Netgear Wireless Router & MacBook & Nintendo Wii

[l008com]

So for years, i've been using a cheap Netgear wireless G router for my MacBook/iBooks. I don't use the netgear as a router, just as a wireless bridge to my existing network (my server runs DHCP/NAT). I haven't asked much of it, and it's run great for years. Longer than most people get out of these super cheap routers.

So I got a Nintendo Wii for christmas, and ever since I put the Wii on my wireless network, my MacBook has been suffering. The MacBook keeps loosing it's IP from DHCP. It doesn't seem to lose it's connection to the wireless network itself, just drops it's IP. It will come back in a minute or two, so you can just manually renew it and it comes right back. It's still extremely annoying, and I'm really not sure where the problem is. Really, it could be any one of 4 things: the MacBook, the Netgear Wireless, the Wii, or my Server. I suspect it's the Netgear just because they are the most likely to fail. I haven't really spent much time troubleshooting the problem since I don't spend much time using the MacBook when I'm home anyway. Still very annoying though.

[arn1499]

Have you tried reserving an IP address for your MB's and the Wii? I use a netgear router also and the DHCP always changes the IPs between my iMac, Dell laptop, NAS HD, and xBox so I set the router to assign IPs specifically based on the MAC addresses of my devices. Now my xBox is always 192.168.1.5 for example...this helps because I frequently FTP to it and don't want to have to constantly change the address to do so.

Not sure if this will help you or not, but I'd be worth a shot.

[l008com]

I suspect the problem was the router simply failing. I've replaced it with an Airport Express. I haven't messed with the Wii yet though, I'll have to do that one of these days and see if it works any better.