WiFi is A LOT stronger in Bootcamp on all Macs!?

[MarkoMacola]

Hi guys,
I have asked this already, over a year ago, from my old accound, but no one ever replied.


This is NOT a problem with any particular machine, or OS X version. This "problem" is generic.
I work in an Apple Service Provider, so i have tried it out with the whole Mac lineup, with both Windows 7 and Windows XP, and with OS X Leopard thru Mountain Lion. It's also not a router related issue, same behaviour on a cheap tplink, an expencive cisco and on airport extreme.

If WiFi reception is bad, Mac OS X does see it, but timeouts when i try to connect to it. Windows connects flawlessly.
If WiFi reception is better, (but still not good), Mac OS X connects, but you can't surf the web almost at all (apple.com loads in about a minute, on a 30MBps connection in this scenario), but on Windows, i can even stream videos or download stuff (not at the max speed ofc, but at least 3-4mpbs).

I noticed that Terminal ping timeouts 80 out of 100 times, and dos 10 out of 100.
And in the first scenario, here is my Console output:

MacAuthEvent en1 --- Auth request tx failed
directed SSID scan fail


Now, i am aware that this is solvable - buy an AirPort Express as an extension.
I'm not asking because of that, i have bought a bridged express...
I'm asking because i would really like to know what makes it tick the way it does?
Is there a way to "fix" this?
And if someone has any ideas on why would Apple "underclock" our wifis on osx?


The only answer to this third question that i have found, would be "battery conservation" - i have noticed a huge battery drain when on weak wifi signal.
But what if i don't care about the battery consumption, if im on an iMac, or if i REALLY don't care about the battery....

It would be cool if someone wants to discuss this with me

 

[Snowcat001]

I experience similar problems. I have a late 2008 unibody mbp and an airport express. The airport is about 2m away from the desk and the mbp has difficulties connecting to it, the signal drops, often there is no connection and I have many timeouts.
At University, Starbucks, etc.. not problem connecting to the local wifi but not at home with an Apple made airport express.

My parents have a HP laptop and my brother has an iPone 4, they can use the wifi from the airport express flawlessly from over 10m away (with 2 or 3 walls in between).
So it's not the airport express and somehow it's not the mbp, it seems to be the combination of both.

What is strange, is that it started last year in August. The first two and a half years everything worked fine.

If the mbp continues to give me timeouts (even when positioning the mbp right in front of the airport express) the only thing that helps is resetting the router. Why? I don't know.
Keep in mind that the router works fine and the light of the airport express is green.

At one point a could no longer connect wirelessly so I had to use the ethernet port, that worked fine for about a month. After that the ethernet port started acting funny... so I tried wifi again, worked fine for a short while, then started giving me timeouts again. The Lion upgrade (I upgraded somewhere in Oktober) also helped for a few days, but then it started all over again. At this point the wifi with the airport express is like a gambling game, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Repositioning the mbp a few centimeters or rotating it a few degrees sometimes solves the problem, sometimes I need to reset the router, sometimes I need to position myself right in front of the airport express.... and yes sometimes it works.

Since I can connect elsewhere without a problem I think it's a software or firmware problem, with the latter being the most likely. I seem to remember there was a firmware update for airport hardware and/or mbp network cards about a year ago when the problems started. But a quick search online shows that other people have had similar problems before that.

Sorry I can't help, but I'm just as clueless as you.

 

[Alameda]

Maybe turn off Bluetooth?