Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

From a related thread (yes, there is more than one thread about MBP connectivity problems)

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15958817#15958817

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"a) they're not that serious about the fix or b) they can't figure out how to fix it"

Good points, jef_512.

There are many good journalists specialized in the field of computers. If this issue can be brought to their attention, They may be able to write an article(s) on Apple's Achilles Heel and embarrass them enough into devoting energy to solving the problem.

Then again, notebooks are not the future of computing, especially at the mobile level. Sales of notebooks will be flat very soon and as we all know Apple is all about the future.

I've said it once, I'll say it again, if you have an MBP, make sure you travel with a long ethernet cable.

Cheers to all fellow sufferers.

Apple what gives? That 10.7.1 update did not fix this issue at all. I get disconnected repeatedly, but not when I bootcamp into Windows. In windows it's rock solid.

I've used a Belkin router and I'm currently using a Linksys wrt54g, but both had the same issue.

You get disconnected and you kill airport and then turn it back on .. kill it turn it back on.. etc.. until you get connected back up. It's SOO frustrating!

Please fix this. It can't be a hardware issue. I don't believe that. It HAS to be software related as I don't have this issue in Windows. Quite frankly I'm disappointed. This thread has had 248996 views that means that near half a MILLION people looked at this thread. You guys have to have noticed this in testing, or noticed it now. I wish I would have discovered this in time to return this laptop.

My ping times are also crap by the way. Generally you get <1ms I'm getting 5 - 6 ms and higher when pinging my router! That is terrible!

I'm probably going to call support, and I love my computer, but geez.. This is sad when you pay what you pay for a MacBook Pro.

"Cupertino, we have a problem ... "

However folks, in addition to working this thread, you have to send feedback directly to Apple on this issue.

Apple can (and must) fix this problem so that all our MBPs are as reliable as any PC when it comes to Internet connectivity.

My MBP is constantly looking for wifi networks now and dropping out. I was about to buy a new router but after reading this fear it is not the router at all. The last update did nothing to fix it. I have extended warranty thankfully so guess I should get on the phone...

Very frustrating.

I have this same issue!  Mine cuts out every few minutes.  I have the new MBA that just came out a month ago.  At first I thought it was my new 4G MIFI signal however I did a test just now and switched over to my IBM laptop and have had a solid wifi connection for over 1 hour now.

I am running Windows 7 Pro with Boot camp with all the microsoft updates installed.  I will keep searching around to see if apple has come out with some updated drivers for windows to fix this issue.

Helen Crozier wrote:

 

My MBP is constantly looking for wifi networks now

How do you know this?

If you're referring to the fact that it says "Looking for networks" when you click the Wi-Fi icon, that's because it starts searching because you clicked on the icon.

I seem to recall this wireless disconnecting issue wasn't a severe problem, (at least such a frequent one, for me!), until after the last update to 10.6.8

Now it has become a regular annoyance, and is completely unacceptable.

Apple, please fix this!

Seems my situation was caused by a faulty adsl filter - all good one fingers crossed!

Just incase Apple is reading this post:

My MBP is suffering same drops. I lose connection everytime my Windows laptop connects to our wireless router. I actually dropped my connection while reading these posts.

My current fix (other then toggling Airport power) is to run Internet explorer in Parallels. Even when safari wouldn't work, my Parallel Windows 7 virtual machine would work (i'm using it now to right this post).

Does anyone know if Parallels assignes a seperate MAC address?  I heard that Windows will send out a "who am I" request on its IP to see if theres a conflict and if someone replys it will dynamically change addresses.  Does the MBP do similar function, or is it just shutting down as soon as there is a conflic???

Please help!

It's not an apple thing. It's a network thing. Try turning off the multicast setting for your router.

Also have a look at key refresh timings

Toodles

Exactly what 'multicast' setting are you talking about?

And if it's not an apple thing why does my Macbook work fine when I run Windows via Bootcamp?

@Shinigami

Hi, this is not really an answer to your questions, as that would require someone to view your modem setting with you in regards to keys and multicast

As a workaround, please open a terminal command window and type:

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Airport off

you'll notice that the network setting goes off. Then type

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Airport on

And you'll see the network symbol shows that it's looking for a network again

If you want to you can put it in a script, something like:

#!/bin/sh -

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Airport off

sleep 5

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Airport on

I hope this helps. Toodles

That's an excellent suggestion to script it, and that hadn't really crossed my mind, so thanks much for that.

As for my modem settings and such, I've built my own router running IPCop, and use a Linksys WRT54G in I believe mixed mode. I've tried a belkin router as well that was supposed to do N speeds but it was pretty junky. My friend has a nicer linksys that I'm going to give a try, but I really feel this is some sort of driver issue. I've worked at a technician in a university for 5 years before changing jobs to be a sys admin.

I've gotten a degree in networking, and took 4 semesters of Cisco classes. Now, that doesn't necessarily prove I know what I'm talking about because I know a lot of people with more impressive credentials than that who are quite stupid.

What I'm trying to say by throwing that out there is that I've got experience in troubleshooting and I'm not changing routers or settings when I'm in OSX 10.7.1. And it doesn't drop all the time either. It can run fine for a good amount of time then poof. drop. Then it'll drop in another 15 minutes.. It's especially bad seemingly when I'm trying to transfer files locally via LAN, or downloading from the internet.

Not to mention my ping times are crap. Generally speaking I've never seen anything not get <1ms when pinging from host to router; however, mine vary from 1 - 4ms. I haven't looked at ping times in Windows, but I should do that. Because of these pieces of evidence it points to a software based issue. It could be hardware, but I'd think it'd act up in Windows via Bootcamp and it hasn't. I'd say a config problem, but that doesn't make any sense because it works via Windows, and no where have I seen something say 'you need to baby your Mac and set up the router only in N mode and only on channel 6 or it will hate you forever and drop your connection randomly.'

Lastly, I think Apple knows about this because in the update to 10.7.1 it says 'fixes wireless issues'. So they tried to fix it, but for me they didnt.

I'm frustrated because this is a freaking $2500 laptop that I purchased to run OSX not Windows. I feel for that amount of money I should get a reliable piece of equipment (which apple is famous for). If I'd wanted flaky wifi I'd have spent $1000 on a Dell ~_^

Folks,

I called Apple Support one week ago and got the following response.  I am happy to say that it seems to have solved the problem of my MacBook Pro dropping its wireless connection.  Here is their suggestion:

(1)  In network preferences, change Location from "Automatic."  Choose "Edit Locations" and then add a new location with a new name.

(2)  Select that new location, and then "Apply."

(3)  In the left hand column, click on airport, the at bottom click on the gear and select "Set Service Order."

(4)  Move "Airport" to the top and click okay.

(5)  Click "Apply" again.

(6) Close all and shut down.

(7)  Holding Control-Option-Shift (or maybe option-command-shift, I forget which), hold power key down for 5 seconds.

(8) Reboot

Upon restarting, Airport should be greyed out.  Click on it, select the wireless signal, and then it should turn black.

It's been one week so far and I've not had any problems.  Prior to making this change, "Airport" was the last of four items in the service order (Bluetooth was the first!!!).  Maybe Airport was getting hung up on one of these other connections.   

No luck. That tread is full of such "solutions" - works temporarily for somebody but not for all.