MacBook AirPort/WiFi intermittent dropouts!

[zippster]

hi all, ive recently converted to mac and replaced my 8 month old Vaio AR11s with a new white macbook(2.16ghz).

love it...but recently im having all sorts of problems with the wireless. ive been reading this forum for a week of so now and realize that im not alone with my wifi woes.

my problem is the fact that my wireless intermittently drops and although the signal strength is still showing full i have no internet connection until i turn off and on the airport card.. this happens on both psu and battery!

i have tried installing the 2007-004 update,deleting the airport.plist file and the 2007-002 update and it appears to fix the fault for a while but then it comes back hence this post now as im lost...

is there any fixes i havent tried? ive also messed with enable/disabling frame bursting,different channels on my netgear wnr834n router but my other mac(using ethernet,bought a 24" imac tuesday!) and wifes vista laptop(wifi 802.11g) are fine so i have ruled out the router..


ANy other ideas?


Thanks in advance


Andy..
{new macbook&imac owner)

[ebel3003]

I've had the same issues with Wifi on a MacBook Pro. This seems to be an issue with the latest version of Tiger (10.4.10) because prior the the update, my wireless worked perfectly.

Unfortunately I've not been able to uncover a temporary fix for this.

[anothermacaddic]

Its heat throttling the cpu and a driver problem.

Did you do this update?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305031

Keep your mac on a hard surface while gaming or intensive cpu applications (dvds).

If the net goes out close the lid and open it...

[Sbrocket]

Using any combination of Cisco VPN and VMware Fusion, perchance?

[zippster]

thanks for the replies guys, unfortunately my macbook wont allow me to install that 2007-002 update as im assuming that i have a newer version installed..

and no im not running any vmware software

the weird thing is i had this problem when i first got my mac(obviously after i ran apple update) so i reinstalled from the restore disks and the problem went away until i ran apple update again..

im currently trying another suggestion from another thread and setting my preamble mode to short... so far so good this evening but im sure it will always change.

i guess i can only hope they fix this in leopard?


Thanks again all.


Andy..

[ale500]

Since 10.4.10 I'm having also some issues, sudden disconnection of wifi. Very strange, btw. I am using Cisco VPN client. There is a repeater some 10 m away from where I have my machine. I think that this did not happen with 10.4.9, but I may be mistaken.
The Cisco VPN client has all sort of issues, but the disconnection has nothing to do with them, not this time (The linux version is even worst, and the windows.. well as bad as the linux one.) In my case I am dropped and the signal strength dropped to zero, after some minutes it reconnects... Maybe the repeater is faulty.

[majordude]

Originally Posted by ebel3003

I've had the same issues with Wifi on a MacBook Pro. This seems to be an issue with the latest version of Tiger (10.4.10) because prior the the update, my wireless worked perfectly.

Mine has been acting up for about a month now. I think that was two updates ago (10.4.8 or 9).

[Viremia]

I posted in another thread on something else to try that worked for me. This helps for those whose wifi problems only started with the latest (post 10.4.10) update to the wifi. In short, the following link tells you how to revert back to the 10.4.10 driver. Understand though, some folks had problem with the driver in that version so you might have to find a pre-10.4.10 driver.

Here's the link to my previous post:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...2&postcount=15

[zippster]

thanks viremia ive just applied that fix and so far so good!!! strange enough web browsing seems noticeably faster! and 20mins so far with no dropouts!

could this really be the solution? thanks again for your help, ill see how it goes today and post back later..

[ale500]

I read the thread at Apple's, and well is evidently not the same issue. I get maximum I drop a day, if I get it, not every hour or so. I will leave it as it is, for the time being.

Thanks !

[zippster]

bugger ive just noticed that although the fix i applied (above post) seems to have worked but the driver installed are not the 'N' enabled version so although im not experiencing any problems im not running at 'N' speeds

might revert back to my newer driver and drop my router down to 54g for the tim being.


;(

[majordude]

Originally Posted by ale500

I get maximum I drop a day, if I get it, not every hour or so.

I get 0 to 3 drops per day. One already this morning.

[Mpulsive81]

reverting back to 10.4.9 via archive & install has seemed to fix the issue. 10.4.10 is a slobbering retarded moneky

[majordude]

Originally Posted by esaldana817

reverting back to 10.4.9 via archive & install has seemed to fix the issue. 10.4.10 is a slobering retarded moneky

You rolled back the entire package or just the wireless portion?

How do you rollback an update?

[Viremia]

Originally Posted by zippster

bugger ive just noticed that although the fix i applied (above post) seems to have worked but the driver installed are not the 'N' enabled version so although im not experiencing any problems im not running at 'N' speeds

might revert back to my newer driver and drop my router down to 54g for the tim being.


;(

Yeah, it will get rid of the 802.11N patch that was applied. If you purchased the N patch from Apple, you can just reapply it. That's what I did. I'm running at N speeds and with no drop outs since I applied the rollback of the wifi driver.

[Tommie Montana]

Originally Posted by Viremia

I posted in another thread on something else to try that worked for me. This helps for those whose wifi problems only started with the latest (post 10.4.10) update to the wifi. In short, the following link tells you how to revert back to the 10.4.10 driver. Understand though, some folks had problem with the driver in that version so you might have to find a pre-10.4.10 driver.

Here's the link to my previous post:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...2&postcount=15

Thanks very much, this seems to have solved my Wifi dropouts.

[zippster]

Originally Posted by Viremia

Yeah, it will get rid of the 802.11N patch that was applied. If you purchased the N patch from Apple, you can just reapply it. That's what I did. I'm running at N speeds and with no drop outs since I applied the rollback of the wifi driver.

coool just re-applied the fix again and found and installed the enabler

fingers crossed this will fix it. hopefully should find out in a few hours.


thanks again.

[zippster]

nope the problem seems to only occur when using 'N' so now im thinking that maybe it is router related? but im still not convinced 100% as a college has the newer v2 version of my router(wnr834b) and also has this problem..

switched the router to 54g and the problems seem to have gone away..

surely it has to be driver related?

[mantic]

It seems my computer does not like linksys routers. Also had problems with netgears n-draft...

Seems to run perfectly fine on anything else.

[zippster]

im considering just going out and buying the new airport extreme....but i cannot guarantee that its going to work i suppose..

[Viremia]

Originally Posted by mantic

It seems my computer does not like linksys routers. Also had problems with netgears n-draft...

Seems to run perfectly fine on anything else.

I haven't had any problems with the one linksys router I've connected to, but it was a g-router. I also had no problems with a netgear g-router, but haven't tried one of their n-routers.

My D-Link DIR-655, while not cheap, works fine. I got it for the configurability and gigabit ethernet plus n-wifi.

[iBecks]

Originally Posted by Viremia

I haven't had any problems with the one linksys router I've connected to, but it was a g-router. I also had no problems with a netgear g-router, but haven't tried one of their n-routers.

My D-Link DIR-655, while not cheap, works fine. I got it for the configurability and gigabit ethernet plus n-wifi.

I used the fix that you posted and it worked a treat, I have this working with 4 different routers with no problems now whatsoever.

Netgear WNR834B - N Router
Linksys G Router
Buffalo G Router
Apple Airport Extreme

Thanks for your help

[majordude]

Originally Posted by iBecks

I used the fix that you posted and it worked a treat...

I'll give it a go tomorrow as well and report back. The dropouts are the only real complaint I've had about OSX since I switched.

[zippster]

Originally Posted by iBecks

I used the fix that you posted and it worked a treat, I have this working with 4 different routers with no problems now whatsoever.

Netgear WNR834B - N Router
Linksys G Router
Buffalo G Router
Apple Airport Extreme

Thanks for your help

your netgear router you are using(wnr834b) is it the v2?

my macbook is nearly 2 months old and my imac is 2 weeks old, i can only assume that its the Draft'N' parts of the netgear router as 54g works flawlessly with no dropouts, but my 'N' connection with fix and enabler dropped out within 5 minutes.

the annoying thing is the fact that my macbook could work for hours without dropouts then suddenly it starts and becomes more apparent. i cant see how its my macbook as my colleges 1 week old macbook does the same with the same router....

aww well a trip to the apple shop for me tomorrow to spend more money on a airport base station i guess..

thank god for crazy overtime rates

Andy.

[zippster]

well my suspicions were correct,1 airport extreme(gigabit), 24 hours later and hammering my MB last night and this morning(on batt and best battery life) shows no signs of signal drop. i haven't had to turn off the airport once!!

so for me anyways it looks like it was the problem with my netgear V1 wnr834b.