Mac users are reporting a number of problems with their wireless connections after updating to Leopard, according to traffic on Apple's support forums.

Users writing in a long thread -- as of 3 p.m. EDT it boasted more than 120 messages -- described one issue as a steadily degrading wireless link from their upgraded Macs.

"When you connect to your wireless network, your transmit rate will be 54 (if you're using the 54g standard)," said someone identified as nunofgs. "If you start up a download or something that occupies your bandwidth (even LAN traffic), you will notice that the transmit rate drops to 11, then to 3, then to 1 until finally your downloads will drop, your iChat connections will fail and your browser will not load pages."

Numerous confirmations of the same symptoms were posted by other users. Among them was Gregory Sims. "I am having the same problem. After installing [Mac OS X] 10.5 my Power Mac G4 is very slow on the Internet. The connection is worse than dial-up. I have never had this problem with 10.4 [Tiger]. My MacBook Pro is working fine, with a fast connection. I'm sorry to say 10.5 seems more like beta software than a $129 upgrade. I hope this problem is fixed soon, or I will have to go back to 10.4."

Users suggested a variety of solutions, including applying the post-Leopard update Apple said fixes log-in issues as well as a vaguely stated "connecting to some 802.11b/g wireless networks" problem. Other ideas ranged from finding and possibly removing the "AppleAirport2.kext" file to toggling IPv6 on/off.

Commonalities between users reporting the problem were difficult to define. Some, for instance, said they had used the "Upgrade" option to move to Leopard, while others said they had picked "Archive and Install" or even wiped their drives clean before installing Leopard from scratch.

Nearly all, however, made a plea similar to this by oxys: "Apple fix please Leopard is useless."

Although Apple hosts the support forums, the traffic is user-to-user only; company technical support personnel do not reveal themselves or offer advice. As of Tuesday, the company had not posted a support document addressing the problem or provided a fix.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.