Q: Why is internet and server dropping from network
When online on my Macbook Air, I frequently find the internet connection has dropped, and looking in Network Preferences/ Assist Me/Diagnostics, I find Internet and Server buttons shown yellow in Status. I can almost always easily reconnect these by clicking Continue and re-selecting the wireless network (a 5 Ghz one, but same problem exists with my non-5 Ghz Network) , then I click Always Allow to let Network Diagnostics access Key to selected Network in my Keychain.
This very often works fine in a few seconds, so not a big problem but sometimes very annoying as it can happen several times in a short period or during one day, and then not at all for hours or days, but often it is almost every day.
Here's a list of equipment etc:
Macbook Air 10.10.5, Imac 10.10.5, VirginMedia superhub, Airport Extreme (in bridge mode), Airport Express (nearest to me), Apple TV (often turned off), iPhone 6s.
Problem is really only apparent on Macbook Air, as iMac has ethernet connection (though Wifi also in operation usually). iPhone6 seems to have no problem with wifi internet at home or elsewhere.
I quite often have other problems in my Wifi system, however, recently especially when using Apple TV, such as Airport Extreme and Express and even modem dropping off Airport utility, which I always manage to fix eventually by various re-starts and resets. But the one above is the most frequent, being almost a daily occurrence at least once or twice.
I have tried choosing different channels in Airport Utility for both Networks Airport Extreme and Express but this made the connection incredibly slow (normally it is 36Mbps on Macbook). I also turned off IPv6 on all devices (or put on link-local) , and this seemed to help with Apple TV problem seems to have had no effect on this.
I also turned off Bluetooth on Macbook while writing this, but problem has already happened several more times already.
MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), Mac OS X (10.5.5)
Posted on Feb 6, 2016 5:48 AM
As far as I can tell in the few hours I have had this set up, the Server and Internet dropping-off-the-network problem seems to have got better, with no dropping of Server and Internet shown in Network Status every few minutes.
Ok, great! You have now verified that you have a stable network with just the Super Hub.
However, I’m pretty confused as to where to go from here, as I need to get my Airport Extreme and Airport Express configuration and the associated Wifi network back into play.
As I mentioned earlier, we needed to verify the Super Hub. Now that has been completed, we need to go on with adding the AirPort Extreme to the network next. Once that is successful, we can add the Express.
- While the AirPort Extreme is still powered-down, connect an Ethernet cable between your Super Hub and the WAN (circle-of-dots) port on the Extreme. What we will be doing is configuring the Super Hub and Extreme for a roaming network.
- Power-up the Extreme and allow it time to initialize. Since you last configured it as a bridge, which we want, we still need to do a few more configuration steps.
- Run the AirPort Utility, and select the Extreme.
- Click on Edit, and then, go to the Network tab. Verify that Router Mode is: Off (Bridge Mode)
- Next go to the Wireless tab. Verify that Network mode is: Create a wireless network
- Enter the Super Hub's wireless network name in the Wireless Network Name field.
- Enter the Super Hub's wireless security type in the Wireless Security field. Note use WPA2 Personal if the Hub is configured for WPA2.
- Enter the Super Hub's wireless security password in both the Wireless Password & Verify Password fields.
- Next go to the Internet tab. Verify that Connect Using is: DHCP
- Click on Update and allow the Extreme to restart and initialize.
Once restarted the Extreme should now be broadcasting its own Wi-Fi network, but since it is using the same network name and security as the Super Hub's network, wireless network clients will "see" it as one network.
Again, verify that you can get Internet access in this configuration and it is stable. Please post back your results.
Posted on Feb 8, 2016 12:55 PM