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Terrible wireless - MacBook Pro 2011 13"

J

Jeroboam

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 20, 2011
3
0
I've had my MacBook Pro 2011 13" for about a month now.. I love pretty much everything about it – EXCEPT for the wireless functionality.

Around 80% of the time I either turn it on, or wake it up from sleep, I immediately get a message saying that my preferred wireless network is unavailable. When I go to select it, enter the password – I get the message "invalid password", or connection timeout.. I have never, ever had this issue with any device before... and frankly it's driving me nuts.

I often paste the password into the field and hit enter over and over until it eventually connects...

It just shouldn't be.. anyone else with this particular model experience the same problem – and may be even have a remedy? Argh!
 
Do all your issues with the wireless occur at the same place? What router brand and model are you connecting to?
 
I had the same problem with a rubbish old Buffalo router at my parent's house. Turned out the Buffalo was about to die.

Put in a new router, problem solved.
 
i remembered some of the threads here was babbling about the 13" wifi

they say it's flawed or something
 
Mobius 1 said:
i remembered some of the threads here was babbling about the 13" wifi

they say it's flawed or something
Click to expand...
'they' don't know what 'they' are talking about. I've owned a 2011 13" and the wireless is fine. Now, the OP's laptop may have a broken wireless, software issue or, I suspect, a bad router. But, to say the 13's wireless is broken might be stretching it a little bit.
 
DustinT said:
Do all your issues with the wireless occur at the same place? What router brand and model are you connecting to?
Click to expand...

My router is a Netcomm NB6PLUS4WN. My old (windows) laptop was able to connect to it without missing a beat... Similarly, various iphones / ipod touch can connect no problems... It's only been since I've had the MBP that I've experienced this issue. Router is only 3 months old...
 
Upgrade... Airport Extreme Base Station

If your issue is at home, all i can say is get you a Airport Extreme... I have been using a Linksys and just got a new MBP 15" and a AE, and BAM :eek: it is smoke in fast now.....
 
try getting a new router. when i first baught my new 13' it would be terribly slow with my old dlink router. as soon as a i baught a new one it worked perfectly.
 
sullytdi said:
If your issue is at home, all i can say is get you a Airport Extreme... I have been using a Linksys and just got a new MBP 15" and a AE, and BAM :eek: it is smoke in fast now.....
Click to expand...

People shouldn't have to buy an Apple router just to get an Apple machine to play nicely with wireless.
 
I've just got my 13" MBP, previously using a scummy Samsung notebook. The wireless signal on the upper floor of my parent's house (router on the ground floor near front door) was showing 0-20% on my Samsung, so I decided to fit a Wireless bridge. Today was the first time I was around my parent's with my MBP, and I'm upstairs, not yet got the bridge set up and my wireless strength is 80+%.

So IME the 13" Wifi seems to be far better than other laptops in the house - perhaps due to the aluminium unibody structure acting as an antennae?

Definitely no problems with my 13"
 
Sometimes I have the same problems, but I usually just unplug the power to the router, like "restart" the router, and then it works fine for me!
Hope it helps :)
 
ReddDraggon said:
I've just got my 13" MBP, previously using a scummy Samsung notebook. The wireless signal on the upper floor of my parent's house (router on the ground floor near front door) was showing 0-20% on my Samsung, so I decided to fit a Wireless bridge. Today was the first time I was around my parent's with my MBP, and I'm upstairs, not yet got the bridge set up and my wireless strength is 80+%.

So IME the 13" Wifi seems to be far better than other laptops in the house - perhaps due to the aluminium unibody structure acting as an antennae?

Definitely no problems with my 13"
Click to expand...

I've heard that the aluminum body is actually a hindrance to wireless signal, and that Apple runs the antenna through the hinge, which is (black) plastic for this very reason...
 
lesyork said:
People shouldn't have to buy an Apple router just to get an Apple machine to play nicely with wireless.
Click to expand...

Don't think its so much needing to buy an Apple router as much as it is needing to buy a decent router. Over the last 5 years the quality of the damn things has been going downhill fast as the prices have come down to the sub-$40 point. When you're buying a complicated piece of electronics for the price of a meal at a good restaurant, you know its not going to be built for performance.

There's a reason Linksys (cisco) and other high end brands still charge so much. I'm about to bin my cheap-o Netgear and buy something high end for the job as I'm sick of resetting the stupid thing.
 
smartalic34 said:
I've heard that the aluminum body is actually a hindrance to wireless signal, and that Apple runs the antenna through the hinge, which is (black) plastic for this very reason...
Click to expand...

the wireless card is in the black hinge, the part where the screen connects to the body. the antenna actually runs up to the side of the screen.

h00ligan said:
Trash the preferences located in your hard drive / library / preferences / system configuration

After that
SMC Reset - http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/24/when-and-how-to-reset-your-mac’s-system-management-controller-smc/

Reset SMC of a MacBook or MacBook Pro
Click to expand...

What is that suppose to do? If it works i might have a try because im in a similar situation here
Click to expand...
 
dsio said:
Don't think its so much needing to buy an Apple router as much as it is needing to buy a decent router. Over the last 5 years the quality of the damn things has been going downhill fast as the prices have come down to the sub-$40 point. When you're buying a complicated piece of electronics for the price of a meal at a good restaurant, you know its not going to be built for performance.

There's a reason Linksys (cisco) and other high end brands still charge so much. I'm about to bin my cheap-o Netgear and buy something high end for the job as I'm sick of resetting the stupid thing.
Click to expand...

But he states every other wireless device connects with no problems, so it can't be a rubbish router.
 
lesyork said:
But he states every other wireless device connects with no problems, so it can't be a rubbish router.
Click to expand...

It can be an encryption issue. That varies device to device...I've dealt with this many times..the implementation of something like wpa2 doesn't work well on just one device.
 
NZed said:
the wireless card is in the black hinge, the part where the screen connects to the body. the antenna actually runs up to the side of the screen.
Click to expand...

The card is in the hinge in the unibodies? Wow. Back when I upgraded my '06 MBP to 802.11n a few years ago, the AirPort card was right above the hard drive right about where the left Shift key is...

Back to your regularly scheduled programming...
 
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