WiFi Woes

[Nein01]

I desperately need help. My macbook pro is the only computer in the house that has trouble connecting and staying connected to our wifi.

symptoms:

- first of all, my laptop almost never goes to sleep unless the wifi is turned off. (edit: Chrome may have been causing this)

- when I wake my MBP up from sleep and turn the wifi on, it doesn't work 90% of the time. the wifi status logo will show full bars and have a checkmark next to our network name, but trying to load webpages yields nada.

- 90% of the time after a restart, the wifi will suddenly work again.

- wifi randomly stops working after minutes or hours of use. sometimes i try a restart, sometimes i just wait patiently, sometimes i throw objects across the room.

this is driving me insane. I do a lot of online research and I can't take these shenanigans anymore! i tried google and most people just say to reset the router, reset pram, trash system configurations, etc, but none of that has worked for me as a permanent solution. resetting the router for example works sometimes, but other times not.

any advice is welcome. i'm running 10.9.5

 

[snaky69]

Are you using a dual band router?

 

[Nein01]

i'm not sure.. it's this router: netgear fs605 v3

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

@atheistpally: Try 5 GHz and fixed channel(s).

 

[Nein01]

for some reason, the config page for our device (t-mobile speedport W 303V) doesn't seem to have an option to switch from 2.4 to 5ghz. There is just a setting to change the 802.11 mode between b+g, g+n, and b+g+n, without any further detailed options.

any other tips?

by the way, I seem to have discovered that it may have been Chrome that was keeping my laptop awake. I've been using Firefox exclusively since I made this thread, and now my computer has been going to sleep normally even with the wifi on. However, I'm still having the same issue with reconnecting once it wakes back up. I usually have to restart.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

for some reason, the config page for our device (t-mobile speedport W 303V) doesn't seem to have an option to switch from 2.4 to 5ghz. There is just a setting to change the 802.11 mode between b+g, g+n, and b+g+n, without any further detailed options.

any other tips?

by the way, I seem to have discovered that it may have been Chrome that was keeping my laptop awake. I've been using Firefox exclusively since I made this thread, and now my computer has been going to sleep normally even with the wifi on. However, I'm still having the same issue with reconnecting once it wakes back up. I usually have to restart.

Try safari instead and report back...

 

[matt2053]

I desperately need help. My macbook pro is the only computer in the house that has trouble connecting and staying connected to our wifi.

symptoms:

- first of all, my laptop almost never goes to sleep unless the wifi is turned off. (edit: Chrome may have been causing this)

- when I wake my MBP up from sleep and turn the wifi on, it doesn't work 90% of the time. the wifi status logo will show full bars and have a checkmark next to our network name, but trying to load webpages yields nada.

- 90% of the time after a restart, the wifi will suddenly work again.

- wifi randomly stops working after minutes or hours of use. sometimes i try a restart, sometimes i just wait patiently, sometimes i throw objects across the room.

this is driving me insane. I do a lot of online research and I can't take these shenanigans anymore! i tried google and most people just say to reset the router, reset pram, trash system configurations, etc, but none of that has worked for me as a permanent solution. resetting the router for example works sometimes, but other times not.

any advice is welcome. i'm running 10.9.5

Well crap. I had the *exact* same symptoms on a 12" Retina Macbook. I took it back to the Apple Store and they gave me a Macbook Pro instead. Now I'm worried it will still be a problem!

 

[matt2053]

Try safari instead and report back...

I have the same issue, and I can tell you it's not a browser problem. Skype, Dropbox, everything disconnects. The wifi indicator never stops showing a strong connection. Sometimes everything will reconnect on its own, sometimes I have to toggle wifi off and on and it works.

When I wake from sleep, it almost always happens. When I'm just browsing, it sometimes happens at random intervals. When it gets bad, it happens about every 20 minutes no matter what.

Oh and I had this problem on 10.10.2, 10.10.3, and 10.10.4 beta.

Super annoying.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I have the same issue, and I can tell you it's not a browser problem. Skype, Dropbox, everything disconnects. The wifi indicator never stops showing a strong connection. Sometimes everything will reconnect on its own, sometimes I have to toggle wifi off and on and it works.

When I wake from sleep, it almost always happens. When I'm just browsing, it sometimes happens at random intervals. When it gets bad, it happens about every 20 minutes no matter what.

Oh and I had this problem on 10.10.2, 10.10.3, and 10.10.4 beta.

Super annoying.

Fair enough have either of you tried an SMC reset???

 

[matt2053]

Fair enough have either of you tried an SMC reset???

I reformatted and reinstalled OS X a couple of times. I guess SMC reset I haven't specifically tried but it totally worth a shot.

I'll try it when I get home tonight-- oh, that's the other weird thing: it only happens on my home network! It never seems to happen when I'm at work. And no other device at home has this issue. But, both networks have the same model Airport Extreme on the same firmware that I connect to...

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I reformatted and reinstalled OS X a couple of times. I guess SMC reset I haven't specifically tried but it totally worth a shot.

I'll try it when I get home tonight-- oh, that's the other weird thing: it only happens on my home network! It never seems to happen when I'm at work. And no other device at home has this issue. But, both networks have the same model Airport Extreme on the same firmware that I connect to...

It certainly sounds like a problem with that specific network you could try resetting you router...

 

[matt2053]

It certainly sounds like a problem with that specific network you could try resetting you router...

I want to believe that so hard but I've reset my router a billion times and no change. And it remains the ONLY device on my network with the problem (I also have a Macbook Air, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, and an Apple TV all connected as well).

 

[duervo]

Turn off iCloud Keychain for the Apple device that's having the problem, wipe your WiFi config on that same device (using one of the many command-line guides out there), and then reboot it. Then, setup your WiFi connection like new on it.

That's the only thing that worked for my 2012 cMBP in any stable sense (so far, anyway). Wiping the WiFi config worked for over a month for me, and I was happy. Then it stopped working once more. It's been stable again for almost a month now, but will probably need more time before I'm 100% convinced that it's finally fixed.