MacBook Pro Wireless Connection Problems

This an embarrassment for me, and Apple as well. I was using an old TP-Link (China brand) wireless router (no draft-G mode) before and initially I would have problems connecting to it, even with the correct WEP password; then even when I connect my MBP via ethernet to the router I can't connect to the internet. But when I boot into Windows via Bootcamp, I can connect fine on both Wifi and Ethernet. After several frustrating times using Network Diagnostics, the MBP connected to the Wifi and mostly run smooth from there. The strange thing is during these times when my MBP cannot connect to the Wifi, booting in Win XP would give me great internet access via both Wifi AND ethernet.

I attributed the above to some biased China product which is more inclined towards Windows systems, until a few days ago, when I decided to upgrade my Tp Link Wifi router to a Buffalo Air Station. The same problems (including ethernet connection) happened, and this time I have already updated the firmware for the Buffalo Wifi router. I couldn't even go to the set up page for the router (192.168.11.1).

Then I booted into WinXP and hey presto! Connection is perfect. I started Mozilla in winXP, went to the router setup and checked all the settings. No problems there.

I then shut down and restart into OS X, ran Network Diagnostics and this time I can get a connection.

I found that creating a new location (or deleting an old one and recreate one with the same name) helps. It also helps if you do not use the Internet Connect wizard; the wizard apparently, is not smart enough to detect which password encryption is used and neither does it allow you to choose the encryption type. I keyed in the right password several times but always get the message that the password is incorrect. Very frustrating.

If you do the set up manually, I find that you can choose the type of encryption (WEP 8, WEP 13, ASCII characters etc) and then key in your password. When this setup doesn't work, then run Network Diagnostics, sometimes it will correct things up. if it doesn't, then re-setup and run diagnostics again.

After reading other topics and posts on this connection issue, I am convinced it is a compatibility issue between router hardware (both old and new) and Apple's OS X.

It is shame because the MBP is so user friendly in other ways. I also find that when something goes wrong with a mac machine (which is seldom), it is difficult to troubleshoot because so much of the background computing work is "hidden" from the user.