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September 28th, 2007
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airport
apple
intel
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Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG Disconnects on Apple Airport
I’ve had my laptop (a Dell XPS Inspiron Generation 2) for almost three years now. It’s still running strong, and overall I’ve been pretty happy with it. However, since day one I’ve had one majorly aggravating issue with it: the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG card disconnects. Like, a lot. Frequently. Several dozen times a day. I called Dell support on several occasions, and they were never able to really help. They replaced the card once to no avail. Now that it’s out of warranty, I kind of gave up on making the stupid thing work.
Then I decided to Google one day… go figure.
So it turns out the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG (and, I presume, other Intel wireless products) has a feature called PSP, or “Power-Save Polling”. Essentially the technique causes the wireless card to switch between an active and low power passive operating state, reducing power consumption and boosting battery life for your laptop. That’s all well and good, but the technology requires that the router you’re using supports this feature, as both sides of the process must cooperate in a unique manner to keep the connection alive during the lower power phases.
Surprise, surprise: Apple’s Airport line (Airport Extreme, Airport Express, etc.) doesn’t support PSP.
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