Am having some WiFi issues and not sure what the cause is

[the8thark]

I am not new to the Mac but I thought here would be a good place to post my issue I am asking help on from the kind people here.

I run my wired router to an Airport Express then that wireless WiFi the internet to my iMac. Just so you know.

I quite often, about once every 1-2 days (sometimes more) get the first image with the two orange dots. I press continue and it always asks me "do you want to access your network in your key chain?" I always press always allow but it keeps asking me. I don't know why. I repaired my permissions but that doesn't seem to do anything. But that works and it thinks.

Sometimes the two orange dots change to green and the internet works. Other times the orange dots turn red and the internet doesn't work. I have to reset my router and Airport Express at the wall (just turn the power off and back on) then lost times that fixed the issue and my internet works again. Well till this issue happens again.

My question is why does this happen in the first place, and what is the meaning of the two dots being orange then red? According to this it's not my ISP as that dot is always green. It's not my network or settings either as those dots are always green.

So I don't really know why this is happening. Maybe someone here could help me out and explain this mystery to me. So maybe it can be fixed so it doesn't happen again.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you open that Network diagnostic (with all dots green), disconnect your Modem/router. You will see the last two dots change over to red (you have lost the internet connection). You should see exactly the same as your screen shots. Changing takes a few seconds, but it will happen.
I suspect that your router may be on the road to failure (and your airport express may be OK.)
You may get your internet connection back up by simply unplugging, then reconnecting power to the router. If you have to do that often (several times a week) then you should consider replacing….

 

[Bruno09]

This might also be a DNS problem.

I suspect that your DNS tab in System Preferences / Network / Wifi / Advanced is empty when you get the 2 red dots.

Since it's an iMac (not a portable computer) you might set a static IP address and see if this helps.

In System Preferences / Network / Wifi, create a new "Location" named "Static IP", with a static IP address, use the router's IP address as DNS server, or use the DNS servers of your ISP.

 

[the8thark]

If you open that Network diagnostic (with all dots green), disconnect your Modem/router. You will see the last two dots change over to red (you have lost the internet connection). You should see exactly the same as your screen shots. Changing takes a few seconds, but it will happen.
I suspect that your router may be on the road to failure (and your airport express may be OK.)
You may get your internet connection back up by simply unplugging, then reconnecting power to the router. If you have to do that often (several times a week) then you should consider replacing….

I did as you said just for a test. Had all dots green, then switched my router off only, left the Airport Express on. And I got 3 red dots. That's as expected ( I think) as I am no longer connected to the ISP.

This 2 dot thing has been happening a lot actually. The ISP dot always stays green though which is strange. Maybe the router is on it's way out and I need a change. But I'd like to make sure that the router is the issue before I put cash into buying a new one.

Thanks for your advice though.

 

[the8thark]

This might also be a DNS problem.

I suspect that your DNS tab in System Preferences / Network / Wifi / Advanced is empty when you get the 2 red dots.

Since it's an iMac (not a portable computer) you might set a static IP address and see if this helps.

In System Preferences / Network / Wifi, create a new "Location" named "Static IP", with a static IP address, use the router's IP address as DNS server, or use the DNS servers of your ISP.

Well that's strange. I went to the location you said and the DNS box has 4 servers in it. The two are from my ISP and the bottom 2 are the open DNS servers I believe. And the location I always used was the automatic one.

So I have just created a static location as you said. And I have used my ISP's DNS servers. Lets see if this helps. And thanks for the advice.

 

[Bruno09]

If you have the two ISP's servers + the two OpenDNS servers in the DNS tab, and still the orange/red dots, it's clearly not a DNS problem, but likely a dying router problem...

 

[the8thark]

If you have the two ISP's servers + the two OpenDNS servers in the DNS tab, and still the orange/red dots, it's clearly not a DNS problem, but likely a dying router problem...

Thanks and I think you might be right, but to give the router the benefit of the doubt I'll wait a few days and see if the issue pops up again with this new static location set. If it does, then it's most likely router shopping time.