I have a client who had a poorly designed network. very bad. switches every where and he has close to 20 sonos pieces. worked for weeks to get it working.

Here is the issue, when the sonos would crash the network his apple producs seemed to be affected first. Now fast forward 2 months of a stable network. His Imac and mac book pro are having wifi issues. But he is kinda lumping it all together and saying the network hasnt really worked.

1.when first stp and broadcast storms issues. solved

2. Poorly designed network issues. solved

3. Now his 2 computers that are probably identical setting are having an issue which is more than likely an apple issue is being blamed on by network. I have stressed we need to think that these are separate issues. he will call me and say a tstat went offline see its the network. He has 50 devices that are always on the network not including phones, ipads and guest etc.

How do approach explaining you have 50 devices one is going to lose wifi connection once in a while and that doesnt mean there is something wrong with the network or something I did wrong. And you need to consider going to apple with your computers.

has anybody else have mac issues client blames on network.

What version of OS X is he running ? I’ve had issues with the network interface card on OS X Yosemite when changing between aces points it drops out.

With his iMac is there an option of running it over a wired connection ? If so I would, there’s no point being wireless if you don’t need it

You could also ask him next time it happens to test the laptop on a wired connection to trouble shoot / narrow down the issue

This is where my stress starts he said” hardwiring it is not fixing the issue it’s putting a bandaid on it. And want it fixed ! “

To make matters worst he is a dr. So he can’t leave the laptop or the iMac unlocked.

I often tell people that for starters, you have to come to grips with the fact that the Internet and Wi-Fi are not up 100% of the time.

To add some weight to the discussion, you should make mention of the fact that many offices and businesses have full-time IT people. That is because there are always things that come up.

If he is unwilling to accept the above two comments, and work with you on a civil basis, I would cut the cord with him.

His statement about wiring the computer as a Band-Aid of course is idiotic beyond compare. So you need to gently correct him on that, noting that anything wireless is subject to interference, and wired connections are always preferable. That gets back to him respecting you and being civil with you.

Sometimes you have to draw the line.

Tell him "Hard-wired is for performance, WiFi is for convenience" and if he ever says something stupid about BandAids again, respond with "Oh, like prescribing Opioids for something that should be repaired with surgery?".

Geek Squad exists for Douche Bag doctors.

Does he take his Mac Book Pro to work?
Ask him has we ever had wifi issues at work? What was the fix?

If he has and he says the IT department takes care of it; then ask him to find out what issues his Mac Book is having at work, as they are likely the same problems at home.

If he doesn't ever have problems at work with his Mac Book Pro, then maybe you need to dive a little deeper into your configuration/design to try and figure out why.

How old is his computer? If older than 2 years, tell him to buy a new one. That may at least take care of the computer problem.

Show him articles like this that illustrate that products today are fallible and constantly have issues.

[Link: airetheaterdesigns.com]

Keep in mind that Wi-Fi can be affected by wacky stuff. We had a client that was losing Wi-Fi connection (but the wired LAN would stay up) with L***l equipment and some other posters mentioned that they ran into the same issues when there were Honeywell security pieces in place. When we checked, our client had Honeywell.

If you want to troubleshoot this wacky stuff, also keep in mind that Access can design a system that allows you to troubleshoot this stuff to the nth degree. It costs $35K+ but it allows you to figure out what you need. Our first Access project really opened our eyes to the visibility of their products AND how expensive this stuff can be if you want it done right.

Without knowing you or your client, I'd say with 99.99999999999% certainty that the good doctor won't even consider a five-figure network. However, it's good to know (it was for us at least) that when their are issues with a bad wallplate, STP, Honeywell, RF noise, etc. that it can be diagnosed if the client really wants/needs to figure it out.

Good luck

What equipment are you using at his home??

Hardwire all Sonos if possible. Then turn off the WiFi on all the Sonos players. Has cured EVERY network problem on systems that had sonos in them for a year now.

Or wire the first one and none of the others.

We hardwired the Sonos and turned Wi-Fi off. Plugging one in and run rest Wi-Fi is next step if needed.

The tstats are Lutron from Honeywell alarm might be also.

I’m not saying any brand names. Because it will start the “that brand sucks” debate and nothing useful will come out it.

Brad ,

The iMac never moves and the Mac book maybe. But the hospital could only running 2.4 and at home we are on 5ghz.

I think he has a firewall or something screwing it up at home. I just had this a huge company none of there computers could connect to the TVs. And every laptop we had could.

Are the laptops loosing wifi connection or are they losing internet connection? Big difference..

I've had issues with MAC computers running off of Comcast/Xfinity routers and internet before, they do not like the Comcast DNS servers for whatever reason. As soon as I set the DNS server in the MAC to Google DNS the connection issues went away.

Well unfortunately brands do matter because not all are equal or at least have the built-in tools required to diagnose this shit.

If its Luxul, there I said the name not you, move on to something else.