Possible Fix for WiFi dropping.

[IzzyJG99]

As some of you might know there is a bug where your Wi-Fi (Which let's still keep calling Airport, okay?) has to be turned off and turned back to get it to work. Something about system overload in console.

I'm using a first generation Airport Express. So originally I thought perhaps that was the issue. At the same time some of my widgets (Even Apple's own weather widget) were not receiving information. I dismissed that as another bug that would get fixed.

Well after reverting back to 10.6 and then saying "Screw it. I'll wait for 10.7.1!" I decided to re-download Lion and said "I'm going to fix this" I went back to 10.7.0. Did some digging. On a whim I decided to change my Airport Express to one fixed channel and suddenly my connection is staying up and those widgets magically began to work.

Perhaps an IPv6 (A guess) issue or a problem in Lion's code dealing with older hardware or "automatic" channel selection? In the interest of full disclosure I can tell you that my Airport Express is on it's last leg, often needing to be unplugged and plugged back in.

Eitherway I'm sure they will fix it. Hopefully this'll help others with the same similar problem.

 

[googs]

Can you give me a slightly more specific process on how to do this?

I am totally at my wit's end with this problem. I'm ready to repeatedly smash my iMac against a brick wall. I'm running OS X 10.6.8

So far I have tried every conceivable solution that I can find on the internet...trashing preferences, deleting keychain whatevers, resetting modem, wiped my HD and reinstalled the OS, I've even taken it to the apple store and had the airport card replaced. Not one single thing has worked.

 

[Elven]

Yes this bug is very irritating and is one of the main reasons my home office was rapidly changed over to Cat 6 cables.

A fix would be really appreciated.

 

[IzzyJG99]

Can you give me a slightly more specific process on how to do this?

I am totally at my wit's end with this problem. I'm ready to repeatedly smash my iMac against a brick wall. I'm running OS X 10.6.8

So far I have tried every conceivable solution that I can find on the internet...trashing preferences, deleting keychain whatevers, resetting modem, wiped my HD and reinstalled the OS, I've even taken it to the apple store and had the airport card replaced. Not one single thing has worked.

I was, too concerned it might be my Airport Card since I recently had a new logic board installed. Thank God I noticed I was two days from warranty ending... But I digress. I am unsure if this is the proper way to go about things if you are using another manufacturer of wi-fi base station, but let's give it a whack.

Open up "Airport Utility." It can be found Applications>Utilities. Once it's open select your base station and/or whatever your using for wi-fi. There should be a "Manual Setup" button in the window. Click that. It might take a few moments to minutes to gather the information. It's normal. From there you will see Airport, Internet, Music etc, etc at the top. Ignore those, but make sure you have "Airport" selected. From there you will see "Summary" "Base Station" and "Wireless" etc, etc. Click on "Wireless."

From there you want to go to "Radio Mode" and select 802.11g only. Mine was set to run b and g for some reason. Since I have no 802.11B things anymore I changed it to G only. Next you will see "Channel." I selected 7 since it's a lucky number.

Next click on "Wireless Network Options." Select under 11mbps under "Multicast Rate." From what I understand the higher your cast rate the less range you get. 11 is default and middle of the road, I think. I have "Use Interference Robustness" selected just to play it safe since I am in a condo complex.

Once that is done click on "Update" and your Airport/Router should reboot with the new settings. Wait a few minutes and it'll show back up in Airport Utility and hopefully it'll have fixed your problem.

That's all i did. I hope it works for you!

 

[Sodner]

The belief stated by many on the Apple Support Forum is that setting a router to the slower G does fix the problem. Setting it on the faster N (which most would want) results in the poor connections.

I "believe" Lion has helped mine considerably. That or one of the many things I have tried have helped.

Note: I have a mid 2011 iMac and a 1tb Apple Time Capsule. NOT the new one released just recently, the prior version.

 

[IzzyJG99]

The belief stated by many on the Apple Support Forum is that setting a router to the slower G does fix the problem. Setting it on the faster N (which most would want) results in the poor connections.

I "believe" Lion has helped mine considerably. That or one of the many things I have tried have helped.

Note: I have a mid 2011 iMac and a 1tb Apple Time Capsule. NOT the new one released just recently, the prior version.

I'm using a Mid-2010 iMac. The Airport Express I have doesn't run N, so G was the best option. But hey...it got results.

 

[googs]

I was, too concerned it might be my Airport Card since I recently had a new logic board installed. Thank God I noticed I was two days from warranty ending... But I digress. I am unsure if this is the proper way to go about things if you are using another manufacturer of wi-fi base station, but let's give it a whack.

Open up "Airport Utility." It can be found Applications>Utilities. Once it's open select your base station and/or whatever your using for wi-fi. There should be a "Manual Setup" button in the window. Click that. It might take a few moments to minutes to gather the information. It's normal. From there you will see Airport, Internet, Music etc, etc at the top. Ignore those, but make sure you have "Airport" selected. From there you will see "Summary" "Base Station" and "Wireless" etc, etc. Click on "Wireless."

From there you want to go to "Radio Mode" and select 802.11g only. Mine was set to run b and g for some reason. Since I have no 802.11B things anymore I changed it to G only. Next you will see "Channel." I selected 7 since it's a lucky number.

Next click on "Wireless Network Options." Select under 11mbps under "Multicast Rate." From what I understand the higher your cast rate the less range you get. 11 is default and middle of the road, I think. I have "Use Interference Robustness" selected just to play it safe since I am in a condo complex.

Once that is done click on "Update" and your Airport/Router should reboot with the new settings. Wait a few minutes and it'll show back up in Airport Utility and hopefully it'll have fixed your problem.

That's all i did. I hope it works for you!

Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately since I'm using a different wifi modem it didn't work for me. The Airport Utility is only for the Airport base station. I was hoping I could do the same thing in Network Utility, but from what I can see you can't change anything in there.

The only thing I'm left to do at this point is give Apple all sorts of ****, and *MAYBE* they'll give me a new comp since it's still under warrantee. Long shot, but what the hell else am I supposed to do...

 

[IzzyJG99]

Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately since I'm using a different wifi modem it didn't work for me. The Airport Utility is only for the Airport base station. I was hoping I could do the same thing in Network Utility, but from what I can see you can't change anything in there.

The only thing I'm left to do at this point is give Apple all sorts of ****, and *MAYBE* they'll give me a new comp since it's still under warrantee. Long shot, but what the hell else am I supposed to do...

Your wireless router doesn't have any kind of software for setup or modification?