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Weird Airport/Internet problem with Snow Leopard

G

Gwillyc

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 1, 2009
13
0
Hi, I'm new to the forum so apologies if this has already been covered...

I installed Snow Leopard last Friday and since that date I have been having bizarre connection problems to my home Wi-Fi network.

I will be in the middle of browsing a page and the web page will stop loading and I get the 'You are not connected to the internet' blurb. However, my Airport Icon still shows full reception and any other apps running in the background using internet continue to function fine, such as downloads or Skype/MSN.

I first thought this might be a problem with Safari (which I have been having little luck with recently anyway) so I installed Firefox to see if it made a difference..... NO! Exactly the same problem.

Usually after about 5 minutes the problem goes away and it will be fine for a while.

Note that my housemate is using a windows PC and is experiencing absolutely no connection problems whatsoever....

This NEVER happened on 10.5 and below....

HELP PLEASE! :)

Thanks in advance!!
 
Try resetting the modem and rebooting your Mac first :)
 
iPeter said:
Try resetting the modem and rebooting your Mac first :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply iPeter, already tried however I'm afraid. From 20 years of experience with PC's I got very used to the old reset switch. Unfortunately doesnt seem to have worked in this case....:confused:
 
Right..... So ive tried something else. Cycling Airport on and off seems to work as a temporary fix but I dont know why as my computer is still connected to the internet! It just seems to fix the web browser!
 
Same problem here

You just described my problem exactally. In fact, I spent about 3 hrs on the phone with apple tech support. I installed Snow Leopard Friday and have experienced the same problem on my work network ever since. After several attempts to fix the problem, I reinstalled Snow Leopard, to no avail. I wound up having Apple record my Internet activity and underlying files to send to their engineers. I expect a reply tomorrow. Let's stay in touch in hopes that one of us will get this problem solved and be able to help others dealing with this issue.
 
I have the same problem. Cycling airport off and then back on works for about 10 minutes. I had to resort to plugging my MBP in to the router. Any idea whats causing this?
 
Mwaltjr said:
You just described my problem exactally. In fact, I spent about 3 hrs on the phone with apple tech support. I installed Snow Leopard Friday and have experienced the same problem on my work network ever since. After several attempts to fix the problem, I reinstalled Snow Leopard, to no avail. I wound up having Apple record my Internet activity and underlying files to send to their engineers. I expect a reply tomorrow. Let's stay in touch in hopes that one of us will get this problem solved and be able to help others dealing with this issue.
Click to expand...


Awesome, let me know the outcome! Ill be very intrigued to see what it is thats causing this!!
 
Possible Solution

I came across this possible solution. It has enabled me to stay connected for over 10 minutes, which is longer than I've been able to stay online for the last several days. I'll post again if it does not last.

Here is a common fix that has worked for some people:

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Select Network > Location.

3. Clic on Edit Locations…

4. Add a new location. You can name it anything you like.

That’s all you have to do! It seems that this process resets the networking and makes it work again.
 
Above Solution does not work

After about 20 minutes, I was back to the same problem. Apparently the possible fix posted above doesn't work. Sorry for the trouble.
 
I'm just curious.... what kind of security are you guys using? I'm having the problem too, but I notice it more at home (WPA/WPA2) than at work (WEP).... I'm wondering if it's something with the security settings.... I may be completely off here, just saying what I noticed.
 
Security Settings

I'm using WPA Personal at work. I'm having the same problem on my iMac and my MB Pro.
 
Same problem here on my late 2008 Macbook - using WPA2.

I was really liking Snow Leopard until I moved away from my ethernet connection!
 
I just got a new Macbook Pro on 8/21/09. At first accessing the Internet was fine. Then I went out, got Snow Leopard and installed it. Now I’m getting intermittent Internet. And sometimes a page not found message. I took it to Atlanta Bread to use the free Wifi and the Mac worked great there. I called Apple help support and the guy said that Snow Leopard is more secure when it comes to Internet connection. He also said that Snow Leopard changed the OS from a 64 to a 128 bit. And that most older wireless routers will have problems with the change. He said to upgrade the routers firmware or get a new one. I have a Linksys N wireless router that’s 2 years old. And I have 2 Dells that access the Internet just fine. One other problem I was told is that the router may be going bad.
 
cmhall9 said:
I just got a new Macbook Pro on 8/21/09. At first accessing the Internet was fine. Then I went out, got Snow Leopard and installed it. Now I’m getting intermittent Internet. And sometimes a page not found message. I took it to Atlanta Bread to use the free Wifi and the Mac worked great there. I called Apple help support and the guy said that Snow Leopard is more secure when it comes to Internet connection. He also said that Snow Leopard changed the OS from a 64 to a 128 bit. And that most older wireless routers will have problems with the change. He said to upgrade the routers firmware or get a new one. I have a Linksys N wireless router that’s 2 years old. And I have 2 Dells that access the Internet just fine. One other problem I was told is that the router may be going bad.
Click to expand...


Right.... Lets see how we go. I have updated the firmware on my router... lets see if it makes a difference! Ill report back ( i have little faith though!)
 
Still having problems

I updated my router's firmware, but that didn't solve the problem. My MB Pro is working flawlessly at home but can't stay connected to the internet at work. It is having the same problems as my iMac. Both were "upgraded" to Snow Leopard last Friday and that's when the problems began.

I'm really at a loss for how to fix the problem.
 
I've the same problem.

I try change my security config on my router => no work ...

But i still try to solve this problem...
 
Mwaltjr said:
I'm really at a loss for how to fix the problem.
Click to expand...

There's not much we can really do right now. If you look at the Apple forums (http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1343&start=0), lots of people are having different variations of this problem which makes it more difficult to try to narrow down exactly what's causing these intermittent connectivity issues.

I'm thinking the best workaround in the meantime is to downgrade to Leopard.
 
Manually add DNS

Hey everyone! I struggled with a similar problem for about two hours after upgrading to Snow Leopard, but I finally figured out (what seems to be) a solution:

1. Go into your router's administration page and find your DNS server(s).
2. Open up Network Preferences in your System Preferences window.
3. In the Advanced section, click on the DNS tab.
4. Manually add the DNS servers you looked up in Step 1.

Hope this helps!
 
I'm having similar issues. Since I upgraded to SL, my internet has been funky. It is already slow, but on my mac, it seems to always have to go through like a a minute of "warmup." I will open it and try to load a web page, and it will either never load or load very very very very slowly. When I close it and open the browser again then it loads faster. I don't see this on my pc or any of the other pc's in my house.
 
Now I am having problems too. My Mini and Macbook have been running fine since I got them in June both always getting 1MB/s download speed. Just fresh installed Snow Leopard on both Macs and the MacBook still downloads at 1MB/s and everything seems fine but my Mini now never gets more than 100KB/s. I've done all the malarky mentioned here but with both machines side by side taking turns with the same files the MacBook gets full speed but the Mini never over 100KB. I shoved the old Leopard HD back in the Mini and it gets 1MB/s. I then put the MacMini Snow Leopard HD in my Macbook and that get 1MB/s but back in the Mini it slows to 100KB again so there is just something fishy with Snow Leopard on my MacMini. Mind boggling.
 
docmcconl said:
Hey everyone! I struggled with a similar problem for about two hours after upgrading to Snow Leopard, but I finally figured out (what seems to be) a solution:

1. Go into your router's administration page and find your DNS server(s).
2. Open up Network Preferences in your System Preferences window.
3. In the Advanced section, click on the DNS tab.
4. Manually add the DNS servers you looked up in Step 1.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...


Hey thanks!

I just followed these instructions and IMMEDIATELY my airport filled up to full bars and everything seems to be working 100% at the moment.

Everyone try this and post back if it works!
 
Add me to he list of people having Airport issues after upgrading to SL. I did a quick install over leopard and everything went well except I can not turn airport off. I backed up everything, did a clean install (formatted) the HD, and restored using time machine. I still can't turn airport off, even in the system preferences. Any ideas?
 
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