Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Retina MacBook Pro horrible wifi

S

sunyatasattva

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 19, 2013
8
0
I have recently bought the new Retina MacBook Pro and I have been very disappointed by the wifi performance. First of all, there is the very well known and discussed wi-fi + bluetooth interference, which makes it impossible to use a Magic Mouse.

Moreover, I am experiencing a terrible range on the wifi. Admittedly, my room is far from my wifi router, but my 2010 plain MacBook running Snow Leopard operates perfectly, while the signal on my rMBP running the latest Mountain Lion is close to nonexistant (something like signal strength of -80–90dBm).

Is this also a known issue? Is there any fix that I could try? I was thinking of even sharing my old MacBook internet connection with the rMBP over Bluetooth, but attempts have so far failed.
 
Suny, could you shed some light on what your Router is and about how far you are away from it? Also what floor your Router is on will also have effects on your wifi performance.
 
You can also try with the so-called "power line"(google for "Power Line networking") that brings the network signal through electricity cables. one in the room of the router, hooked to it with ethernet cable, and the other in the room of the retina. You can buy a Thunderbolt/ethernet adapter and use it to connect the Retina to the Power Line. If you instead want to use wifi of the Retina, you can hook the old MacBook to the ethernet and share internet connection from wifi (that works, but only without password in my experience). Or you can hook the exiting ethernet cable to a wifi Access Pointconnected to the Power Line, and connect the Retina to it.
Another solution is to buy a wifi USB dongle, surely more powerful than internal wifi of the Retina, and cheaper than the "power line".
 
Last edited:
Sorry for the late reply, I have been struck by sickness which has kept me in bed for a while.

could you shed some light on what your Router is and about how far you are away from it? Also what floor your Router is on will also have effects on your wifi performance.
Click to expand...

I have a D-Link DIR-615 Router on the ground floor and my room is directly above the router; the router is also positioned very high in the wall, so I would say the vertical distance is around 2–3mt., horizontal 5–7mt.

Thank you guys for your other suggestions but I think this is just unacceptable: a three-years-old entry-level machine has better WiFi performance than a new, state of the art professional level machine, branded as the best laptop Apple has ever made.

Or is it just my machine which is defective? Though considering the afore-mentioned Bluetooth-wifi interference problem (which I believe is a huge blunder) I believe this might not be the case.

All the proposed solutions are viable (given some hassle, and money) but they are the equivalent of “You are holding it wrong”.
 
There are lots of people who post about various issues with their laptop, but if my memory is not playing tricks on me, you must be the first one (or at least, one of the very few) who complains about the WiFi on the rMBP. So its probably your machine, or your router, or your environment.
 
sunyatasattva said:
Sorry for the late reply, I have been struck by sickness which has kept me in bed for a while.



I have a D-Link DIR-615 Router on the ground floor and my room is directly above the router; the router is also positioned very high in the wall, so I would say the vertical distance is around 2–3mt., horizontal 5–7mt.

Thank you guys for your other suggestions but I think this is just unacceptable: a three-years-old entry-level machine has better WiFi performance than a new, state of the art professional level machine, branded as the best laptop Apple has ever made.

Or is it just my machine which is defective? Though considering the afore-mentioned Bluetooth-wifi interference problem (which I believe is a huge blunder) I believe this might not be the case.

All the proposed solutions are viable (given some hassle, and money) but they are the equivalent of “You are holding it wrong”.
Click to expand...

I just received my new rMBP 15 last week, I was also having some WiFi issues - latency, and it would stay connected but not traverse any data over the WiFi - while all my other devices were fine. I had to disable and re-enable the wireless to get it working. I have a TPLink dual-band router. I decided to take a chance and went this weekend to get the new AirPort Extreme - figured if it made no improvement I would just return it. Well not only did my Comcast speeds go from average 27-30MB to 55MB - but I have not had any further wifi issues or disconnects where I had to disable and re-enable. It's kinda pricey and I don't have 802.11AC on this mac obviously, but figured it would set me up for a few years as new AC devices become available - and it ended up increasing my wifi speeds anyway. Just a thought.
 
LogiTek said:
I decided to take a chance and went this weekend to get the new AirPort Extreme.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion, but that's on the line of what was mentioned: buy something else to make a machine you paid dearly for work as it should.

I believe this is very upsetting.
 
Retina MacBook Pro horrible wifi

Bluetooth/WiFi issues are not common in the rMBP. You have a defective model, exchange it, return it or get it repaired under Warranty.

Not being able to use Bluetooth devices without severe WiFi issues is not normal, and is not a flaw in the design of the hardware. Yours is simply defective, that's all. Don't even bother messing with your network connections if other devices are connecting normally.

I have not heard of any major issues using a Magic Mouse with the rMBP. That is not normal. I use a Magic Mouse with bluetooth, 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi with not a single issue. Again, your machine is defective.
 
I have a unique problem with macbook wifi.
at my room, I'm using wifi d-link for wifi ruter.

when I using macbook to open web (kaskus), it's very slow and cannt open
when I using lenovo standard, all fine, I can open wb (kaskus) and normal browsing.

FYI : I have try with different browser and the result is same

someone can help me to solved this issues?
 
Last edited:
Interesting

I have the same issue as you sunyatasattva...
And i have the same router D-link dir-615, but sometimes i have big problems with other routers as well. I have a rMBP, and it is about 4 month´s old.
Have you talked with the apple support?

I was figuring to reclaim it, because it is very disturbing...
 
The same here. My girlfriend and I are sitting in the same room, she has a full bar on her old HP netbook anywhere in the room, my new, shiny MBP Retina 15'' connects only when I sit in the doorway. Embarrassing isn't it?

I started using a cable but the new Thunderbolt port, apart from making me pay £25 for the ethernet extension, is a bit poorly designed and keeps falling of with the smallest movement of my ass on the armchair. Apart from that ethernet disconnects randomly from time to time (tested on 2 different routers).

I love this macbook, is very fast and reliable, but I think there is a room for improvement.

ps. Magic mouse keep disconnecting always, in any set-up, environment and circumstances. I tested it on at least 4 macs, laptops as well as allinones. I remember putting some paper in the battery slot to make them sit tighter. I think that helped a bit.
 
Problem solved with router settings - change Bandwidth to 40MHz instead of 20MHz

Just got my Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro 15" and seem to have the issue where using Bluetooth was messing up the WiFi, particularly the upload speed. Long story short, I have a Belkin N+ router (F5D8235-4 v1000) - I went into the settings and set it to use "only" 802.11n mode (not sure if that was necessary) BUT I also set the "Bandwidth" to "20/40MHz" instead of 20MHz and bingo. My WiFi speed is actually waaayyyyyy faster than it was even before I had the issue. I used to get 1.4Mbps upload, then I had the issue with Retina MacBook Pro and was only getting 100Kbps. Then I change the router settings and I'm getting 4Mbps uploads (this goes a long way when uploading YouTube videos). And quite naturally my download speeds went from an average of 15Mbps to 28Mbps.

Hope this helps someone. I guess the 40MHz bandwidth is running at 5GHz instead of 2.4GHz, which only has the 20MHz of bandwidth. Who knows, all I know is that it worked for me without having to go to Genius Bar and waste time or purchase an expensive new Apple router.



E.
 
Last edited:
sunyatasattva said:
Thank you for the suggestion, but that's on the line of what was mentioned: buy something else to make a machine you paid dearly for work as it should.

I believe this is very upsetting.
Click to expand...

While I agree with what you are saying that we shouldn't have to buy something else to make the laptop which we spent so much on work right, I think you are reading into this wrong. I think it is more a case of the wifi router not working right rather than the laptop. Wifi problems are few and far between with MBPs. I would maybe take yours to a coffee shop, library, or friends house and see how the connection goes on another network. I was having connection problems with my new rMBP and ended up buying an ASUS RT-AC68R router. I found out how poor the signal strength of the Comcast router I had really was. I went form less than 20 Mbps to almost 60. Not only do I now have a network only for my rMBP in the house but the connection of the other devices has improved as well. I would be willing to bet on it being the router. How many devices do you have connected? We have the biggest house in the family so Christmas, Thanksgiving and other holidays are usually always held at my house and I have seen as many as almost 50 devices on my network. I just don't think the basic modem/router that Comcast provides is built for that kind of use. I have switched to the Asus router and couldn't be happier.

Victor
 
I'm 30 up/30 down wirelessly while using my wireless beats via blutooth. Sounds like you guys need better routers. Keep in mind, cordless phones, microwaves, etc, can cause wifi issues. I'm a cable tech here in PHX, so I see this stuff ALL the time.

And for the record: Dlink and Belkin routers are garbage. STAY AWAY
 
Last edited:
This is a software specific issue, well the dropping of networks. I went through a few replacements and they all had the same issue. Lets hope its fixed in 10.9.2 :)
 
A friend of mine had similar issues with his 2013 rMBP. He also had other unrelated problems that cause Apple to change the logic board, but at the same time they changed the wifi antenna. He also reconfigured his router to use a fixed wifi channel rather then its default 'auto' channel setting.
 
Just returned my 2. mbp within 14 days return period ..:(

High latency 1-600+ ms - and fall outs ...

Anoying to hear ppl talking about microwaves .. and related stuff ... All other devices perform without problems on different routers (including :apple:Apples) and different locations - except the rMBP ...

I am certainly waiting to see if 10.9.2 fixes the problem ... before trying again .. if only Apple would say they were working on fixing it ...
 
leman said:
There are lots of people who post about various issues with their laptop, but if my memory is not playing tricks on me, you must be the first one (or at least, one of the very few) who complains about the WiFi on the rMBP. So its probably your machine, or your router, or your environment.
Click to expand...

My one also suffers from Wifi drop outs. While all other equipment in the house plays nice. Its the rMBP, if you have the gear it play nice with your okay, but thust me, with certain routers, its got issues. I've not taken it further as I use a network card and have applecare, but at some stage it going back to the store.
 
I took mine with me to work - where we have an Apple Express. My co-worker has a 2012 rMBP 15" - her ping was steady and even at 8ms pinging a major site ... mine was all over the place ... 8ms to 624ms :(

This was my second rMBP with the same issue ... hmmm.

The evidence speaks for it self - a lot of ppl have problems with their late 2013 MBP with Mavericks .. sad but true :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back