WiFi dropping, WTF?

MBX said:

Hey

So i just can't believe how often my wifi stops working and i have to switch to the ethernet cable. I'm on a unibody 17'' MBP and i thought this mess would stop when i upgraded to Snow Leopard. But not at all. Which led me to believe it's might be hardware-related?

I'm so sick of this happening to a 4k machine and yes i expect this to work properly as i paid for it.

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Ok its dropping the wifi? from what? Airport Express ? Need some more information here

Is it a Linksys?

MBX said:

Not Airport Express.

Just Wifi modem.

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If you want some help, than post all the information you can

Mine's doing it from an Airport Express...

MBX said:

Well you know my machine which i told you as well as the OS.

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That's not the attitude you give people if you want help.

It's not linksys. And it has nothing to do with the modem or ISP, as the ethernet works

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How do you know that? Are you just trying to be a troll? Linksys routers have a notorious problem with connecting to Macs wirelessly.

MBX said:

That sure might be true but i just said that i'm not on linksys.

It's a Westell modem, however i'm sure that's not the problem child as both ethernet and my iphone connect very well.

So it must be the unibody MBP. Either hardware or OS related.

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Well, Linksys aren't the only routers that have sporatic problems.

Back in June, my iPod Touch could connect fine, MBP couldn't hold a connection to the Linksys I had at the time. I found an Airport Extreme fixed that problem.

Try changing the channel settings in your router under wireless settings. It might be interference with other devices.

SMC1991 said:

...


How do you know that? Are you just trying to be a troll? Linksys routers have a notorious problem with connecting to Macs wirelessly.

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I thought it was just snow leopard causing this? I never had problems before SL?

I really want to raise some awareness on this issue. I'm in the same position as the OP. The moment I upgraded to Snow, my WiFi started to drop regularly. This isn't just the occasional dropout here and there, it happens once every ten minutes, without fail. It's driving me insane, it's killing me.

I've done a quick search online but I can't find anything that works. I'm at my wits end. Can anyone help?

Sdancott said:

I really want to raise some awareness on this issue. I'm in the same position as the OP. The moment I upgraded to Snow, my WiFi started to drop regularly. This isn't just the occasional dropout here and there, it happens once every ten minutes, without fail. It's driving me insane, it's killing me.

I've done a quick search online but I can't find anything that works. I'm at my wits end. Can anyone help?

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I have an Airport Express, and a uMBP 15" with a clean install of SL, as far as I know all updates have been applied.

You mite want to clear the PRAM and than start checking the channel and other settings from there. Sounds like a timeout issue that if there is no activity than the connection drops.

IBradMac said:

I thought it was just snow leopard causing this? I never had problems before SL?

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It's been a problem since the Intel transition. Something about the way the default MTU settings are.

I second this. I'm having this issue as well. I'm on a 13 macbook aluminum with SL on it. My connection drops out all the time. I was having this issue a few months ago and i went to the wireless options setting in the AE applied interface robustness and changed the signal strength and that solved the problem. Until now. It's back.

It's a real issue and renders the computer so useless I don't even want it anymore. I basically have no internet. There are a LOT of users with this issue and from my research this issue is directly related to SL. The router in my house servers 4 computer (2 mac and 2 pc) and 2 iphones, none of them have an issue connecting except for my SL mac.

I found this article: http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/01/how-...s-airport-connection-problem-in-snow-leopard/

And I've tried everything:

Resetting the router
changing all the settings
manual dhcp
new locations
cycling through b/g/n
reinstalling the os

Everything and nothing works. If anyone has any info please let me know.

Sdancott said:

I really want to raise some awareness on this issue. I'm in the same position as the OP. The moment I upgraded to Snow, my WiFi started to drop regularly. This isn't just the occasional dropout here and there, it happens once every ten minutes, without fail. It's driving me insane, it's killing me.

I've done a quick search online but I can't find anything that works. I'm at my wits end. Can anyone help?

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This was happening to me quite a bit. It stopped when i changed my neighbor's airport to channel 1 and mine to channel 12. (I set up her network, as such i have the password. ) I also changed mine to N, although it was a pain in the a$$ with my wireless G/B printer and having to go back and forth.

Even when my AP is on B/G as opposed to just N i hardly drop now. All i can figure is that somehow her router and mine were too close on freqs and it was causing my MBP to drop somehow. Once i got it working i stopped applying Apple's airport updates....

SMC1991 said:

Linksys routers have a notorious problem with connecting to Macs wirelessly.

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I have a Linksys router and have had ZERO problems with the signal to my uni MBP. The OP's problems sound like user error.

OP - check your network settings by logging into your router. Choose a different channel or different spectrum if that is an option on your router. I use a B/G signal because of cell phones connecting that are non draft n capable. It is a rock solid connection on an "awful" Linksys and have had no problems.

MBX said:

Oh yeah so i need to buy an Airport Extreme for my MBP wifi to work properly?

No thanks.

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I have the same reaction when told that that might help. my dropping is constant and driving me crazy - I don't believe Apple's router for another $135.00 is going to solve my problem. I'd have to hear that from masses of users to consider that.

suzyz said:

I have the same reaction when told that that might help. my dropping is constant and driving me crazy - I don't believe Apple's router for another $135.00 is going to solve my problem. I'd have to hear that from masses of users to consider that.

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I had that problem with my Mid 2009 13". It stopped after about 10.6.2, and this was WHILE USING AN AIRPORT EXTREME.
I changed the wireless channel, and the signal strength if that helps anyone.
There is a dashboard widget, i don't remember the name, that tells you what channels your neighbors wireless networks are working on, this may be the problem.

I had a similar issue with my original Macbook. It would drop off from WiFi every 20-30 minutes, and when I tried to reconnect it would always tell me that the WPA key I put in was invalid. I would have to do a full reboot to get a connection again. I was running a Netgear Rangemax (not sure of the exact model), so I thought that was to blame since I didn't have the problem at work or at a friend's house. I replaced it with an Airport Extreme about a month ago and the problem still happened, although it was far less frequent, about once every 2 hours.

In the end I created a new user account that didn't have the problem at all. I deleted the new account and signed back in with my old account and the problem haunted me again. It seems like it was the user account because I created a new one, move my files and deleted my old account and haven't had the problem since.

How do you know that? Are you just trying to be a troll? Linksys routers have a notorious problem with connecting to Macs wirelessly.

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Well, Linksys aren't the only routers that have sporatic problems.

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Sorry but you guys need to take a deep breath and stop shooting the Apple dope. I'm with the OP, the solution is not throwing more good money after crappy Apple quality. For some people it's always the other manufacturers that screw up, never Apple. Apple needs to take a hard look at this and fix the problem. This is a well-known issue. I used to have the same problem on my unibody macbook but with a different twist, the connection would drop and when I looked in system prefs it didn't even detect the airport module anymore. I had to reboot every time (happened about twice a week). Since upgrading to SL the problem's gone here but obviously there's still some open issues.

If you pay 4K for a laptop I think it's not such a wild expectation to want the thing to work properly.

will my cisco valet work for me when i purchace my mbp?

As some know, I've had three MacBook Pros - one of each size, 13" was a 2009 edition - and a MacBook Air.

Of those devices I only ever had wireless issues with one...the 2009 13". It wouldn't drop signal, but there were times after waking up from sleep that it wouldn't reconnect to the router. It took removing the Airport configuration and re-adding it to get it back, but it would still happen every so often. No issues with either the 15" 2010, 17" 2010 or MacBook Air at all. And I've used many different hotspots around the country with no issues, including my own Mobile Hotspot on my Palm Pre Plus. Never a problem.