Intermittent WIFI with Leopard on Macbook

this is strange, because I got them to admit there was a problem. they were still useless as far as fixing the problem, but the said they knew about it and they were working on it.

I have the same intermittent WIFI ever since the 'upgrade' to 10.5.2.

Genius bar deleted some WIFI preference files, that didn't work.

They had me change my router to WPA2 (instead of WEP) - that didn't work.

This is really frustrating.

I have an AT&T 2wire router. PC's and Wii connect with no issues. My little-over-a-month-old MacBook used to connect fine until 10.5.2. The router is updated to the most current firmware.

I think Apple issued a patch for it tonight... I just downloaded the AirPort update from SU.

I had the same problem with my Macbook and 2Wire router. Tried everything you did, even reassigning the router's channel to a less broadcasted one. What worked in the end is rolling back to 10.5 without any updates. I haven't had any problems with it dropping connections since. It ***** because my version of Aperture won't work unless 10.5.2 is installed but I'd rather have Wi-Fi connectivity at my house.

Funny how this issue seems to only affect certain routers; even with 10.5.2 I never had a connection dropped on the Cisco router at work.

DId it help you at all? I just downloaded and installed the update, but I still drop my connection every couple of minutes.

This "little" issue is rendering my Macbook worthless to me.

Here is my observation--I'm hoping this helps someone at Apple (or elsewhere) to figure out the problem.

I have a MacBook and a G5 iMac, both connected to an Airport Express Base Station. Both are running 10.4.11.

iMac G5 runs flawlessly always.
MacBook drops connection intermittently, depending on the day. Here seem to be the rules as to when for me:

- Happens more often when running from battery, but will drop with both power adapter and battery.

- After downloading iStumbler, have noticed that when it starts dropping, I see another router on the same channel as my Airport (channel 11). My MacBook "sees" this other router and my iMac doesn't. Changing the channel on the Airport Base Station does help--usually fixes. But I have to retreat to my iMac to change the channel.

- When no other routers are on the same channel as the Airport Express, it (the Airport Express) shows as 65% power on both the MacBook and iMac. When there is another router on the same channel, it shows as 25% on the MacBook on battery power, 39% when on adapter power and remains constant at 65% on the iMac. (The other router in my area on the same channel shows up at 25% on the MacBook and does not appear on my iMac--even in the same room.)

My conclusion being that the MacBook is having a hard time distinguishing between two routers on the same channel within its reception area. It's more sensitive to this when on battery power. This may be in connection to the increased range of reception for the MacBook. If you could decrease the reception for the MacBook itself, perhaps it would help? Haven't found a way to do this to test.

I pray that this helps. Taking my MacBook when I travel is no longer even functional, since when in the average hotel area of a town, there are many routers on the same channel--no reception is to be had anywhere. Never had the same problem with my PowerBook. I could connect anywhere with no problems.

This problem really steams me because it appeared out of the blue (at 10.4.10 I believe) months ago and Apple still doesn't acknowledge it. It's bad enough that I have to deal with constant dropouts (while the my and an old iBook both connect wirelessly with no trouble ever).

But I got my senior parents a MacBook this Christmas, and I had hoped they would be free of the annoying little problems that plagued their Windows experience. Well, guess what? They have even more trouble with the MacBook because the internet drops out every few minutes, and it rattles them. They prefer the Dell for internet use!

There is no fix posted for this, and others keep mentioning seemingly random fixes. I'm sorry but I can't just reinstall Leopard with the hope that it will somehow magically restore the functionality that the MacBook had before the Apple updates.

I will gladly perform some trouble-shooting operations for most computer problems. But this one was clearly caused by something Apple "updated." All I ask is that they restore the functionality of 10.4.9.

Details: Wireless signal is always weaker than it was in 10.4.9; signal drops out at random intervals, usually for only a minute or two. Safari constantly scolds that I do not have a connection. Email chokes. Seems more likely when someone else is using the network.

has anyone had a new computer work on their network. I'm just wondering if the problem is with all new computers. If i knew some worked fine, i would exchange my macbook for a new one in hopes of receiving one that worked.

Well, here's my story. Brand new MBP for personal use and Dell for work. The Dell never drops connection. The MBP does so ONLY under periods of increased file transfer. General web surfing is not a problem. How ever the second I go to copy files from my server, down go the bars and the connection. At the same time my Dell continues to operate as expected.

I've messed with service order, disabled IPv6, A/B/G/N, etc.. nothing works. It really is odd..

My wife is in graduate school, and the school ordered a large number of Macbooks for their students. All of these Macbooks shipped in the fall before Leopard was released. I upgraded my wife's laptop to Leopard, and it is fully updated to the most recent versions right now. However, all of the other Macbooks that the students received (every single one) are having the intermittent wireless connection problems. All of them are on Tiger except my wife's laptop, and all of the computers are having problems regardless of the type of wireless network they are joining (we have Airport Extreme at our house, and the problem exists just like in all other locations).

In January, I called Apple to give my info, but given the fact that I knew it was a widespread problem with the Macbooks, I didn't expect a fix immediately. The tech researched the issue a bit and said that they had received a large number of cases on this issue and assured me that they were working on it as a top priority. He took down all the info from my wife's computer to help with their troubleshooting. However, still no fix, which is leading me to believe that it is a hardware incompatibility issue that will take a recall of some sort. Generally, I've found Apple to be pretty quick (at least within a month or two at the longest) with their software fixes.

Hopefully, they come up with a fix soon, as all of these laptops have been a real pain for these students, all of whom spend most of their day researching documents online... However, I don't think there's much that the genius bar at an Apple Store or the tech support guys over the phone can do about this problem. Given the fact that it's happening on every single one of the Macbooks the school ordered (both on Tiger & Leopard systems), I'm not sure trading it in for another unit will be a fix for the problem.

I have a first generation MacBook that I bought in the Fall of 2006. I've been having connection issues to wifi for only about a week and a half. I updated to 10.5.2 immediately on its release, so I don't think that it is the issue.

My problem is like a lot of those described here: When I first turn on my MacBook, I have a full signal. Within ten minutes it degrades until I can no longer pick up any signal at all. This happens at home where I have an Apple Airport Extreme (second gen I believe--the white ufo one) that broadcasts 802.11g. The same thing happens to me in my office, but I'm not sure what kind wifi they have here. I teach some night classes, however, where the signal stays constant. I've determined that this seems to be a proximity issue. When I go into the room at home where my airport base station sits, I get a good, strong signal. But as soon as I move out of that room, it begins to significantly deteriorate. I used to be able to sit on the back porch and get a strong signal. Not anymore. And I also have an aluminum iMac, old lime iMac, iBook, Xbox, and PS3 that all hit the airport basestation just fine.

I've got a friend who works at an Apple authorized center who is going to replace the airport card in my MacBook on Friday. I'll report back to let everyone know if that helps. I assume it will because I no longer think this is a software issue.

I applied Time Machine and AirPort Updates v1.0 last night. No improvement.

I suspect that there's two types of wifi problems - those that we MacBook owners have experienced apparently since the Tiger days, and a wider problem that affected many models as a result of 10.5.2. It will be interesting to see if this helps Airport that was broken by 10.5.2.

It seems as though the problem is specific to certain access points. Maybe they have adressed the issues with some, but not all yet. So maybe the fix will work depending on which access point you are using and maybe future updates will fix the rest?

Same thing here. I bought the MBP with 10.4 on it. The problem existed. I thought things would be better on OS 10.5. No such luck. Same goes for 10.5.1 and 10.5.2. I have an ActionTec wireless router that Verizon provides with their FiOS fiber service. It is 802.11g, not 'n'. Verizon had me log into the router and change the wireless Channel from "Auto" to something high, like 9 or 10. No luck. I changed it back to Auto. All the PC's in the house are running wireless fine (mostly Linksys wireless NIC's).

It's not as bad when I'm right on top of the router.

Also, it seems to be fine for a little while (30 to 60 minutes) after first booting the computer. Then, the random drop-outs begin and I have to plug in to one of the Ethernet jacks in my house. It is certainly frustrating.

I've thought about purchasing a new wireless router, especially an 802.11n or even an Apple one to solve this problem, but from the looks of this thread, there are a lot of people having trouble with just about every brand of router, Apple included.

<shrug> Still loves these Mac's, though! Best... computer... EVER!

I was also having the connection problem until I picked up a used first generation Airport Extreme Base Station (the first one that had pre N) and my connections seem to be fine since then (2 weeks now).

Knock on wood.