Time Capsule wireless keeps dropping ARGH

[schnee]

I have a 2TB Time Capsule, basically brand new.
...and it's driving me insane, because my wireless connections keep dying out on it.

I have an

• iPhone 4s and iPad2 wireless only.
• I have a Retina Macbook Pro, a few months old.
• They're all updated to the most recent everything, including firmware on the Time Capsule.
• They all use the Time Capsule for wireless.

Most frequently, a single iOS device drops off connectivity, so I have to restart it to get it's wireless working again. This can happen to both iOS devices over the course of a single day, sometimes multiple times. Rarely, flipping wireless off and on fixes it, but that's the exception.

Occasionally, the wireless dies completely for all three devices, the Time Capsule is grayed out in the Airport Utility, and I have to do a hard restart - yank the plug and let the TC come back online - to get connectivity back.

I tweaked the Time Capsule to be on another channel, and that didn't help.

I NEVER had these problems on my old Cisco. Is this a 'thing' with them? Do I have a lemon? Any suggestions or ideas would be great. Thanks.

 

[opinio]

I have a 2TB Time Capsule, basically brand new.
...and it's driving me insane, because my wireless connections keep dying out on it.

I have an

• iPhone 4s and iPad2 wireless only.
• I have a Retina Macbook Pro, a few months old.
• They're all updated to the most recent everything, including firmware on the Time Capsule.
• They all use the Time Capsule for wireless.

Most frequently, a single iOS device drops off connectivity, so I have to restart it to get it's wireless working again. This can happen to both iOS devices over the course of a single day, sometimes multiple times. Rarely, flipping wireless off and on fixes it, but that's the exception.

Occasionally, the wireless dies completely for all three devices, the Time Capsule is grayed out in the Airport Utility, and I have to do a hard restart - yank the plug and let the TC come back online - to get connectivity back.

I tweaked the Time Capsule to be on another channel, and that didn't help.

I NEVER had these problems on my old Cisco. Is this a 'thing' with them? Do I have a lemon? Any suggestions or ideas would be great. Thanks.

You have any USB 3.0 devices close by? They are known to cause problems sometimes with wifi. If so do a process of elimination test.

 

[powlesy]

Wireless Card

I have a very simular setup to you and had the same problem.

I believe your wireless card within the TC has become faulty. There are 2 tests to try this:
1. Try connecting to the TC via ethernet (you will need a thunderbolt to ethernet adaptor) then in airport utility select connect via thunderbolt to ethernet. If you can then access your data through the finder window your wirles card has become faulty.

2. Simply plug your power cable into the TC with nothing else contected to it, it should create it's own network if the wirless card is working.

I took my TC down to the apple store, they did these tests decided it was faulty and swapped it out.

 

[ColdCase]

I agree that you most likely have a defective TC. TCs are solid up to a point. They usually don't give you trouble until a couple users are streaming HD video (apple TV) or you have a dozen active devices on the network. They will get quite hot.

 

[nutmac]

I have a 2TB Time Capsule, basically brand new.
...and it's driving me insane, because my wireless connections keep dying out on it.

Downgrade to 7.6.1. 7.6.3 is infamous for connectivity issue.

Marco Arment recently tweeted about it:

iPhones and other Wi-Fi devices keep losing home internet connectivity until I cycle Wi-Fi on and off, roughly daily.Bad AirPort Extreme?

Downgraded AEBS firmware to 7.6.1. Here’s hoping. (AirPort Utility, click base station, hover over version, hold Option — thanks @kparichan)

Haven’t seen a single Wi-Fi issue since downgrading the AEBS’ firmware.

 

[nutmac]

And Marco posted a blog as well.

 

[schnee]

Oops, missed this thread for a day or so. Got sidetracked. Thanks for the replies.

I'll go through all the suggestions here and report back.

opinio
I have an AppleTV, Arris cable modem, Yamaha receiver and Samsung TV nearby. Nothing USB3.

powlesy
I'll definitely try that to troubleshoot.

nutmac
Huh. I'll try that if the troubleshooting isn't conclusive.

 

[schnee]

OK, I downgraded the firmware and I've only had to reboot it once, the same day I did the firmware. It's been smooth sailing ever since.

Thanks for the advice.