Q: 10.6.5 and wifi issues

MrAHR - can you switch to WPA security? There have been several examples of WEP being incompatible with latest updates. This will also have the advantage of giving you a new network environment, so new preference files.

How about that!

Changed it in WPA Personal and it connected.
Now to change the settings on all the other devices.... or perhaps wait for a fix.

2xPC's, iphone/ipad/ipod-touch/iMac/Blackberry/MacTV2,.... what a pain is this....
And how did I accumulate so many devices.... my Wii, my TV, and my stove (perhaps not the stove ... but there is an @ sign on the console - time to read the manual

<Edited by Host>

Add another dissatisfied user. Santa delivered two new iMacs last week. Had many days of headache. Eventually ditched my 18 month old ADSL2 modem and wireless router for a new D-Link wireless N router/modem only to find I still have dropout issues.

Firstly, my two iMacs disappear from the network after a few minutes. Not even stable enough to transfer a few files either between the two iMacs or from my old PCs. Secondly, they both randomly drop the internet connection. Anything from 20 minutes to 4 hours.

Have tried every combination and permutation of recommendations that I have come across. One thing I did notice was that setting my wireless router to WIRELESS N only, nothing worked at all. Given that Apple advertises the Imac as an 802.1 n Wi-Fi device, this seems a little suspicious. Had to revert to G/N setting on the router.

Spoke too soon - dropped the connection.
Same symptoms all over again.... sigh.

I'm also having this problem on a Core Solo Mac Mini 1.5 after updating to 10.6.5. It connects fine while running Windows 7 in Boot Camp, but not in OSX. It will either keep saying "Connection Timeout" or keep asking for the password as if I typed it wrong. It connects fine to my cell phone wifi tethering using WEP passcode. The encryption on my Linksys WRT54g is WPA Personal. Been reading these threads for hours and have tried a bunch of stuff but am pretty much giving up at this point. I figure this little Mini will be running Windows 7 for now.

I have the same problem with my Intel Mac Mini, which I recently updated to 10.6.5. I tried the solutions here, but none worked.

alveolari wrote:
I have the same problem with my Intel Mac Mini, which I recently updated to 10.6.5. I tried the solutions here, but none worked.

What solutions? The ones from How I fixed my dropping wireless Airport connection problem in Snow Leopard or the one hagenhagen posted Airport connection dropping off – how to fix it ?

I found this discussion group thread yesterday after encountering the same problem with the AirPort connection on my 2007 Mac mini booted off a Mac OS X 10.6.5 volume. I was especially interested to see other posts by Mac mini owners.

I'd updated from 10.6.4 to 10.6.5 on 11-13-2010, and afterward on the same date successfully downloaded and installed iTunes 10.1, Safari 5.0.3, and iTunes 10.1.1. On 12-6-2010 I had no problem updating Firefox, and on 12-21-2010 downloaded Adobe Reader X, but then the AirPort connection became flakey. I usually boot off a 10.5.8 internal hard drive volume, which continued to connect and operate just fine over AirPort.

When the AirPort connection became flakey, Web site pages started to load slowly or incompletely or stalled. Connecting to my Linksys router was even a problem.

So, this morning I tried repairing permissions and did the standard (recommended) AirPort connection reset procedure. No help. On another computer, I then changed the wireless channel on the router from 10 to 6, as some had suggested in other posts on this topic. Then the WiFi connection was okay, speedy and stable as before the other day. Strange.

I'd been using WiFi channel 10 because no one else in the neighborhood used it. Perhaps just changing the channel to any other one might have worked. I didn't proceed to delete any preference files.

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM21.009A.B00

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x86)
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmware Version: 1.4.16.2

With almost 200,000 hits on these several threads concerning wifi drops with 10.6.5, I don't see how we can avoid a conclusion that this update changed something for the worse in Airport. Nothing else has changed in my setup here and we have several devices connecting to our router.

There is some implication that moving away from WEP security is a cause. I'm using WPA personal and have tried just about everything mentioned on these threads with no luck. This wonderful update has turned my favorite little box into a boat anchor for all intents and purposes. I need a 10.5 install disk!

I beta-test software for part of my living and write manuals so I feel I can say with some confidence in my experience this is a SOFTWARE BUG. Please fix it soon, thank you.

-a

Well true, but it could also be a feature... :P

Someone suggested here that Apple has updated their software accordingly to updated standard specifications for 802.11.

Whiter this is true or not I have not checked, but it would imply that those with a wifi router, with old firmware or with one that will not be updated will have little luck in gaining functionality again.

In that case you might need to switch to an other router. But check this up before you call it a bug. My wifi network is up and running without problems now. But I did have some problems before, probably due to corrupted setting files for wireless network and/or cache files.

Well, I went back to my Apple store today. They suggested installing the 10.6.5 combo. Others in this thread have said they've tried this without success, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

Anyway, after downloading (via ethernet, as the wifi connection wouldn't remain stable long enough), my Mini now seems remarkably stable. I've thrown a 40+ min 720p YouTube video at it, and not a glitch. I daren't tempt fate by saying it's fixed, but it certainly looks promising.

I have also been waiting for a fix since my WiFi started failing after the 10.6.5 update. Over the course of a month I have been following this thread hoping someone would come up with a reliable fix for this problem. I have tried all of the voodoo fixed suggested here and on other pages found on the internet that address this issue. I have taken my MacBook Pro into Apple where the Genius scoffed at the idea that an Apple Support thread would hold any validity saying "Anyone can post stuff there, and if it has not been identified as a problem in our database, then there is pretty much nothing we can do." He also went on to suggest that the age of my MBP could also be the problem. His analysis made me roll my eyes... a 3 year old machine, while surely closer to the end of its life than the beginning, is hardly due to be retired for the latest and greatest model. And after testing the Airport card in my Mac, he seemed to think it was operating normally. After my consultation with the Genius, I have written to Apple about the bug describing the issue in detail, hoping an Apple engineer will take note.

At least for me, it seems to be a proximity issue with wifi routers. The problem may be with how the the wireless software calibrates the signal level. When I move more than 15 feet away from my router the Airport signal drops from full power to nothing and then drops the connection entirely. Before the 10.6.5 update I got strong reception throughout my house and could even see many of my neighbours wireless signals. After the 10.6.5 update I can only see my wireless network and I can only connect to it when I am 15 feet away or less. While not the same problem, the signal calibration seems to be similar to what Apple admitted was an issue with all of their iPhone models, where the iOS software was incorrectly displaying cellular signal strength. But while the iOS software was exaggerating the signal strength, 10.6.5 seems to be unable detect the gradual reduction of signal power as I move away from the router... as I mentioned previously, instead of gradually going from full bars to four... to two etc, it goes from full bars to no connection at all within 15 feet.

Some people have said that the issue stems from Apple updating its 802.11 specifications. However, I doubt that is the case for a few reasons. First, I ended up buying a new router early in the troubleshooting process that has up-to-date firmware suspecting my old router was the culprit. but after setting up the new router the problem was not fixed. Second, if this was due to Apple updated specs they would a) Have informed users with incompatible Airport cards that their Macs are now legacy hardware or b) they still would have made these machines usable by preserving backwards compatibility. Finally, while it seems the 10.6.5 update broke my wifi, by GFs unibody MacBook Pro's wifi is working normally, detecting all of the previously mentioned networks (which leads me to think it is an installation issue affecting only some Macs). In addition, I travel a lot for work where, since the update, I have had troubles connecting to wireless networks at hotels, airports and coffee houses... I find it hard to believe that all of these locations, using many different router brands would all be incompatible with Apple's newest wifi specs. Add to this, my 6 year old IBM Thinkpad's wireless works perfectly fine with both my old router and the new one I bought a couple of weeks ago. No... this is a software bug - no question.

I think at this point it is pretty clear that, for some users, the 10.6.5 OSX update failed to install properly or has a miscellaneous code error relating to how the OSX operates wireless. Perhaps it is related to how 10.6.5 interacts with certain Airport cards or their firmware. Regardless, I hope Apple does right by its clients and offers patch soon or at least acknowledges the problem, which to my knowledge, they have yet to do.

Message was edited by: codyMR

codyMR wrote:
I have also been waiting for a fix since my WiFi started failing after the 10.6.5 update. Over the course of a month I have been following this thread hoping someone would come up with a reliable fix for this problem. I have tried all of the voodoo fixed suggested here and on other pages found on the internet that address this issue. I have taken my MacBook Pro into Apple where the Genius scoffed at the idea that an Apple Support thread would hold any validity saying "Anyone can post stuff there, and if it has not been identified as a problem in our database, then there is pretty much nothing we can do." He also went on to suggest that the age of my MBP could also be the problem. His analysis made me roll my eyes... a 3 year old machine, while surely closer to the end of its life than the beginning, is hardly due to be retired for the latest and greatest model. And after testing the Airport card in my Mac, he seemed to think it was operating normally. After my consultation with the Genius, I have written to Apple about the bug describing the issue in detail, hoping an Apple engineer will take note.

At least for me, it seems to be a proximity issue with wifi routers. The problem may be with how the the wireless software calibrates the signal level. When I move more than 15 feet away from my router the Airport signal drops from full power to nothing and then drops the connection entirely. Before the 10.6.5 update I got strong reception throughout my house and could even see many of my neighbours wireless signals. After the 10.6.5 update I can only see my wireless network and I can only connect to it when I am 15 feet away or less. While not the same problem, the signal calibration seems to be similar to what Apple admitted was an issue with all of their iPhone models, where the iOS software was incorrectly displaying cellular signal strength. But while the iOS software was exaggerating the signal strength, 10.6.5 seems to be unable detect the gradual reduction of signal power as I move away from the router... as I mentioned previously, instead of gradually going from full bars to four... to two etc, it goes from full bars to no connection at all within 15 feet.

Some people have said that the issue stems from Apple updating its 802.11 specifications. However, I doubt that is the case for a few reasons. First, I ended up buying a new router early in the troubleshooting process that has up-to-date firmware suspecting my old router was the culprit. but after setting up the new router the problem was not fixed. Second, if this was due to Apple updated specs they would a) Have informed users with incompatible Airport cards that their Macs are now legacy hardware or b) they still would have made these machines usable by preserving backwards compatibility. Finally, while it seems the 10.6.5 update broke my wifi, by GFs unibody MacBook Pro's wifi is working normally, detecting all of the previously mentioned networks (which leads me to think it is an installation issue affecting only some Macs). In addition, I travel a lot for work where, since the update, I have had troubles connecting to wireless networks at hotels, airports and coffee houses... I find it hard to believe that all of these locations, using many different router brands would all be incompatible with Apple's newest wifi specs. Add to this, my 6 year old IBM Thinkpad's wireless works perfectly fine with both my old router and the new one I bought a couple of weeks ago. No... this is a software bug - no question.

I think at this point it is pretty clear that, for some users, the 10.6.5 OSX update failed to install properly or has a miscellaneous code error relating to how the OSX operates wireless. Perhaps it is related to how 10.6.5 interacts with certain Airport cards or their firmware. Regardless, I hope Apple does right by its clients and offers patch soon or at least acknowledges the problem, which to my knowledge, they have yet to do.

Message was edited by: codyMR

Another option is your airport card is broken on the Mac. This is a known failure mechanism, there are online sites with step by step instructions on how to fix (sometimes one of the antenna wires gets lose) or replace. It is somewhat a challenge to get at these cards, so another option is an external USB connected wifi adapter.

My WiFI connection problem was solved when I changed my WiFi Router security from WEP to WPA-Personal, seem to me the 10.56 update is not WEP friendly.

ctmurray,

I suppose it could be a faulty card or antenna connection as you suggest, but I think that would be highly coincidental considering the high traffic on this thread. Also, my Airport was working normally until the 10.6.5 update - no problems. Again it would be a huge coincidence that the Airport card decided to kack at the same time my 10.6.5 update was complete and my Mac rebooted.

But thanks for the suggestion, it can't hurt to rule out all possible culprits.

For those who are interested, I have looked into buying a new Airport card and installing it myself... check these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dijY7ONfoM0

http://store.fastmac.com/productinfo.php?productsid=207