Intermittant Airport Reception and Cache Cleaning

Since applying the Mac OS X 10.4.1 Security Update 2005-006 (#3), the Airport reception on my iMac was unreliable; I’ll have a strong signal, then, suddenly, for no apparent reason it drops down to almost no signal, and eventually, all the way down to no signal at all. This was more than a little frustrating, especially when it happend eight or more times an hour.

Thanks to this article at MacFixit, I seemed to have solved the problem. Here’s what I did:

1. Open System/Library.
2. Remove these two cache files (either by dragging them to the desktop, or compressing them in place).
• /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
• /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
3. I didn’t even have to reboot; the problem was apparently solved, but I’d suggest rebooting, just in case.