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Macbook drops connection, while playing WoW.

WillJS

WillJS

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 6, 2007
1,068
1
Whenever I'm playing it can be fine.. then all of a sudden start dropping. The weird thing is whenever I close WoW and click on the Wireless icon in the Apple bar, and choose my network.. it connects and everything works again, for a random short/long period of time (the network has no password, just open.) When it happens it "lags" the screen, freezing my cursor which makes the problem more difficult to correct. This is extremely annoying and a big problem for my guild when we're in a raid. I think it might have something to do with the neighbor's WiFi coming in range randomly and causing the problem (which wouldn't explain why it reconnects when I close everything). I don't think its "overloading" my connection because it works perfectly fine midday, with someone on another computer at my house.. but can drop at midnight, when no one else is awake. Is this a known problem with Macbooks? could it be an Apple/Blizzard software bug? Any insight on how to correct the problem would be 100% appreciated. Thanks. :)

Edit: Preferably soon, KA tonight. :D
 
Check your wireless settings. Since you mentioned your neighbor has some pretty strong WiFi signal then it could be that it's causing it interference. Turn off your router, do a scan and identify the channels used by the neighbors--say if they're on 11, then you might want to set yours up at 1 or any other channel.

BTW, did you run a software update about a few days ago when the airport update came out?
 
Not that this matters but which router do you have though? I didn't know you're a demi-god around here so---pressure for me.
 
WoW Issue

I've had a similar issue, where my WiFi signal(Running from an Airport base station) drops from full to zero then back again while I'm playing WoW, and it goes on until I quit the game or I am disconnected by the game. I'm pretty sure its a game issue, as I've not had any issues while using any other software.

Something else which alerts me to it being a software issue is this: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=106867260&sid=1&pageNo=3

And this:http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=114923143&sid=1

That second thread goes on for 15 pages atm.
 
ricpac said:
Check your wireless settings. Since you mentioned your neighbor has some pretty strong WiFi signal then it could be that it's causing it interference. Turn off your router, do a scan and identify the channels used by the neighbors--say if they're on 11, then you might want to set yours up at 1 or any other channel.

BTW, did you run a software update about a few days ago when the airport update came out?
Click to expand...
This seems like the best suggestion. If I were you though I would just have a direct internet connection when running important raids and such. I personally would not trust wi-fi and rely on my cat-5 cable.
 
I FOUND A SOLUTION THAT WORKS!!!! First a little back story.

Got my Mac Blackbook and the wi-fi worked great from my Linksys wrt54g2 router. Moved to Germany and into an apartment and my connection issues started happening. My MB would connect once then loose connection quickly and would only recover connection if i either closed and re-opened my screen, or re-connected to my network... then it would drop again before my next page turn.

After multiple days of research I read about SOOOO many others having this issue and the fact the Apple pretty much refused to acknowledge the issue. It seemed that sometime near the OX 10.4.2 update the airport driver got fubar'd leaving all those with Intel based macs wi-fi connects messed up.

Some of the solutions i read about and tried had to do with changing my WEP connection to WPA. This did not work, but i left it as WPA as my research finds it a more secure connection. I also read about and tried setting my Wireless RTA Threshold in my router to 256 from the *2432 default. This as well did not work, though I have left it at this setting as it seems to be the best value for MAC's connecting over wi-fi. This is not true for PC's though so be careful.

More research, more research, o' my brain hurts and my patience is wearing..... then BINGO!!! I found a thread about connection issues that pertained to MB's not connecting to local-network printers. The poster mentioned that MAC's seem to have a hard time connecting to networks that had more than one wi-fi network present. This is my issue i thought. I have 8 in my available connections now. In my old home I had just mine. So i followed the directions suggested and it has now been 2 weeks of 100% perfect wi-fi connections.

Below is the excerpt from this page, http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macbookpro/topic2005.html (Do a find for “Little Snitch”). The program the writer talks about is called Little Snitch found here, http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html. It's a $29 dollar program, but in my mind its well worth it to make my $1500 Blackbook work!

This may not be the Apple Fix we have been waiting for them, but its completely working for me.

I have used Little Snitch software for several years, and it occurred to me that I might be able to use it to block any connections with the other network. Using the latest version (v.2), go to Preferences, or Little Snitch Configuration, choose Rules under the Window menu, and click the New button.

In the pop-up window that shows up, click on the gear icon and choose "Choose System Process." A file open box opens, and under the folder "libexec," choose "airportd." "airportd" is the system daemon that controls the Airport card in the MacBook Pro. In the box that comes up, set the main menu to "Allow Connections" and the Server menu to "Local Network."
Click to expand...
 
I was surprised to see this thread bumped, a little up date then.. I never found a solution.. I have quit playing, however.

Insulin Junkie said:
I know it's stupid and immature but that's what I was thinking too when I read the post. :rolleyes:

Sorry
Click to expand...

Then perhaps you should have kept the comment to yourself? WoW is a game, which millions of people play and enjoy. Why you think someone should stop playing a game they enjoy just because of some stereotype is stupid and immature in itself.
cesarcesar said:
I FOUND A SOLUTION THAT WORKS!!!! First a little back story.

Got my Mac Blackbook and the wi-fi worked great from my Linksys wrt54g2 router. Moved to Germany and into an apartment and my connection issues started happening. My MB would connect once then loose connection quickly and would only recover connection if i either closed and re-opened my screen, or re-connected to my network... then it would drop again before my next page turn.

After multiple days of research I read about SOOOO many others having this issue and the fact the Apple pretty much refused to acknowledge the issue. It seemed that sometime near the OX 10.4.2 update the airport driver got fubar'd leaving all those with Intel based macs wi-fi connects messed up.

Some of the solutions i read about and tried had to do with changing my WEP connection to WPA. This did not work, but i left it as WPA as my research finds it a more secure connection. I also read about and tried setting my Wireless RTA Threshold in my router to 256 from the *2432 default. This as well did not work, though I have left it at this setting as it seems to be the best value for MAC's connecting over wi-fi. This is not true for PC's though so be careful.

More research, more research, o' my brain hurts and my patience is wearing..... then BINGO!!! I found a thread about connection issues that pertained to MB's not connecting to local-network printers. The poster mentioned that MAC's seem to have a hard time connecting to networks that had more than one wi-fi network present. This is my issue i thought. I have 8 in my available connections now. In my old home I had just mine. So i followed the directions suggested and it has now been 2 weeks of 100% perfect wi-fi connections.

Below is the excerpt from this page, http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/macbookpro/topic2005.html (Do a find for “Little Snitch”). The program the writer talks about is called Little Snitch found here, http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html. It's a $29 dollar program, but in my mind its well worth it to make my $1500 Blackbook work!

This may not be the Apple Fix we have been waiting for them, but its completely working for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks for responding with your fix, as I have stopped playing it won't benefit me, but hopefully someone else will find this if they have the problem. :)
 
I know it's kinda off topic, but how well does WoW run on a MacBook? I mean, when you've got a good wireless signal.
 
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