Betalogue

This is a follow-up on the problem I discussed last week with the MacBook failing to see AppleTalk printers over AirPort with a older Graphite AirPort Base Station.

I have since received the AirPort Extreme Base Station that I ordered following this incident, and I have tested things while using the AirPort Extreme Base Station in lieu of my older Graphite ABS.

I can now confirm that, with the AirPort Extreme BS, the problem does appear to be fixed. In other words, the Apple tech note that alleges that this was a known issue that was fixed in the 10.4.6 system update is correct—except that the fix only works with AirPort Extreme Base Stations, and not with Graphite AirPort Base Stations.

For Graphite AirPort Base Stations, the problem still exists in 10.4.6, and it’s still impossible for a MacBook (or MacBook Pro, probably) to see AppleTalk printers connected to the Graphite ABS.

It is still possible that Apple will eventually fix the problem for Graphite base stations as well, but since these Graphite base stations (even though they still work perfectly well) are no longer officially supported by Apple, I don’t suspect that they’ll be in a rush to fix it.

On a side note, this new AirPort Extreme Base Station that I purchased for this MacBook computer that I have now decided to return to Apple doesn’t look like it’s going to spend a long time in this household either. I am looking at it right now. It is in the same room as my G5 Quad, about 6 feet away from the G5, with no obstacles between them. Yet the AirPort menu extra gives me two bars out of five for the signal strength!

The Titanium PowerBook G4 in my wife’s office, i.e. with a wall and shelving and all kinds of stuff between it and the AirPort base station, actually gets 5 bars out of 5! And I have never had anything but 5 bars with the older Graphite ABS and the G5 Quad in this room.

After all the stuff we’ve been through in the past few days, I just do not need the extra aggravation of a brand new AirPort Extreme base station that gives me 2 bars out of 5 when sitting in the same room as the computer.

And they’d better not ask me to pay a f***ing restocking fee for that brand new ABS that doesn’t work.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 8:57 am and is filed under Macintosh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.