Linksys WRT54G2 router, it wouldn't connect with WPA2 Personal and AES encryption, even when manually creating the connection. However, I loaded DD-WRT on it with the same type of encryption and it works fine. On any router that might be DD-WRT compatible, I recommend this route... http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index
 
...if anyone knows a fix for this that does not involve rebooting my network, I'd be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

I commend you for keeping your cool and being able to conduct a spirited debate! As for your wireless issue, I used to have to richard with the settings on my Linksys WRT54GS all the time when it was paired with the Compaq I had, but since I have had the PowerPC G5 the wireless has been ultra-reliable. The only issue I had was getting the iPad to link - in that instance I reset the router to the default settings, then set the security to WPA - Personal, Channel 6, broadcast mode wireless G only. I am thinking that the critical items were setting to WPA and broadcasting wireless G only, not so much which channel. So try one or both of those: WPA and broadcast in G only if all of your machines are G-capable.

I will concede that my girlfriend's old Dell (obsolete work computer, she bought it from them for $5 when her company upgraded) and her Wal-Mart Belkin router have been the model of stability for her. The main purpose of the Desktop is to give her something with which to to sync her iPod, iPod Touch, and iPad. Although the desktop it is connected to her 50" plasma, she prefers using the iPad over using the desktop (before the iPad she was using a vintage Dell laptop). She flits from room to room carrying her iPad with her like a security blanket. She seems to be thrilled with the iPad, which she uses to retrieve her work e-mail from the work server, and her new thing as of yesterday is using the Netflix app on the iPad to watch Netflix movies. Which is something I intend to use my iPad for: to stream movies from the iPad to the flat-screen on my boat.
 
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flaminio said:
My Mac drove my daughter to tears today. For some reason unknown, it would not connect to my wireless network. She has a paper to write, and she writes all of her stuff in Google Documents, so without a network connection she was dead in the water.

The ultimate "solution" was to restart my router. WTF? My two Windows machines, my wife's Dell laptop, my Wii, PS3, and TiVo all had no problems with connectivity. Why would the Mac be so finicky about it?

That last question is bona fide: if anyone knows a fix for this that does not involve rebooting my network, I'd be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

When that happens it is usually the DHCP server inside the router that has crashed. This is only used when a device needs to renew its address lease, which can be valid for a few hours, or a number of days. The other devices probably have leases that have not expired yet, so they don't notice anything wrong. Eventually they would have stopped working when their leases ran out. But your mac just happened to run out of its lease at that time and needed the DHCP server to renew it. Since it was down, it required a restart of the router.
 
flaminio said:
My Mac drove my daughter to tears today. For some reason unknown, it would not connect to my wireless network. She has a paper to write, and she writes all of her stuff in Google Documents, so without a network connection she was dead in the water.
Click to expand...

What??? I'll tell you what real tears are. Real tears are writing a 10 page paper (single spaced) on a Smith Corona typewriter, only to realize that a mistake on the first page pushes a line out on to the next page so that each subsequent page needs to be re-typed from entirety. Lol! :biggrin:

Kids these days don't know how good they have it! :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
Gansan said:
When that happens it is usually the DHCP server inside the router that has crashed. This is only used when a device needs to renew its address lease, which can be valid for a few hours, or a number of days. The other devices probably have leases that have not expired yet, so they don't notice anything wrong. Eventually they would have stopped working when their leases ran out. But your mac just happened to run out of its lease at that time and needed the DHCP server to renew it. Since it was down, it required a restart of the router.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I'll check for a firmware upgrade next chance I get; maybe it'll go away some day.
 
flaminio said:
That makes sense. I'll check for a firmware upgrade next chance I get; maybe it'll go away some day.
Click to expand...

This problem actually hit me before so it was burned into my memory. I was so frustrated because other devices worked except one (iphone), until I found the suggestion to reboot the router. I never considered the router would silently crash like that.
 
flaminio said:
My Mac drove my daughter to tears today. For some reason unknown, it would not connect to my wireless network. She has a paper to write, and she writes all of her stuff in Google Documents, so without a network connection she was dead in the water.

The ultimate "solution" was to restart my router. WTF? My two Windows machines, my wife's Dell laptop, my Wii, PS3, and TiVo all had no problems with connectivity. Why would the Mac be so finicky about it?

That last question is bona fide: if anyone knows a fix for this that does not involve rebooting my network, I'd be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

This happens with our MAC Book as well- no problems with any other devices. We run a Netgear router as well.
 
NetViper said:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/15/ipad-printing-solved/

Printing on the iPad solved!
Click to expand...

blogipadprintingbig.jpg
 
I took fifteen minutes out of my busy week to look for printer apps for the iPod/iPhone/Ipad. There are a number of photo printing apps available, will have to research more on doc printing apps when I have more time.
 
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In all seriousness, can you tether an iPad to your existing phone? No need for a 3G iPhone if that is the case.
 
NetViper said:
In all seriousness, can you tether an iPad to your existing phone? No need for a 3G iPhone if that is the case.
Click to expand...


If you can create a wifi network with your phone, you can tether, just like some people are doing with their jailbroken iPhones with the MyWi app.

I haven't heard anything yet about bluetooth tethering, but I'll look into it.
 
Printing will be to iPad like Copy/Paste was to the iPhone. It'll show up in the next OS release. In the meantime, Apple will act like it doesn't exist.
 
I bought an IPAD on day one like I said I would for one reason only. It's a prototype for the future of automation remotes until it goes completely hands-free or gesture based (not for a while). For $400-$600 you can have a wireless remote with most of the capability of automation remotes that used to cost over $4000 a piece. They can be integrated into most control systems already and simply need to prove reliable in the long run. As much as we AV dealers love to make tons of dough on many expensive touchpanels, those days are slowly coming to an end. The money is in the integration components and processors at the head-end, design and install. The days of making tens of thousands additional profit on panels will slowly fade and dealers that don't see that now will be left with their pants down when it becomes a reality. The Iphone integration has been working great for us, but they are far too small for anything but specialty usage. Now the IPAD provides the necessary real estate for a real remote. It's not going to be the only solution, but a great alternative.

We may not make anything on the IPAD, but our clients will be buying several or more per home. It's an opportunity that a lot of dealers are going to miss and be late to the party. Very wealthy individuals will still spend their money. They simply use the extra dough to upgrade other aspects of their system like even better video and sound. Those on more of a budget will finally be able to afford full featured touchpanel remotes throughout their house where they used to have to settle for a much more basic, entry level remote.

We're going to be one of the first out of the gate the moment the full app is released shortly to offer it as an option to all our clients.

All the other stuff it can do in addition to a remote is just a bonus as far as I'm concerned... one more thing other remotes can't do. It may still have a lot of very legitimate negatives, but in the automation world, this little item is going to be a game changer.
 
heySkippy said:
Yes. I believe releasing products involves compromises between quality, features, timing, and more. Printing as a feature will be nice, but so far I'm not missing it.
Click to expand...

Printing is a pretty basic feature. Been around for how many years now? Why would you not include printing?
 
I'm actually glad that it can't print. I still have clients that print off every email; every report. They'll print an email, read the printout, and then throw the paper away. It's nonsense. Maybe a little "tough love" will wean them from their paper addiction.
 
ilya said:
We're going to be one of the first out of the gate the moment the full app is released shortly to offer it as an option to all our clients.

All the other stuff it can do in addition to a remote is just a bonus as far as I'm concerned... one more thing other remotes can't do. It may still have a lot of very legitimate negatives, but in the automation world, this little item is going to be a game changer.
Click to expand...

Ilya, is there a specific app you're planning on using, or are you guys developing your own in-house?

The reason I'm asking is that I did a lot of work in this area a few years ago and have amassed a very thorough database of IR codes and devices. We also had a very good activity based design.

I haven't touched this project in some time, so the device mappings would have to be reworked, but given a good partner something like this could evolve into the defacto high end home automation and AV control SW for iPad. One of our big challenges a few years ago was developing a cheap WiFi+Blaster device. It seems like there are a few of these around now, and if you go to China, it would be even cheaper to mass produce your own. Thoughts? Given some of the established products out there, if you had a compelling and competitive product, what could you sell a turnkey solution for? $1000? $1500? $2000?
 
flaminio said:
I'm actually glad that it can't print. I still have clients that print off every email; every report. They'll print an email, read the printout, and then throw the paper away. It's nonsense. Maybe a little "tough love" will wean them from their paper addiction.
Click to expand...
I agree, I rarely print any more.

But in some cases it's nice to have a print out though...
 

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