the signal strength gave an indication i was online but i was not. i did searches and saw others had similar problems. i know my password was correct. in the end i updated the firmware in my netgear router. the past couple of days have been good with logging on.
i admit i am not a mac user but why not ask information here.
I had major wifi issues when I first received the 4th gen. Upon upgrading to 4.1 my wife began having issues with her 3rd gen. I had an N router in the box I had had not yet installed, once I did that, the problems with dropped wifi connections went away. Sorry it doesn't really answer the firmware question.