Full WiFi Signal = No actual connection?

[Soundburst]

Hey everyone,

I have the 12 Inch MacBook (why else would I be posting in this section of the forum lol) - anywho i'm sat NEXT TO my router and the signal strength is showing as full.

However, after about 2 minutes of browsing the internet - it will die a death. Take MINUTES to load a single webpage - if it even loads it at all.

During this time I can browse on my iPad and Android Phone on the wifi no problem super fast. Does anyone know how to cure this?

 

[tbirdparis]

Maybe the wifi channel you're using is saturated? You should be able to switch it to different channels on the router, that might help.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Agreed. Check the manual on your router and possible change channels.

 

[Soundburst]

Thanks for the replies - not what i'd hoped for though as i've changed channels to no avail.

There are quite a lot of threads on the web about the MacBook's poor connection to wifi when when showing great signal but I hoped it'd have been resolved by now properly. I'll just await an Apple fix. Bit annoying my Sony phone is blazing fast on wifi and my £1100 MacBook struggles to load 3 successive pages before giving up.

I've taken a video of the whole process which i'm uploaded to YouTube to show you what happens.

While this video was happening I could easily use the wifi on my phone - at the end when the page finally loads you'll see a speed test performed showing 150mb internet speed - but getting to that takes a good 5 minutes of absolute boredom.

 

[tbirdparis]

There's definitely a problem here... since you've eliminated the possibility of it being the wifi channels, I'd say it's time to look elsewhere for the issue. FWIW, I've had my rMB for a couple of months now and have had no wifi issues at all. That said, I did start a thread on it a while back because I was getting poor performance. At that time though, I still had the really old router that came with my old ADSL service. It was very outdated in terms of wifi speed and also range, but since getting fibre optic installed with a brand spanking new router, it's been great. So for me the wifi problem turned out to be the router, the rMB itself seems to be fine in this regard.

If I were you I wouldn't wait for an Apple fix because if there is an issue with wifi, it doesn't seem to be across the board otherwise everybody would be having the same problem. I'm not sure what else to suggest for how you can troubleshoot yourself - wifi isn't really my forte. I did read somewhere that relatively modern routers (ones that support 802.11 n and g but not yet AC) do sometimes offer dual-channel support so as to get higher transfer speeds. Maybe there's something up with how that's configured at your end? Another thing I'd try is, go to someone else's house or to a workplace where you can go on the wifi and see what happens. If the problem is exactly the same then you'll have more evidence that something in your machine is dicey. From that point, I'd be shooting clips of it not working at different locations on my iPhone (or whatever you have that shoots video), making an appointment at an Apple Store and showing them exactly what is going on. If you can demonstrate that it flunks out on wifi no matter where you try it, I'd be surprised if they didn't take it back immediately for a repair or a replacement.

 

[Soundburst]

Hey thanks for that response! It is dual channel I stay on 2G until it becomes unresponsive , then switch to 5G, then vice versa. Every other device is working - perhaps I have a faulty rMB. Bringing it into work tomorrow to use it on that WiFi network. Here's a video of what it's like to use it. You'll see the speed test right at the end.

 

[Queen6]

That is what I would also recommend, trying your MacBook on a different router Mac`s can be finicky with some hardware.

Q-6