How I fixed my dropping wireless Airport connection problem in Snow Leopard
10.6, Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks, Troubleshooting - September 1st, 2009 - 79 Comments
I don’t know why but when I upgraded to Snow Leopard my wireless internet got all wonky, connections were dropping left and right and I couldn’t maintain any worthwhile airport connection for longer than a few minutes. DHCP was behaving particularly strange and the automatic settings pulled from my router were dropping every few seconds. I’m reposting this here not only as some sort of catharsis but also in the event that it helps someone else troubleshoot their wireless problems in 10.6.
Here’s what I did to fix my Airport wireless connection from dropping in Snow Leopard. There was no silver bullet, but each setting allowed my airport connection to become more stable, and the combination of all of these changes has sustained a connection without dropping:
* Changed DHCP auto settings to manual – now I manually set my IP address on the network, I just set something high so it wouldn’t interfere with other DHCP machines. As long as you have the subnet mask, router, and DNS settings configured manually as well, this shouldn’t be a problem.
* Change Wireless Channels – I noticed that a neighbor recently changed their wireless channel to the same one I was on, it’s a weak signal but can still cause interference. I logged into my wireless router and changed the wireless channel to a more obscure and unique one.
* Disabled “Wireless G only” Mode – what seems to have finally sealed the deal was disabling ‘Wireless G Only’ mode that I had set on my router, yea things could theoretically be a little slower but I haven’t noticed, and I’ll wait an extra millisecond or two for a webpage to load if it means I can use my MacBook wirelessly at home as intended.
Interestingly enough, I tried doing each of these things entirely on it’s own and it did not resolve the problem, it was the combination of everything that seems to have ‘fixed’ my airport connection problems. I know my wireless connection issues with Snow Leopard are a fluke here, I imagine it’s something unique to my network and router that only a few other users will encounter. Anyway, if you’re having any wireless connection problems in Snow Leopard 10.6 too, try these things out and see if it works for you as well.
Update: Mac OS X 10.6.3 has been released and contains a few Airport bug fixes, it would be wise to install that software update in addition to trying these tips.
Some more Wireless connection troubleshooting tips:
* Update to the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6.3 includes numerous Airport fixes)
* Reset your router
* Reset your cable modem/DSL
* Disable WPA/WEP protection
* Change security protocol from WEP to WPA/WPA2
* Switch wireless channels – pick a channel no neighbor is using.
* Turn Airport on & off (via menu or Network preferences)
* Delete and then recreate/reestablish wireless network connection
* Create a new Network Location
* Make sure your router firmware and Airport card firmware is up to date
* Zap the PRAM on your Mac (hold Command+Option+P+R on restart)
* Flush the DNS cache using the Terminal command: dscacheutil -flushcache
* Delete the com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist files from ~/Library/Preferences
* Trash your home directories SystemConfiguration folder and reboot – Remove all files within ~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and reboot your machine. Make sure you delete the proper folder, this is in your home directory.
If all else fails, try this, which has worked for some individuals:
* Reset your Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) : Shutdown the MacBook/Pro, remove the battery, disconnect the power, hold the Power Key for 15 seconds. Replace the battery, reconnect power, and zap PRAM and wait for 2 chimes before letting the keys go. Check out more information on when and how to reset your SMC.
-David Mendez
I saw this happen too, but with 802.11n networks. Somebody upgraded to 10.6 on his MacBook Pro, and could no longer resolve the SSID of his 5 GHz band, but could still see the 2.4 GHz band just fine. So he reverted to 10.5.7, and there was no longer a problem. Then when he applied the 10.5.8 update, the same thing happened. The 5 GHz band disappeared. His Mac Mini, which was in the same room, had no similar problem. That was particularly odd, since the Mac Mini is much like a rearranged MacBook Pro without the display. The solution? Eh, we didn’t find a good one.
Your not alone, same problem here. But mine is still dropping connections after about an hour or two. Only with Snow Leopard, Leopard (10.5) works fine.
Thanks a bundle, seems to have resolved my Airport MacBookPro bouncing like a yoyo all day, after upgrading to Snow Leopard yesterday. Didn’t need the ‘wireless G’ step, looks like the switch to manual was the killer. I was on the same wavelength just before I found your post and already changed Router channels in my diagnostics (doesn’t help that I have a new neighbour wanting to share the same channel!!)
Anyway looks stable (and stronger signal than 10.5) …for now;-)
I’m having the same problem after upgrading to Snow Leopard. I have tried all the steps listed above but no success with maintaining a connection after boot or waking up my Mac Book Pro. I did find one step that will consistently reestablishes my wireless connection. If I log in to my router and click save (without making any changes) it will reconnect every time.
Same exact problem here. Upgraded to Snow Leapard on my wifes laptop and suddenly Im being told that I “broke it” as it would no longer connect to the Internet via airport. The clue came up when it reported an IP address conflict (which didn’t exist). DHCP was unable to obtain a lease even though I was able to connect to the router. I put in a manual IP and presto, my wife is giving me accolades for “fixing it.” A pretty major problem that Apple should be aware about.
I am having wireless issues as well, but mine sound different. I have an Airport Express at home and at work, and my Snow Leopard MacBook can connect to both, but cannot get to the Internet on either. My iPhone, Leopard, and Tiger Macs can all still see and converse with the Internet through the same home network. AND, the Snow Leopard MacBook could see the Internet right after the initial installation; it was only after I installed the optional printer drivers that it stopped working. Any thoughts?
@Rik
If you are connecting to the Airport Express router OK and maintaining a connection to it, but unable to access the internet, try checking your DNS settings.
You can manually set DNS servers to use in System Preferences -> Networks -> Airport -> Advanced -> DNS
From there you can put in your routers IP address, and either use the DNS servers provided by your ISP, or something like OpenDNS (or all of the above in whatever order preference you want)
hope that helps!
David,
Thanks for posting this. I connect to the internet using Airport wireless to a Verizon DSL Modem/Router (Westell modem). When I drop the connection, I go into Network Preferences, Assist Me, Diagnostics, and the graphic displays that the ISP, Internet, and Server connections have failed. If I re-select my wireless network, the connection is restored until the next failure and then I have to repeat the process. Is this similar to what you were experiencing? How do I identify the DNS settings for my ISP? Thanks so much for your help.
I have the same intermittent connection via wireless issues after upgrading to snow leopard. I have tried all the above, plus I spent several hours yesterday with Apple reps and reps for quest, through whom I have a Motorola dsl router.
My macbook pro still drops the wireless connection – occasionally in the network pane of system prefs I will see the green wireless connection signal switch to orange, and a brief message saying ‘ip address could not be found’.
I hope the engineers look into this! currently tethered to an ethernet cable!
Same thing with the drops here either:
1. Prolonged connection with no usage, then start up again get a few pages worth then drop.
2. Any time VMWare is opened up, which also uses the airport.
Enough to make you have early upgrade regret
Of all the steps here, the clincher for me was deleting internetconfigprivs and restarting (I didn’t find the other pref file mentioned). Glad I found this site!
deleting the apple.com.internet…. files worked for me. thanks!
I had a different version of a wireless problem: I had to manually configure my IP address because my MBP would not be able to wireless dhcp an address. That is, it would always get the self-assigned IP address. My wired ethernet worked fine, and my wife’s earlier-model MBP works fine on wireless and wired. I have a setup where my dhcp is assigned from a local server, not from the wireless access point.
I was able to fix it by going into the local server and clearing the MBP’s previously acquired address from the cache. Now everything seems to work fine.
Not sure why this worked; wish I had some verbose logging turned on.
Same problem…Anyone found any real way to solve the issue yet? I installed 10.6 yesterday around 3pm with no real issues, and right around 2am (3 hours into using it after the install) I closed the lid for just a few minutes, and immediately upon opening it up the airport would not reconnect…This too, is why I came here, hoping to find answers, or directions to answers…
After work, I went back to my room eager to see if maybe it were just a fluke. Sure enough, there was no signal strength to any nearby network source – including my TC not but 15 feet from me.
I then continued to run through settings and diagnostics, hoping maybe there were some setting somewhere. I opened up Network Assistant and saw no IP address assigned, then tried the Network prefs, and then finally the Airport Assistant. There, I was finally able to connect (after a bazillion other attempts and ways) the second after I selected my TC in the Airport Assistant. I then checked the Network Ass. and watched the status change on my IP address and other info instantly…
Not sure what is going on, but I’m hoping this will be solved soon…I share merely to help us come to a resolution a faster. Thanks All!
I’ve been having this problem ever since I got my new Mac Book Pro with Leopard. I was hoping upgrading to Snow Leopard would solve the problem, but after reading this I see that it will not and may make it worse. Did anyone on here have connectivity issues before you upgraded to Snow Leopard?
Mac OS X 10.6.1 seemed to solve this problem for me.
I had DNS problems too with Snow Leopard and this is what I used to fix it:
sudo networksetup -setdnsservers “AirPort” 192.168.1.100
with the IP being my router, I got the idea from this site
http://projectmouse.org/Using+a+Local+Leopard+(10.5)+DNS+Server+with+Snow+Leopard+(10.6).html
Adding a New location and deleting the com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist files from ~/Library/Preferences worked for me! Thank you so much, I was really regretting the update.
I too am still having difficulties. After about five hours of talking to cable technicians and an hour with Apple help it is still unresolved. A “fix” seems to work for as little as a minute or as long as an hour, but as soon as another computer user in the house gets on the router my Internet connection goes down. Never a problem before. I get two basic error messages: Airport self-assigned an IP address. Another device is using this IP address.
@Lisa Neff
Try manually assigning an IP address and setting your own DNS servers, it sounds like your Airport router is trying to dish the same IP to multiple machines and that causes a conflict. Mine has been doing the exact same thing since upgrading to Snow Leopard and it is really frustrating but I went to a manually assigned IP (I picked an obscure number so not to conflict, highly recommended) and I have been able to maintain connections as a result. I think Snow Leopard has some serious DNS & Wireless driver problems which makes it look like it’s a router, but my Windows PC’s connect just fine it is only Mac OS X Snow Leopard that have the crappy connections
Hi
I seem to be having the same problems, except bear with me I’m not as fluent with the jargon or technology that some of you guys use. I now have Snow Leopard and my wireless was doing the same going off and on for seemingly no reason. I have done as much as I can switching things off and on and trying the network assistant etc. I also reset the router (NetgearDG834G) but I now have no signal and my router is not recognised in networks available, in fact there aren’t any and there is usually 2 or 3. In Sys Pref/network/airport/TCPIP there is no information and I don’t know what to put in it if I were to add it manually. Sorry to be a wuss but would really appreciate it if anyone could help. I have been standing in my utility room next to my router trying to sort this nearly all day.
Hi, I do not know if this is a solution for everyone. My problem was that my wireless connection did not show up in the Airport-menu in Snow Leopard. I changed the wireless channel number (e.g. from 11 to 6) in my router settings and this worked! I really do not know how this worked, I tried several solutions which were suggested at forums but only the channel number change did work. Maybe this is a solution for some..
Maurice, you’re a gem. I just changed the channel and it worked!! Have been trying to get this working for hours. Thanks
Can’t believe it, thought the resetting and changing the channel had fixed my problem but it seems every time I close the lid on my Macbook I loose my wireless signal and I have to keep resetting the router. I think I’ve done everything suggested above and it still not solving my problem so if there are any more suggestions out there I’d be really grateful to have them.
I’ve tried just about all these ideas. I have found that running the network diagnostics (from the Network system utility) will force my MacBook back onto my wireless without having to reboot the router or change any router settings. It’s not a router issue, it’s an OS issue. It happens when the Mac goes to sleep. I hope Apple fixes it soon, because it drives me crazy (crazier??)!
I tried all the above and my Mac Mini still had problems connecting. I found this support article. “AirPort: Potential sources of interference” – If an AirPort network is out of range or often interrupted, it may be due to interference. I moved my Mac Mini about 4 feet from our home cordless phone and it solved my connection problems. Looks like devices that operate in the 2.4 GHz or 5 Ghz can cause connection problems.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1365
[...] I love Snow Leopard and the only issues I’ve had are problems with Snow Leopard wireless [...]
Disable “Back-To-My-Mac”.
Finally fixed this – set router to wireless “n” only mode rather than combined a/b/g/n, and changed from WPA to WPA2 (PSK) – all working fine now. This is Snow Leopard’s fault not the router’s fault (upgrade to SL is the only thing that has changed) but twiddling with router settings worked in this case. Apple still need to fix it as your MacBook should be able to access whatever router configuration it comes across (as was the case for my previous Leopard system)
I seem to remember I had trouble with wifi with Leopard too at some point in the past… seems to take them a while to work through it.
Thank you for posting this. Same deal, since switching to SL random dropping of wi-fi connection – affecting internet, airtunes and wireless printing. Like Thomas, running through network diagnostics would re-start the connection, but not solve the problem. Switched ‘g only’ and channel from automatic. Seems to have ‘fixed’ the issue for me. Thanks again!
I have a netgear wireless-N router and was actually having the same issues after upgrading to snow leopard. After searching through several sites, and wondering if perhaps it was the old “interference robustness” thing kicking in again, I found this article. The first step did the trick for me.
Currently, I have my router reserve addresses for the different computers here in my apartment, but even before I did this, I still had the issue. As soon as I had my laptop set the ip address manually, it worked perfectly, never dropped again.
Thanks for the tips!
Thank you so much!! The switching to manual did the trick for me! Finally!
Just for the record, none of the tips solved the wireless issues of my Mac Pro1,1. It doesn’t matter if I use WPA, WPA2 or no encryption at all. It also does not make a difference whether I use DHCP or a fixed IP address. No matter what I do, after a few minutes my wireless connection becomes unresponsive and my only option is to turn off Airport and turn it back on. On bad days, I have to do this every five minutes or so.
Also for the record, neither Ubuntu 9.10 64-Bit nor Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit produce this sort of problem on said Mac Pro. And both Ubuntu and Vista have much faster network stacks in general than OS X.
@Winni
I’ve got the same problem running 10.6 on my MBP. Even Windows 7 on the same machine is blazing fast with no issues on the same wireless network. However, I’m limited with the troubleshooting that I can do because the router is not mine (landlord’s). Vista and Ubuntu on my Lenovo laptop also have no issues with the connection.
I had the same disconnect issue with 10.6.2 on MBP5,1 when using wireless N that started after I installed a new Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH. I fixed the disconnect issue by disabling encryption rekey on the router. The rekey interval was set to 60 minutes, so I set to 0 to disable. I’ve gone from losing the wireless connection every 60 minutes to having a steady connection for over 24 hours and the connection is very fast and solid. FWIW, my former router was a D-Link DGL-4500 with encryption disabled and the disconnect never occurred.
Hello, I have found the final fix for this problem. This fix is the only one that worked and gave me a working connection all the time.
Initial Problem:
Macbook Pro was dropping connection of wireless networks after waking up from sleep mode. It would also drop the connection without notice. Airport bars keep going up and down.
What you need:
Macbook Pro
Charger
This update: DOWNLOAD FROM ANY WORKING COMPUTER TO USB http://download.info.apple.com/Mac_OS_X/0617263.20091109.er45t/MacOSXServerUpd10.6.2.dmg
This update: DOWNLOAD FROM ANY WORKING COMPUTER TO USB
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/AirPort-Client-Update.shtml
Steps:
1. Install all updates mentioned to usb stick.
2. Boot-Up Mac to desktop.
3. Open USB key folder
4. Run 10.6.2 Snow Leopard Update
5. Computer will restart to complete installation
6. After Mac boots up to desktop, open usb folder
7. Install Airport Client Update
8. Computer will restart to complete installation
9. ENJOY YOUR MACBOOK WITH STABLE CONNECTION
Hope this helps. I am very new to Apple and upgraded without a second thought. I paid a repair centre $20 to resolve this issue. The guy was nice and wrote me up a document explaining everything. Please DIY this problem to save money. Unless, you have applecare Its funny how the apple geniuses don’t know how to resolve the issue and replace your macbook.
My problem is when I boot to 64bit in Snow Leopard, my airport card become missing (airport card not installed). But in system profiler the airport card is detected. When i boot into 32bit Snow leopard, it works fine. Any suggestion?
Hi Faiq,
does your suggestion only applies to MacBook? I have this slopply wireless connection with my iMac (please note my MS Window Vista laptop works fine). Thanks a lot.
(PS – I’ve tried almost everything suggested in this blog and nothing seems to work)
[...] You have probably seen this already, but I post it just in case. It does make mention of disabling the "G" side of [...]
[...] of these tips are from our fixing dropped wireless airport connection problems in Snow Leopard [...]
Disabling G mode and setting DNS manually have proved successful so far! Previously attempted fix only lasted for 1 session. Thanks!
So far nothing I have tried (all the above) fixes my Macbook.
It doesn’t just loose connectivity to the router. It also boots the router offline and I have to reset router (power off/on).
Router – Netgear WGR614v3
(with latest firmware as of 12/31/09)
Macbook OS X 10.5.8 1.83 Core 2 Duo.
(latest updates as of 12/31/09)
Problems only exist when using Airport.
So far the only thing that seems to make a difference is the throughput. Though I have changed MTU numerous times. It doesn’t make a difference. As soon as I look at something like Netflix’s page or other page with decent amount of info. That is it.
This makes this laptop useless.
Some more Wireless connection troubleshooting tips:
* Delete the com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist files from ~/Library/Preferences
* Trash your home directories SystemConfiguration folder and reboot – Remove all files within ~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and reboot your machine. Make sure you delete the proper folder, this is in your home directory.
it’s worked for my macbook pro 2.33 Ghz. TQ so much..
OK
So it has something to do with Security and packets. I borrowed a Linksys WRT54GS wireless. I have it set it up as a switch. Mac is running just fine now.
I set it to G only
WPA Personal
AES
7200 second interval
Even though I could set the DLink to WPA. I didn’t see anywhere I could set the interval time.
So the ONLY thing different is the interval time on the Security.
When I have more time I will reset it to something like 1 minute and test to see it happens again.
you COULD.. smash the computer…?
I’m a total novice to this kind of thing, so bear with me. So, I know where to the DHCP to manual, but what do I set it *to*? Just make up random numbers? I didn’t think that was the way IP addresses worked. I could be wrong.
If anyone could help, that would be great.
@Slatapolsky
you want to pick a manual DHCP address that is in line with what your router assigns, but somewhere outside the likely automatic range. so if your router assigns 192.168.0.1 .2 .3 .4 .5 etc, pick something higher like 192.168.0.171 that way it won’t conflict
@Bromana
Thanks for the info.
Above, the author of the article says, “As long as you have the subnet mask, router, and DNS settings configured manually as well, this shouldn’t be a problem.” What addresses should I enter for those? Do I do the same thing as Bromana mentioned (i.e., just change the last number to a higher number)? Or do I enter the same numbers as the ones that appear now, before changing to manual? Also, currently, the address for the “router” and the “DNS server” are identical. Should it always be that way?
Thanks again.
My Mac Mini dropped the connection after a few minutes when connected to a D-Link DI-524 Wireless Lan box. I resolved the issue by limiting the WLAN speed on the D-Link box from 54MBits/s to 11MBits/s to accomodate for the slowest device on the net (an old PC). The issue therefore seems to be related to the Mixed mode operaiotn of the D-Link Box.
hi guys, wonder if anyone can help,
i have a different problem in that my macpro doesn’t connect to any website…i can access the router page which tells me its connected but when i type in an url it just says ”
now i also have a wired windows laptop and often connect wirelessly via my phone, none of these devices are able to connect,
i’ve already reset the router but to no avail.
Anybody have any ideas of what the problem might be and how to resolve.
Most grateful for any info imparted!!!
It worked for me after changing channel number, but I can’t explain it: other devices worked fine with old channel but Imac doesn’t. Now all devices connect ok.
Thanks a lot …
I got the airport card changed at the apple store through apple care. all problems fixed
I should have updated this earlier, but I went ahead and upgraded from our old Netgear router (G) to a new wireless-N Netgear router (WNR2000). I’ve had it for almost 2 months, and the connection hasn’t dropped even once. So, the problem is solved. The Apple Care folks actually recommended Netgear. They said they’ve seen the most problems with Linksys, if that helps.
i am having a problem with my macbook airport. it cannot open most of the sites, the reason always shown is “you are not connected to the internet”, which is not the same when i connect it through ethernet. also in network setings option the ISP, INTERNET & SERVER lights appear red, which was not the same, when there was no such problem. i m facing difficulty. plz help as soon as possible.
You all are not alone. My company bought a huge amount of Mac Pros & MacBook Pros and realized the network intermittent issue while testing the image. The only workaround was to setup static IP. This does the trick but was a pain because we have to worry about managing static IP.
I have been working with Apple on this for about 4 months and they’ve finally discovered whats causing the problem. Below is a workaround. According to Apple, a permanent fix will be on the next software update release.
1. Open terminal
2. sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf
3. Insert “net.link.ether.inet.keep_announcements=0″
4. Reboot computer
You can check if the setting holds by running this command ->> sudo sysctl net.link.ether.inet.keep_announcements. Your output should be 0.
Hope this does it for you!
[...] shortcut to retrieve closed tabsInstant Handbrake – A quick and easy DVD to iPod conversion utility How I fixed my dropping wireless Airport connection problem in Snow Leopardairport – the Little Known Command Line Wireless UtilityWhat happens in the Mac OS X boot [...]
[...] that have had various problems with Snow Leopard and wireless connectivity. I’m hoping these will help fix the dropped wireless connection problems in Snow Leopard [...]
Just started to have wireless issues yesterday running 10.6.2. The problem was, firstly I booted my macbookpro and wireless connectivity started fine as usual. It then dropped the connection. On polling the network I can see no wireless connections at all. I can always see my own router and usually some neighbours ones too. Tried the usual airport on/off but still nothing. Updated to 10.6.3 this morning and it started working for about 5 minutes then dropped again. I have tried most of the fixes above including terminal fix, SMC, renewing network connection and location. I have not changed DHCP to manual as I am getting the same issue at home and t work. Could this be hardware related? Any help would be much appreciated.
Hi guys! I called Apple and according to them, the OS 10.6.3 update is corrupted and new update will be available in the next quarter. Well, I did have the same stupid issue, Airport keeps on dropping. What I did was I erased everything and reinstalled the OS. Do not update the latest Combo yet. Ever since then, i have no airport issues! Cheers!
Aanand KTM
+6592221295
Singapore
There is no possible way that Apple would release a ‘corrupted’ updated on the public, they go through massive testing. Can it be buggy? Sure of course it could be. 10.6.3 actually resolves a fair amount of Airport problems, and if I recall correctly there was a post on this site a few days ago with a simple fix if it caused any additional problems. I don’t know who you spoke to on the phone but it’s highly unlikely it was any official Apple rep.
Hi I have an i7 and even though my wireless works (ie time capsule connects wirelessly) and internet works fine with my Netgear wireless router, I have no airport icon or airport listed in the network list. I have spent numerous hours on the phone with apple and actually I do not think I ever had the icon (i7 only 6 weeks old). I now have to post it 2000km away for an apple repairer to fix it. Any advice would be appreciated. I have reinstalled op system did not work, I started up with the os dvd and top right hand corner had the flag but no airport icon so senior advisor says the hardware is bad. However did a hardware check and all checked ok. Airport shows up in system profiler as being there??? Confused.
I have a MacBook Pro (”MacBookPro5,4″) running Snow Leopard, and it was working fine with the Netgear wireless router that I used to use. But I recently switched to AT&T UVerse and now have the 2Wire router that they use. The MacBook was working fine with it at first, but then there was a software update (it may have been the April 12 update), and ever since then it’s been randomly disconnecting every 10-30 minutes. The console message every time is:
AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 4 (Disassociated due to inactivity).
It doesn’t matter how active or inactive my network usage is, though.
I’ve read several threads online about this. One of them suggested that I switch from using WEP to WPA security. Now, I was using WEP because my Nintendo DS can’t use anything more sophisticated, but if it’s that or my laptop, I can live with it, so I switched to the router’s WPA/WPA2 mode. But this didn’t solve the problem; the disconnects continued.
Then I guessed that it might be interference from something else — I was using channel 1, so I changed the router to channel 11 instead. This didn’t solve the problem either; it has disconnected twice while I’ve been typing this.
All I can say is that I’m getting really tired of this. And it seemed to work fine before Apple put out an update that supposedly improved wireless performance. I do have AppleCare support, so I will probably be calling them, and if that reveals anything useful, I’ll post about it.
Replying to my own post here — I tried the /etc/sysctl.conf change suggested by Will Efiong above, but that had no effect. I also tried changing the router from 802.11b/g to just 802.11b … no change. I set it to 802.11g too … no change.
Then I read something on the AT&T forum … http://utalk.att.com/t5/High-Speed-Internet-Access/Any-Resolution-to-2Wire-Mac-Wireless-Issue/m-p/217581
Lots of suggestions that I’ve seen before and tried to no avail, but I tried rebooting the router, and so far no disconnects (knock on wood). It’s possible that my problems weren’t due to an Apple software update at all, but due to the fact that the router starts to act funky 5 days or so after it’s rebooted, which, if true, would explain why my MacBook worked fine with it for the first few days.
I haven’t had any disconnects while writing this (and I even got a phone call in the middle of it), so maybe that’s a good sign.
As an update, after I rebooted the router, I went for a bit less than 5 hours yesterday without any disconnects before I had to go. Rebooting the router appears to have fixed things — probably only temporarily, though. At least I’m back up and running and know what to do if this happens again. But signs really point to something wrong with the router — I consider a firmware bug the most likely problem. And what a bug — one that only happens after the device has been online for several days, and then it only affects certain Apple devices that connect via wi-fi, and even then it’s intermittent. That doesn’t sound fun to diagnose.
How weird! A simple device that is supposed to just work actually needs one to have a degree in computers in order to use it. Typical Mac. Design with white simple lines only to hide the most complicated system ever. I needed mine only to play music on the loudspeakers in the other corner of the room. Guess what: impossible. (It would never find the device except when I did not need it). They should just pull it out of the market. As someone has put it: with Mac it is 90% marketing and only 10% the product.
Mac OS X is just useless for reliable wireless connections.
I have had three Mac’s Imac, Macbook Pro and a Mac Mini.
On all of them, in the middle of a browsing session just stop responding and eventually time out. To fix it you need to turn airport on and off.
On the same machines running any Microsoft OS using Bootcamp, the wireless connection NEVER drops.
I have installed every update and firmware upgrade going, the ’solutions’ regarding changing settings on the router are all poor fixes, the OS should get fixed.
I’m slowly going back to using Windows (7 is immense in all aspects), I only got Mac because Vista was so crap and I refused to pay for XP 64-bit.
Mac tech support sucks ass and there is no equivalent to technet’s glorious knowledgebase.
Bye Bye Mac, waste of money and waste of time!
We think we have finally licked our Mac mini wifi problem:
http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2010/Home/June/Week1/RDMHomeJun0410.htm#MacMiniTempControl
We think ours is temperature related. The experiments we did with FanControl was pretty conclusive. Your mileage may vary.
It drives me crazy: I just updated to 10.6.4 and it’s actually worst than before…. It loses the signal every 4-5 minutes…
Tonight I’ll format and downgrade to the old Leopard… I’m fed up
I feel like in the old times with Win95 and the recurring format c:
…Thanks stevie..
paikan07, I would highly recommend checking out our guide to troubleshooting Mac wireless problems. More often than not there is a solution to problems like these, particularly with dropped connections.
Hi there
Thanks for the tip: I actually already went through it and did all the macbook-tips without success. I didn’t try the router-tips as I’m most of the time on routers where I’m not the admin :-/
I was hoping to get a solution I could apply on my own computer. It doesn’t seem to exist: I’ll probably install Leopard.
Thanks again for the help
Cheers
I had problems similar to the one you describe. Both an iMac and a MacBookPro running 10.6.4. Neither could get an IP address from my D-Link DIR-655.
What finally solved my problem, was changing the channel from 6 to 9. I guess since 6 is default, chances are that wireless routers in the neighborhood will interfere and somehow mess things up.
Strange thing, though, because both my iPhone, iPod and Nokia phone did get an IP address when the router was running on channel 6.
Hi all, guess I’m part of a large happy Mac family with crappy internet stability.
What I just don’t get is the fact that you get more than 250.000 google hits on this subject, but I’ve yet to see a single official statement from Apple….anywhere…
Many thanks guys for the tips and advice on how to solve this… The struggle continues.
hi!
sub – trouble with airport showing no airport card installed in macbook 10.6.3
i jus read through this as im currently having troubles with my airport…but i dint find or may b i jus didnt get if there was any solution to the problem im facing ….
it shows that the airport card is not installed…that really weird…and plus when i restart my laptop i have to restart it 3 or more times to get the airport working again…and sill it works only for about 30 mins…the last ting i got to know was restarting the laptop while holding ‘Cmd+opt+P+R’ but its still the same.
plzz….plzzz help…i cant find any solution anywhere
ash
Tried all steps as suggested in the article. Mac airport is no longer experiencing wireless dropouts. The problem seemed to be the wireless g option of the router. Set it to b, works no problem.
I’m running 10.6.3 on a 13″ MBPro and Like a lot of you I’ve had the worst time with my connection lately. My partner also. The connection would only last 3 minutes then just die, even though the airport was was running fine. When I run network diagnostics the lights were all green, everything fine except for the internet light which glows an annoying orange.
But the fix. This worked for me and I’ve had no hang ups at all.
Under advance settings for your network, renew the lease as DCHP, just the standard one. If your IP is 10.0.1.1 make your DNS the same. Ours was set to 192.168.1.*. I just deleted it and replaced with 10.0.1.1
Bingo. I did a restart just to be sure, and its all good.
I just changed my DHCP auto settings to manual….that’s all I did and it appears to have fixed my intermittent connection issues…yay!! Thanks so much….so much happier now as I am a new Mac user and was getting very frustrated with my new MacBook Pro purchase. Hopefully, this fixes the problem for good.
I’m running 10.6.4 on a Macbook Pro. 3 weeks old maybe, and having the same problem, and it’s not going away. Tonight I’ll bring it to an apple store, but I’ve been speaking to the senior airport guys at applecare over the phone for days, and nothing they suggest works aside from ‘use an ethernet cable.’
This is ridiculous. This computer costs an arm and a leg and I can barely use it.
@Thomas, in case you haven’t found this elsewhere, the sleep problem is an easy fix. In network preferences, click the gear on the left side and click ’set service order.’ Change airport to the first thing in the order and you’ll stop losing connection when the computer sleeps, though I can’t guarantee you won’t keep having random drops like I have.
I had the same issue, iPhone, 2 windows laptops and Wii were working without any issues but my newly purchased mini keeps dropping the wireless every now and then.. reconnect will give connection timed out message on the wireless connecting window..
even after changing the channel on router, G only mode, etc didnt help..
but mine got resolved when I moved my logitech wireless mouse receiver under the table while i had my mini on top of the table..
hi guys,
same problem here with an airport card, when the computer gets back from sleep airport is no more detected, empty triangle. seems broken. i cannot even reactivate it, frozen.
only solution is to reboot to get connexion again
tried everything : manual ip, set airport first in connexion list, ..no way