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Late-Breakers
Tuesday, June 17 2008 @ 09:45 AM PDT
Mac OS X 10.5.3: Airport stops automatically connecting to preferred network
AirPort hardware may stop connecting to proferred networks after the Mac OS X 10.5.3 update, instead waiting for user input to regain connection to the desired wireless network. After connecting to the network again the connection may drop out once or twice, but soon stabilizes and seems to work fine; however, it may take a couple of tries before the connection gets to this stable state:
As written by Apple Discussions poster iruhkoi:
"In order to connect, I have to manually click on the wireless icon, wait for the AirPort to finish "searching," and then select my network's name once it appears in the list...After clicking on my network's name, the connection will drop out in 3-5 seconds. I must then wait as the AirPort repeats the process of 'searching', then the network's name will reappear in the list and I can reclick on the name. The connection remains stable thereafter."
Airport issues such as this have started for users who have upgraded to the 10.5.3 release of Leopard, though similar problems have persisted for others since installing Leopard 10.5.0.
Fixes
Remove plist files
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfig.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
The first file is stored in the Library folder at the root of the hard drive (not the one in the user's home folder), while the second two are located in the user library folder. Upon removing these file, restart the computer.
Remove the airport network password keychain entries In the "keychain access" utility, search for "Airport" and remove all entries for it, especially those with names of networks you have connected to (be sure to write down account information for these keychain entries beforehand). Additionally, run a keychain repair to ensure the keychains are functioning correctly.
Clean up configuration Many users have installed enhancement "haxie" software that either enables hidden features of the operating system, or adds new functionality to the OS. Uninstalling these utilities may get rid of incompatibilities, especially if these packages access network resources. Additionally, remove unneeded login items such as iStats (which seems to be a commonly used program for users who're affected with this problem).
Turn on the option to disconnect from wireless networks when logging out In the Network system preferences, click the Airport connection and then click the Advanced button. Under the "AirPort" tab, ensure the option to "Disconnect from wireless networks when loging out" is checked. This may ensure that no problems occur with Airport attempting to maintain connections when you shut off or log out.
Turn Bluetooth off If Bluetooth connectivity is not needed, disabling it may help this issue.
Workarounds
Some users have used third-party wireless solutions, bypassing Airport altogether. Since it appears that this problem has to do with Apple's airport setup, including drivers and configuration, one user found that getting a third-party wireless card and connecting with that seemed to help bypass the AirPort problems. If you have access to a wireless card, installing and configuring it may help the situation; at least until Apple solves the many AirPort problems in Leopard.
Mac OS X 10.5.3: Airport stops automatically connecting to preferred network | 2 comments |
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Mac OS X 10.5.3: Airport stops automatically connecting to preferred network
Authored by: macsteffen1 on Tuesday, June 17 2008 @ 10:25 AM PDT
On both my Macs an 2.8 Ghz 24" iMac and an Macbook, Airport seems to ignore the Ethernetport, , in Airport tools it states that there is no connection to Ethernet ??Have testet different cables, so it don't seems to bee a cableproblem?
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Mac OS X 10.5.3: Airport stops automatically connecting to preferred network
Authored by: hmgood on Tuesday, June 17 2008 @ 11:47 AM PDT
I followed this procedure (all of it) and it didn't work on my PB12". I even did a Safe Boot and reset the PRAM.
After subsequent reboots, sometimes it connected automatically, sometimes it didn't and other times, it made a temporary connection then dropped it then reconnected then dropped it again forcing me to manually connect to my network.
