That's a graph of the ping times from this 'ere mac mini to our wireless router. The big bar is about a second, the medium sized one about half. The pattern repeats itself over and over with extremely similar values each time.

a) Eh?
b) It doesn't look like random noise, so what kind of [insert source of interference here] pulses on and off every few seconds or so?
c) As it's for a computer that doesn't move I'm ponderin' about these over-the-mains network gadgets instead; does anyone use them? Are they worth it?

Ta muchly

Phil

Is it deffo your wireless? Have you tried connecting via ethernet cable?

Could it be your ISP? Is it the same at all times of day?

Presumably this is just from mac to the router?

a)Indeed.
b)Someone pinging?
c)Yep, I used some on my xbox for a while, they work very well in my experience.

As for your wireless issues, is it just this device? Have you tried others to see if they're the same? Also try 59's suggestion, is it the same wired?

Is the router busy? Can it display stats? Does it do it when the mac is right next to the router? Do you have a wireless thermostat in the house or something similar?

my that's a lot of questions.

using the devolo dlan 200 aveasy now. works a treat. amazon was the cheapest i found.

I hadn't tried over a wire, but it's definitely the wireless; over ethernet the ping is fine. It's nothing to do with the ISP; it does this whether the router is connected or not. It is just this machine, however; the other computer, a little netbook, works perfectly well all the time, even when plonked on top of the mac.

I think it's time to take it to bits and have a poke at it to see if anything looks amiss with the wireless card or aerial inside. If that doesn't help it sounds like through the mains is the way forward…

Have you tried changing the channel that the wireless is operating on?

My first thought was interference – I get something similar in my kitchen from the washing machine or the pump for the central heating. However thats a very regular graph for interference, I would expect something a bit more random to be honest. Actually, it may be a microwave – or some other digital source of interference.

However the netbook proves its not – as its so regular, and its not interference (unless your macs antenna are totally gash or your netbooks on g and your macs on n) its may well be a driver issue or the mac equivalent of the IP stack having issues.

Use a cable connection and check that, then update drivers etc.

(I'm assuming thats your ping to your router and not outside your network).

David.

(EDIT: Actually probably not a microwave as its on for a longer time than its off if I recall right…)

(EDIT Again: Perhaps its a dimmer or flouresent tube? Or wireless house phone? But then they would be ruled out by the netbook. Hmmm. Deffo tried wired but not that naff network over power lines stuff – an actual cat 5 / 6 cable).

The Airport Extreme wireless hardware in the Mac Mini is fairly infamous for ping spike issues. I've not looked into it much but from what I gathered you can sometimes fix it by changing the wireless channel, or the wireless speed (b/g/n etc.). Basically just changing things until it works. I never did find a concrete fix.

Aye – looks like its mac hardware / firmware / drivers:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1765687

http://www.paralipsis.org/2005/07/airport3c905-packet-loss-solved/

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=238295

Some stuff on those links.

Might be less hassle to pick up a cheap USB one that works of ebay.

David.