Problem with WiFi of a new MacBook Pro

Question

Level 1

8 points

Problem with WiFi of a new MacBook Pro

I've received a new MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz 2GB yesterday. The problem is that I don't get load internet pages 90% times with Airport connection. More info about this...

- The Mac OS X has all the software upgrades.
- Sometimes the browser load the page (slowly).
- I've tried it with different DNS configuration.
- The progress bar of Saffari sometimes stop beginning, sometimes stop finishing.
- I have this problem connecting to the router also.
- Internet through ethernet works fine and fast.
- I've installed Camino browser, the problem persist.
- The Airport signal level is not the problem.
- I have a PC connected to the network through Wifi and it works perfectly.

What is the problem? Hardware?

(Sorry for my bad english)
Regards,
Guillermo (from Spain)

MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz 2GB 160GB Mac OS X (10.4.9)

MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz 2GB 160GB, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 18, 2007 8:57 PM

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Answer 1

galois Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 20, 2007 6:24 AM in response to galois

Nothing to say about this?

Well, I check also a new MacBook Black (2,16Ghz 2GB) and it has the same problem on my network. Both computers sometimes works through wireless but always very slow. My PC and another MacBook Pro (first Intel model) works perfectly.

It seems that is a problem of Wireless-N driver of the card. Other users have the same problem.

I'm very disappointed. I expected a better product of Apple for 2400€.

MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz 2GB 160GB Mac OS X (10.4.9)

MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz 2GB 160GB Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 2

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Jun 26, 2007 12:39 AM in response to galois

The obvious questions:

1) Is your wireless router running the latest firmware release available from its manufacturer?

2) Have you tried changing your router to use a different channel?

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Answer 3

galois Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 26, 2007 11:29 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

1) Yes, my router is running the last firmware available (08-2005). It's a DLink G604T
2) Yes, I've tried and this fixed the issue... one day. Later, the MBP comeback to the problems.

More info...
- No AES encription in router (without encription).
- MBP works fast and fine in the network of my brother

Today, I'm going to purchase an Airport Extreme Base Station. I need to work with this computer 😟

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Answer 4

Jun 27, 2007 11:09 PM in response to galois

same problem here...

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Answer 5

nandat

Level 1

0 points

Jun 28, 2007 5:02 PM in response to punchpunchpunch

yeah, me too. just started this morning. other laptops (PCs, Blk MacBook) all are working fine.

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Answer 6

Jul 2, 2007 12:34 PM in response to galois

Are you using Parallels? I had terrible AirPort problems when I upgraded to 10.4.10, but after upgrading to build 3124 of Parallels it's all working well again.

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Answer 7

Jul 2, 2007 1:42 PM in response to galois

Hi Galois and others,

I too have this problem on my new MacBook Pro 2.2GHz.

I have two 11mbps wireless routers at home and at work. My PowerBook G4 1.5GHz works fine with both of them, I get my full cable modem speeds with downloads. My MacBook Pro gets stuck though, I need to constantly reload pages and downloads just get stuck.

I opened Terminal and typed

%> ping 17.254.3.183

I left this running until it had done around 500 pings and then pressed ctrl-c to stop it. It reported that it lost 25% of the packets. A quarter of the network traffic from the MacBook Pro is lost, so no wonder it has problems.

When I connect my MacBook Pro to the internet with a wired ethernet connection, it's fine. So there's definitely something strange going on with the new wireless N standard.

If anyone can shed any light, I'd be most grateful, if I find out anything further, I'll post it here.

Kind Regards,
Chris.

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Answer 8

NC0220

Level 1

0 points

Jul 3, 2007 12:53 AM in response to Chris Birch

I fully agree with the members of this thread. This MacBook Pro has a problem operating in 802.11g mode. I have both a 12" PowerBook G4 and a 15" MacBook Pro (802.11n enabled) both connecting to an Apple Airport Express.

I ran pinged the Airport Express (10.0.1.1) with both computers and the G4 reported 0% packet loss while the MacBook Pro reported 27% packet loss.

I have an Airport Extreme at work and don't see any 802.11n problems there, but I could be wrong. Will have to check tomorrow.

My guess is that the 802.11g mode of the 802.11n driver is buggy and causing the very high packet error rate. Unfortunately, I'm sure it'll take Apple a while before they notice...

NC

15" MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.10)

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Answer 9

Jul 3, 2007 12:29 PM in response to NC0220

I have a brand new MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz, running 10.4.10. I'm using 802.11g with an Airport Extreme (the saucer model) and an Airport Express. I sometimes get no response from the network (clicking the airport icon in the menu bar usually resolves it) and I've had three kernel panics in as many days. I believe these kernel panics are related to the airport driver, because the crash log says:

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros(230.8.5)@0xdab000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily(1.5.1)@0xa48000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.2)@0x5f2000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family(160.2)@0xa5e000

I think I'll try and set the airport base station to 802.11b/g instead of g only and see if that solves the problem. But I hope Apple is aware of this potential bug in the airport driver (or possible the base station). Kernel panics is NOT good!

PowerMac G5, MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.10)

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Answer 10

Jul 3, 2007 5:04 PM in response to galois

See this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1007678&tstart=0

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Answer 11

galois Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 4, 2007 3:59 AM in response to sonixtorm

No, I'm not using Parallels.

But when I change the configuration of the MBP or the router it seems that works but not a lot of time.

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Answer 12

galois Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 4, 2007 4:18 AM in response to Chris Birch

Yes, Airport connection freezes a lot of times. I've buyed an Airport Extreme Base Station but the problems persist.

Well, I've returned the MacBook Pro and I'm going to test another. But I think that it's a bug of the airport driver, not a hardware problem.

Apple! leave the iPhone a moment and fix the software.

Regards.

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Answer 13

galois Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 4, 2007 4:24 AM in response to JoeMurray

I've not found any relation with my problem between airport and the battery.

Regards.

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Answer 14

Jul 4, 2007 8:52 AM in response to Ulf Dahlén

An update: my best bet is that this related to 10.4.10 and WPA2. I have now gone back to 10.4.9 and everything is fine.

PowerMac G5, MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.10)

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Answer 15

joelcva

Level 1

0 points

Jul 4, 2007 12:42 PM in response to Chris Birch

I have the exact same problem. I have found it goes away when I run Win-doze under Bootcamp so it's obviously some sort of OS-X driver issue.

I am going to try something. I just ordered a D-link WUA-1340 USB wireless adapter for only $15.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?sku=D700-23 07&SRCCODE=CHANNELINC&cisrccode=cii_7240353&cpncode=10-19306161

It comes with only PC drivers but it has a Ralink chipset and Ralink offers a driver.

http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Macintosh.html

As you can see from the docs it includes a universal binary for the driver so it should work fine with an Intel Mac.

Here is an article regarding someone who got it to work with a G4 iMac.

http://torley.com/how-i-got-my-wireless-g-usb-adapter-working-with-a-mac

I don't know for sure if this will work with my Macbook Pro. I'll let you all know what happens when I finally get it.

MacBook Pro, MacBook, G3 iBook, dual g5 +many older macs and PCs Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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