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Wifi randomly stops working.
- Thread starter FooArk
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I'm on 10.7.1 and I too experience random Wi-Fi drops on my 2011 13" MBP running Lion.
I had a 2010 13" MBP and never experienced any drops whatsoever with the same router.
It's bloody annoying. I mean, the design is the exact same so what exactly did they change to induce these wireless drops?
I had a 2010 13" MBP and never experienced any drops whatsoever with the same router.
It's bloody annoying. I mean, the design is the exact same so what exactly did they change to induce these wireless drops?
The placement of your router matters a great deal as well. Even if you're in the same room as it, if it's not placed in a good spot, you'll still have really annoying issues such as this, for example.
Make sure it's away from any cordless phones, microwaves, metal objects/walls and walls in general, basically anything that emits radio signals and that could interfere with it.
It's best to have the router as high up as you can get it... the higher up, the better and stronger signal you'll have from farther away.
Since we don't know what your router is... consider figuring out what signal it's operating on (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, the latter only available with N-routers). 5 GHz is fast (and also helps combat the interferences like cordless phones and microwaves) and is great for areas where there's not many obstructions, but if there's a lot of obstructions near the router, you'll get a lot of signal drops. If it's 2.4 GHz, you should have much wider range of signal and a more stable connection, as long as the router isn't heavily obstructed. More information on this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/145098/new_80211n_routers_the_best_wifi_yet.html
Consider checking your channels as well... here's more information on the subject:
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wifihomenetworking/qt/wifichannel.htm
Sometimes old routers start to give out after so long. My 2003 2Wire router gave out last year (the signal started getting really bad and dropping the connection and finally stopped transmitting wirelessly completely). I bought a Time Capsule about a month ago and an Airport Extreme last year (my house is really long and has a lot of walls.... and I'm in both extremes of the house, where I need signal.) and it has made all the difference with dual band and the ability to extend the network.
Make sure it's away from any cordless phones, microwaves, metal objects/walls and walls in general, basically anything that emits radio signals and that could interfere with it.
It's best to have the router as high up as you can get it... the higher up, the better and stronger signal you'll have from farther away.
Since we don't know what your router is... consider figuring out what signal it's operating on (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, the latter only available with N-routers). 5 GHz is fast (and also helps combat the interferences like cordless phones and microwaves) and is great for areas where there's not many obstructions, but if there's a lot of obstructions near the router, you'll get a lot of signal drops. If it's 2.4 GHz, you should have much wider range of signal and a more stable connection, as long as the router isn't heavily obstructed. More information on this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/145098/new_80211n_routers_the_best_wifi_yet.html
Consider checking your channels as well... here's more information on the subject:
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wifihomenetworking/qt/wifichannel.htm
Sometimes old routers start to give out after so long. My 2003 2Wire router gave out last year (the signal started getting really bad and dropping the connection and finally stopped transmitting wirelessly completely). I bought a Time Capsule about a month ago and an Airport Extreme last year (my house is really long and has a lot of walls.... and I'm in both extremes of the house, where I need signal.) and it has made all the difference with dual band and the ability to extend the network.
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Previous MBP worked flawlessly. All other devices on my network work flawlessly.
Same firmware, same router location.
This is a Macbook problem not a router problem.
The same thing was happening to me on my 15" MBP - I'd read there were some issues with wifi drops in Lion, and as I'd already had some other Lion problems, I decided to go back to Snow Leopard.
No more wifi problems since. I will say I didn't wait for the 10.7.1 update, but since you're still having the issue, it seems the update didn't fix it.
No more wifi problems since. I will say I didn't wait for the 10.7.1 update, but since you're still having the issue, it seems the update didn't fix it.
I had the problem with 10.7.0 with one laptop (all others, imac, iphones worked fine) and tried all the various things posted on the discussion forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190651?start=0&tstart=0
Apple has contacted some on the discussion about their issues.
Then with 10.7.1, i ran istumbler, checked out all the competing networks in the neighborhood, and changed to channels 11 and 157.
Haven't had a drop yet, but others on the apple forum continue to have problems, so post over here with your specifics and see if apple calls you.
This has been going on since Snow Leopard.
Yep. All the "free" advice here will usually point to somebody else besides Apple. Interesting how they themselves acknowledge this deficiency by supposedly putting a fix for it in 10.7.1. (Which didn't seem to fix it).
My connection is sporadic. Been that way since 10.6.8. All other windows machines work without a hiccup. I even bought a new router.
The *ultimate* solution I've read about is to just break down and buy Apple's Airport Extreme.
Ignore what others have been saying about your router or interference. Random wifi dropping in Lion is a known issue that many other people have been experiencing, myself included. While it hasn't worked for me, others have reported success when they reset their SMC, PRAM and NVRAM after installing the update. To reset the SMC, turn your machine off then push the power button and hold it for 5 seconds. Wait until it turns off and then starts up again. To reset the PRAM/NVRAM, turn the machine off and hold Command, option, and P and R and then turn the machine on while holding them. Wait until you hear the startup sound again.
Other things that I've tried and didn't work for me but that other people said worked for them in other threads was creating a new location profile and deleting the ethernet and firewire connections from it (don't worry, this won't actually uninstall those devices), creating a configuration profile with the iPhone Configuration utility (free download from Apple's site), adding alternate DNS servers (some suggested adding Google's DNS servers), booting into the recovery partition and doing a verify/repair of the disk permissions and removing and re-adding all of the remembered wireless networks.
Me? I tried all of those and it still doesn't work. I got a refund for Lion from Apple and over tomorrow and Sunday, I'll be upgrading to Snow Leopard.