We have a late-2012 Mac Mini (2.5 GHz/16GB RAM/MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra) which we often use for Internet Wifi-sharing (i.e. sharing the Mac Mini's wired ethernet connection to Wifi) which works fine, but for some reason it keeps disconnecting after a while, so we no longer have the wifi signal on our iPad etc.
When Wifi is lost the Wifi icon in the menubar changes from "Wifi internet sharing" to the normal "Wifi" icon, and when that menubar icon is clicked you see a list of all available Wifi networks available, so it appears to expect to connect to somewhere, and not send out a signal.
Strangely, if at this stage I go to the "Sharing" system preference, "Internet sharing" is still enabled, and so is "Share your connection from: Ethernet" and "To computers using: Wifi"!
I've been reading about similar problems, and people suggest it has to do with the computer's sleep settings, but first of all the "Sharing" system pref says that computer's with AC power (such as this Mac Mini) won't sleep while Internet sharing is on, secondly the disconnection has happened even when the Mac Mini is actively used by someone.
I've also tried to create a brand new user, but experience the same problems there.
I've also wondered if the problem could be within MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra), but apparently not since I'm running the exact same OS version (10.13.6) on a mid-2010 Mac Pro without having these disconnection problems.
So what could be the cause (and remedy) of this?
When Wifi is lost the Wifi icon in the menubar changes from "Wifi internet sharing" to the normal "Wifi" icon, and when that menubar icon is clicked you see a list of all available Wifi networks available, so it appears to expect to connect to somewhere, and not send out a signal.
Strangely, if at this stage I go to the "Sharing" system preference, "Internet sharing" is still enabled, and so is "Share your connection from: Ethernet" and "To computers using: Wifi"!
I've been reading about similar problems, and people suggest it has to do with the computer's sleep settings, but first of all the "Sharing" system pref says that computer's with AC power (such as this Mac Mini) won't sleep while Internet sharing is on, secondly the disconnection has happened even when the Mac Mini is actively used by someone.
I've also tried to create a brand new user, but experience the same problems there.
I've also wondered if the problem could be within MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra), but apparently not since I'm running the exact same OS version (10.13.6) on a mid-2010 Mac Pro without having these disconnection problems.
So what could be the cause (and remedy) of this?