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Airport Losing Signal Completely/Saying There is a Signal With No Internet Sometimes

B

BenEndeem

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
301
0
England
I've been having a this problem with my MacBook recently. In most cases the airport says full signal but I have no access to the internet. During the last two instances, I checked other wi-fi devices (iPod Touch/iBook/Samsung Omnia), all of which connected online perfectly while the MacBook couldn't. This usually passes after between 5 and 15 minutes, but it is exceedingly annoying.

The other problem with the Airport is that it doesn't pickup any signal at all sometimes, not even finding the other networks that are normally found. Last time this happened, I found that I could connect to the local network if I manually entered the information under TCP/IP, but still couldn't connect online. Changing back to DHCP did the trick, but until I manually entered the information, I couldn't even find any networks.

This is an intermittent issue, occurring about twice each day, but it is rather disruptive.

Does anyone know what the problem could be? Help would be greatly appreciated.
 
What kind of router do you have? I had a Netgear 614V5 and had problems with intermittent loss of internet connection. I was worried it was my airport, but if I connected to a neighbors Belkin router (unsecured) I would never lose signal. I decided to buy a Belkin wireless N router and I have not had a single problem since. The Belkin router even has a USB port to connect an external HDD to be used as a shared drive. I was alsobhaving an issue with the Netgear router not maintaining reserved IP addresses, but the new router has maintained the address reservations perfectly.
 
Happens to me a lot and it drives me nuts. It is the worst part about the macbook. My router is a Dlink DI-524. I have 5 wireless laptops on it at any given time and none of them ever drop. I have been trying to synch my file for the last 4 days and can never complete due to the wireless dropping.
 
Something similar: about 2-3 days ago I started having maddening but intermittent wireless problems. These problems seem to be getting increasingly frequent.

I get various errors related to wireless internet connection.
1. Safari error: You are not connected to the Internet and invitation to open Network Diagnostics
2. Safari error: The server is not responding
3. Safari can’t open the page.
Safari can’t open the page “http://www.google.co.uk/ig?hl=en&source=iglk”. The error was: “Operation could not be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 302.)” (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork:302
4. Connection to router drops out. Different available networks appear and disappear in Airport list. Difficulty reconnecting after dropout.
5. Signal strength drops
6. Pop up message 'The wireless network appears to have been comporomised and will be disabled for about a minute', after which it may or may not come back online

None of these problems occur with other Windows computers connected to same network and I had none of these problems until a couple of days ago. Occasionally this machine will work fine too but it's usually only for about 30min then it starts acting up.

I think I'm going to have to ring Apple 'cos I've only had this machine a few weeks but any insights or experiences would be welcome.

VM
 
BenEndeem said:
I've been having a this problem with my MacBook recently. In most cases the airport says full signal but I have no access to the internet. During the last two instances, I checked other wi-fi devices (iPod Touch/iBook/Samsung Omnia), all of which connected online perfectly while the MacBook couldn't. This usually passes after between 5 and 15 minutes, but it is exceedingly annoying.

The other problem with the Airport is that it doesn't pickup any signal at all sometimes, not even finding the other networks that are normally found. Last time this happened, I found that I could connect to the local network if I manually entered the information under TCP/IP, but still couldn't connect online. Changing back to DHCP did the trick, but until I manually entered the information, I couldn't even find any networks.

This is an intermittent issue, occurring about twice each day, but it is rather disruptive.

Does anyone know what the problem could be? Help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Just want to offer what little advice I can... I don't have a macbook, I'm still on the iBook but...
when you lose service, do you try turning airport off, waiting 30 seconds, and then turning it back on? Sometimes that works for me. Sometimes I'll have service and then get kicked completely off and when I click the signal icon, it doesn't even show any networks as available... so I turn airport off and back on, and magically all the ones that should be there are back.
 
agurlnamedgoo said:
Just want to offer what little advice I can... I don't have a macbook, I'm still on the iBook but...
when you lose service, do you try turning airport off, waiting 30 seconds, and then turning it back on? Sometimes that works for me. Sometimes I'll have service and then get kicked completely off and when I click the signal icon, it doesn't even show any networks as available... so I turn airport off and back on, and magically all the ones that should be there are back.
Click to expand...

I did try that. Didn't make any difference. But even if it did, that sounds kinda tedious - we shoudn't have to turn off the Airport and turn it back on again. If I wanted to do things like that I'd go back to a Windows machine! :eek:
 
I'm sorry to hear that doesn't work for you.

You should call apple about the problem, because they're new machines so they'll report the problems that persist and come out with a patch to fix them. I remember I had some minor problem with my machine at the start, and I called and told them about it and a couple weeks later there was a patch for it. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who called in and told them about it. Strength in numbers.

I'm sorry I can't be more help :(
 
Thanks for the further replies.

I've tried turning Airport on and off, but it still persists. Luckily, it hasn't reoccurred since I made the topic, but I did still call Apple. Because I'm out of the complimentary phone support period the fees they quoted are rather large per call, so I'm going to buy Apple Care for any future problems.
 
OP

I'm having the same issues with my Macbook 2.0 Alu MB.

My MB's wireless internet in my house works absolutely perfect although it doesn't at my university (I get full signals though). I've tried two different university locations in my city yet no joy. My previous Dell was fine at university, no internet problems. Also, my mates at university have windows machines and yet their internet works fine.

I can sometimes, when i'm lucky (1%) get the internet to work at my university but its really slow. I've also found that the internet, when it does work, is best on firefox for some reason (its faster). I've got all the latest patches downloaded, i've disabled the airport and yet I have problems.

I would appreciate if you can keep us posted as to what Apple say.

p.s. I also get the beachball of death, sometimes, when I try and load a website (its annoying)
 
Airport losing signal with Belkin N1 Vision

I have the exact same problem with a 2nd Gen Aluminum Macbook and a Belkin N1 Vision modem-router. The only thing that resolves the problem is a Restart.
 
Whenever I have such issues, I disconnect the cable and the electrical connection on my modem for a few minutes, and reconnect. The problem goes away every time, leading me to believe it is not so much a router (I use Airport Express) issue, as it is my service provider or modem issue.
 
In my case, none of the other PC's that are attached wirelessly ever drop their connection. At any given time I have 3-5 other notebooks connected. Only the MacBook drops.
 
RainMeister said:
Whenever I have such issues, I disconnect the cable and the electrical connection on my modem for a few minutes, and reconnect. The problem goes away every time, leading me to believe it is not so much a router (I use Airport Express) issue, as it is my service provider or modem issue.
Click to expand...

Thats only useful if you own the router :D

Useless if your using a wireless connection at say a library or your university - can't just go up to the tech team and say "could you unplug the router, so that I can get my airport to work. I am sorry about the other 12,000 people who are currently not having a problem".

:eek: :p
 
I haven't called Apple yet but I did change my router to WPA security only, instead of WEP and WPA. This seems to have made a slight improvement in that it now happens less frequently.
Since that change turning the Airport off, back on does seem to help. I will still call Apple though because that's not really good enough - it's a bit too much like the whole 'shutdown Windows, start Windows back up again', which is part of the reason I changed to a Mac.

Am I being unreasonable?
 
No I think we should be able to count on a laptop that stays online when others can. Many times this is be something that can be corrected with a software update
 
Macbook Pro

I've been using the airport with no problems then suddenly last night it wouldn't hook up to internet even though it's showing full signal.
I cleared with disk utility and it seemed to fix the problem. But this morning when I turned on my laptop the problem is back and I can't get online?
Plugged in an ethernet cable and can get on.. so know it's the airport?
Any more ideas???
tres annoying!
 
I have the same problem

I have the same problem. Its really bad with Tiger and my Safari on tiger always closes and gets an error message. It got better when I upgraded to leopard. The airport didnt cut out as much, occassionally though, and Safari didnt crash at all. =)

Unfortunately though I did an erase and re-install before realizing that I wouldnt have leopard anymore =(. But Snow leopard should be out soon so I will wait until then to buy it. :apple:
 
I've been having a this problem with my MacBook recently. In most cases the airport says full signal but I have no access to the internet. During the last two instances, I checked other wi-fi devices (iPod Touch/iBook/Samsung Omnia), all of which connected online perfectly while the MacBook couldn't. This usually passes after between 5 and 15 minutes, but it is exceedingly annoying.

The other problem with the Airport is that it doesn't pickup any signal at all sometimes, not even finding the other networks that are normally found. Last time this happened, I found that I could connect to the local network if I manually entered the information under TCP/IP, but still couldn't connect online. Changing back to DHCP did the trick, but until I manually entered the information, I couldn't even find any networks.

This is an intermittent issue, occurring about twice each day, but it is rather disruptive.
Click to expand...

I have had the exact same problem over the last few months using my MB with the wireless at my university. Now this problem has just begun on my home network following the addition of an Apple TV. If the Apple TV is on the network my MB will not open any webpages (firefox or safari), it can connect fine but pages will not open. Other PC's and my iPhone on the same network have no problem.
 
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