One the most common arguments I hear from my Mac-loving friends is that OS X is better than linux because it “just works”. Bollocks! I’ve just spent the last day and a half trying to get my 2nd generation Mac Mini to talk to a wireless router on the other side of my bedroom wall.
For the most part I’ve had no issues with hardware or software, and I’ve grown to actually quite like OS X, my wireless issues over the last day or so are just taking the piss!
The trouble started when I set up my Mini again and tried to connect to the router in a room across the hall. Apparently, the router didn’t exist. This would be puzzling even ignoring the fact that my EEE was sitting on the same desk while reporting 83% signal strength. Dropping all encryption allowed me to connect for long enough to download 9 months of security updates, but the signal strength was so low that it barely registered, and after a restart the network “disappeared” for good.
After exhausting all the usual WiFi debugging tricks, I began searching various Mac-related forums for a possible solution with no great success. Moving the Mini to the same room as the router was not impossible, but is incredibly impractical. One suggestion to drill holes and run cable across the hall struck me as being particularly stupid. That is until I remembered a strange email I received while I was travelling.
For reasons unknown, my parents came to be in possession of a pair of powerline Ethernet adapters, which I had read about but never actually seen in the “real world”. A quick rummage in a drawer turned up a couple of Comtrend PowerGrid 902 adapters, and five minutes later (Truly plug-and-play!) I was negotiating an Ethernet connection over the mains power cables in the walls!
Ethernet over powerlines always struck me as being expensive and not all that reliable, but so far everything seems to be working at a similar speed to CAT5, and to be honest I’m just glad that I’ve got this thing connected to the internet again! I’m not really sure what’s happening to make it work (It seems a little like magic at the moment!) but hopefully I’ll get time to investigate it soon.
