My MacBook Air hates my Home Wifi

[jaykaybeedee]

Starting two days ago, my MacBook Air suddenly stopped loading certain websites. They seem to get hung up loading google analytics, google maps, other google tracking/ad plug-ins (like googleleapsis, whatever the heck that is), Wordpress plug-ins, or gravatar. Then there are pages that don't load at all...they just say "no response from server"...and these are big name pages like Xfinity.com, CNN.com, and even Apple.com. This happens no matter which browser I use - Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all have the same issues - this site too (MacRumors).

BUT, if I tether my Wifi to my phone, everything loads just fine and like normal. So it has to be something with my home Wifi router or connection, right? But a wrinkle is my husband and my daughter have no issues with their Macbooks or PC. It's just me. So apparently there is something in my laptop now that doesn't communicate properly with our home Wifi, and the only way I can see all websites is to tether with my phone, which isn't a long-term solution.

Fixes I have tried:
- Upgrading to El Capitan
- Running OnyX to clear out all caches and settings
- Changing DNS to multiple different numbers
- Clearing the DNS cache
- Turning off iPV6
- "Forgetting" my home Wifi network and then reconnecting
- Rebooting my Wifi router
- Creating another profile and using it (same issue - BUT the guest profile works fine)

I have not installed any new software recently. I think what I need to do is somehow get my laptop to completely forget the settings for my home Wifi? But I don't know how to do that. Help please, this is driving me crazy!!! TIA

 

[Raavi1]

Hi,

Do you have the same issue if you are connecting your MBA in other wireless network? If you can try connecting other macbook or laptop and check if it happens in the same way to those mac's / laptop also. you have tried almost all the possibilities i presume. Try doing this it may work

• Try to delete your Wi-Fi Profile connection from Keychain as well and Try creating location based network switch in wifi.
• IP Address -> DHCP (not manually)
  
• Wi-Fi -> TCP/IP -> Renew DHCP Lease
• Remove - all DNS
• changing Wi-Fi router GHZ to 5GHz from 2.4Ghz if possible
• Did you recently connect to any new wifi in a Office or some other Location ?

Regards,
Gopi.

 

[jaykaybeedee]

I figured it out and it was something really simple - I had to uninstall Avast! Antivirus. I don't know what it was doing but it was blocking certain sites and data. Whew! Thank you f

Hi,

Do you have the same issue if you are connecting your MBA in other wireless network? If you can try connecting other macbook or laptop and check if it happens in the same way to those mac's / laptop also. you have tried almost all the possibilities i presume. Try doing this it may work

• Try to delete your Wi-Fi Profile connection from Keychain as well and Try creating location based network switch in wifi.
• IP Address -> DHCP (not manually)
  
• Wi-Fi -> TCP/IP -> Renew DHCP Lease
• Remove - all DNS
• changing Wi-Fi router GHZ to 5GHz from 2.4Ghz if possible
• Did you recently connect to any new wifi in a Office or some other Location ?

Regards,
Gopi.

I tried all this and nothing worked, so I did some more online searching...finally I decided to try uninstalling Avast! Antivirus and it WORKED. Such a simple fix. I don't know what Avast was doing but apparently it was blocking my web browsing. Thank you for your help!!!

 

[satcomer]

I figured it out and it was something really simple - I had to uninstall Avast! Antivirus. I don't know what it was doing but it was blocking certain sites and data. Whew! Thank you f


I tried all this and nothing worked, so I did some more online searching...finally I decided to try uninstalling Avast! Antivirus and it WORKED. Such a simple fix. I don't know what Avast was doing but apparently it was blocking my web browsing. Thank you for your help!!!

Maybe you should look at Little Snitch for your security blanket. You'll be surprised on how many programs call home and to where!

 

[Raavi1]

I figured it out and it was something really simple - I had to uninstall Avast! Antivirus. I don't know what it was doing but it was blocking certain sites and data. Whew! Thank you f


I tried all this and nothing worked, so I did some more online searching...finally I decided to try uninstalling Avast! Antivirus and it WORKED. Such a simple fix. I don't know what Avast was doing but apparently it was blocking my web browsing. Thank you for your help!!!

Interesting & sorry had never installed an antivirus in my mac. So this dint click me. And thanks for the info may be next time if some one faces this issue will make sure to check the antivirus part.

 

[jaykaybeedee]

Maybe you should look at Little Snitch for your security blanket. You'll be surprised on how many programs call home and to where!

Will do, thank you!

 

[mrt.plt]

I have a similar problem, so I wanted to write here instead of creating a new thread.
Symptoms:

• Macbook Air 2013 frequently drops the Wi-Fi connection from my home router. When I am working next to the router, there is no problem, but when I am using it in another room it drops the connection. When it's dropped, first the Wi-Fi seems turned off, then it turns on and the bars blink. (The most significant event that happened before this problem started was that my cousin touched "not that harshly" to the inside top left part of the laptop. I have been wondering if it could cause such a problem)
• Also, sometimes when I try to load a page it reads "Cannot be opened as there is no Internet connection" Reload it and it loads fine.
• I have Windows 10 installed on Boot Camp, no problem with Wi-Fi at all on Windows. ( so it should not be a real problem)
• It takes forever to connect to the work router. There are maximum 15 computers connected to the router and only the Macs have a hard time connecting to Internet. On the top bar, it seems connected but there is no Internet connection for the first five minutes. Again, no problem on Boot Camp.
• Sometimes the home Desktop that's connected to Internet from a strong Wi-Fi receiver drops the connection as well, but it happens so rarely (It happens when I am trying to copy a file from that computer to the Mac by using the home network)

What I have tried:

• Turning Wi-Fi off and on many times (does not solve the connection drop problem but sometimes solves the second one)
• DNS settings reset
• Disable IPv6

So far I am using the computer on Windows at work to be able to connect to the Internet, but then... why did I buy a MacBook in the first place?

Hope you can help me!
Thanks!

 

[tjwilliams25]

I have a similar problem, so I wanted to write here instead of creating a new thread.
Symptoms:

• Macbook Air 2013 frequently drops the Wi-Fi connection from my home router. When I am working next to the router, there is no problem, but when I am using it in another room it drops the connection. When it's dropped, first the Wi-Fi seems turned off, then it turns on and the bars blink. (The most significant event that happened before this problem started was that my cousin touched "not that harshly" to the inside top left part of the laptop. I have been wondering if it could cause such a problem)
• Also, sometimes when I try to load a page it reads "Cannot be opened as there is no Internet connection" Reload it and it loads fine.
• I have Windows 10 installed on Boot Camp, no problem with Wi-Fi at all on Windows. ( so it should not be a real problem)
• It takes forever to connect to the work router. There are maximum 15 computers connected to the router and only the Macs have a hard time connecting to Internet. On the top bar, it seems connected but there is no Internet connection for the first five minutes. Again, no problem on Boot Camp.
• Sometimes the home Desktop that's connected to Internet from a strong Wi-Fi receiver drops the connection as well, but it happens so rarely (It happens when I am trying to copy a file from that computer to the Mac by using the home network)

What I have tried:

• Turning Wi-Fi off and on many times (does not solve the connection drop problem but sometimes solves the second one)
• DNS settings reset
• Disable IPv6

So far I am using the computer on Windows at work to be able to connect to the Internet, but then... why did I buy a MacBook in the first place?

Hope you can help me!
Thanks!

Did you notice this behavior start after a software update? Since it's working fine under Windows, I'm going to guess it's probably not a hardware issue. I would suggest backing up your files and reinstalling OS X. On the other hand, if you haven't updated OS X in a while, I would also suggest doing that, especially to El Capitan. They address bugs pretty frequently with updates, so it may just be an issue with a driver needing to be updated.

 

[mrt.plt]

Did you notice this behavior start after a software update? Since it's working fine under Windows, I'm going to guess it's probably not a hardware issue. I would suggest backing up your files and reinstalling OS X. On the other hand, if you haven't updated OS X in a while, I would also suggest doing that, especially to El Capitan. They address bugs pretty frequently with updates, so it may just be an issue with a driver needing to be updated.

It's running on El Capitan (10.11.2) and yes, this problem appeared after the El Capitan update. I wlll do that as soon as possible! Thanks!

 

[satcomer]

I have a similar problem, so I wanted to write here instead of creating a new thread.
Symptoms:

• Macbook Air 2013 frequently drops the Wi-Fi connection from my home router. When I am working next to the router, there is no problem, but when I am using it in another room it drops the connection. When it's dropped, first the Wi-Fi seems turned off, then it turns on and the bars blink. (The most significant event that happened before this problem started was that my cousin touched "not that harshly" to the inside top left part of the laptop. I have been wondering if it could cause such a problem)
• Also, sometimes when I try to load a page it reads "Cannot be opened as there is no Internet connection" Reload it and it loads fine.
• I have Windows 10 installed on Boot Camp, no problem with Wi-Fi at all on Windows. ( so it should not be a real problem)
• It takes forever to connect to the work router. There are maximum 15 computers connected to the router and only the Macs have a hard time connecting to Internet. On the top bar, it seems connected but there is no Internet connection for the first five minutes. Again, no problem on Boot Camp.
• Sometimes the home Desktop that's connected to Internet from a strong Wi-Fi receiver drops the connection as well, but it happens so rarely (It happens when I am trying to copy a file from that computer to the Mac by using the home network)

What I have tried:

• Turning Wi-Fi off and on many times (does not solve the connection drop problem but sometimes solves the second one)
• DNS settings reset
• Disable IPv6

So far I am using the computer on Windows at work to be able to connect to the Internet, but then... why did I buy a MacBook in the first place?

Hope you can help me!
Thanks!

Since you never said what version of OS X you are using so here are some links to last three OS X versions.

Fix Wi-Fi Problems Mac OS X El Captain

Fix Wi-FibProblems OS X Yosemite

How To troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity in Lion or earlier