Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

I have a 6 month old MBP and a iMac and both drop wifi...this has only happend since I installed Lion.  My PC mates are laughing at me.  The only good thing is that my iPhone does not drop wifi.... come on Apple Please.  How a girl going to pull if she cant get on the web...  Now if Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City complained do you think she would get help.... 

Why is it that my MBP drops wife....

micah72 wrote:

 

Come on Mac geeks tell me this is a problem with my network....please just say that... because if it is how come all my other Apple and Windows products do not have a problem!!!!!???/?

If you read this entire thread you'd know how it could be possible.

What's "WideBand Extreme Internet?"

dapadon wrote:

 

Okay I see 80 pages of replies,  what is Apples Offical response to this issue?

The offical response is to contact AppleCare, as many, many different issues can have the same symptom, and it often varies from case to case.

William Kucharski wrote:

 

micah72 wrote:

 

Come on Mac geeks tell me this is a problem with my network....please just say that... because if it is how come all my other Apple and Windows products do not have a problem!!!!!???/?

 

If you read this entire thread you'd know how it could be possible.

 

Yes, possible. Not exactly probable, though...

Every minut now When I updated to 10.6.8, the sh*t hit the fan. Fix this **** thing now. All other machines do NOT DROP OUT of wireless. I repeat ALL MY MACHINES DO NOT DROP OUT of wireless.  As atated before, the MPB is terrific but the wireless is a POS. You may lose a customer here because a 3K machine not being able to do something a $400 machine can do is shamful.

Here's an interesting message I am getting using ping via network utility.

Ping has started…

ping: sendto: No route to host

ping: sendto: Host is down

ping: sendto: Host is down

ping: sendto: Host is down

ping: sendto: Host is down

PING 192.168.1.108 (192.168.1.108): 56 data bytes

Request timeout for icmp_seq 0

Request timeout for icmp_seq 1

Request timeout for icmp_seq 2

Request timeout for icmp_seq 3

Request timeout for icmp_seq 4

Request timeout for icmp_seq 5

Request timeout for icmp_seq 6

Request timeout for icmp_seq 7

Request timeout for icmp_seq 8

--- 192.168.1.108 ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss

This happened while I was temporarily connected to the net. I smell a Snow Leapard bug here as the OS is not seeing something that is obviously working which means, airport will drop connection even though the network is fine. Addendum. Whild doing this, the machine drops out and in in realtime.

Traceroute

Traceroute has started…

traceroute to 192.168.1.101 (192.168.1.101), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1  * * *

2  * * *

3  * * *

4  * * *

5  * * *

6  * *

It's quite possible that it has something to do with Lion or at least the combination between MBP and Lion. I have been having the same problems with slow/unstable WiFi for the last 5 months on a MBP + Lion. B/c of circumstances (hard disk crash) I am now trying Snow Leopard. The wifi is stable going on 3 days now. I do not want to speak too soon though b/c I am also seeing posts of people using Snow Leopard who have the wireless issue... I'll wait and see how this goes..

remoran wrote:

 

Ping has started…

 

ping: sendto: No route to host

ping: sendto: Host is down

ping: sendto: Host is down

ping: sendto: Host is down

ping: sendto: Host is down

PING 192.168.1.108 (192.168.1.108): 56 data bytes

Request timeout for icmp_seq 0

Request timeout for icmp_seq 1

Request timeout for icmp_seq 2

Request timeout for icmp_seq 3

Request timeout for icmp_seq 4

Request timeout for icmp_seq 5

Request timeout for icmp_seq 6

Request timeout for icmp_seq 7

Request timeout for icmp_seq 8

 

--- 192.168.1.108 ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss

This means that your default gateway is either not responding or no such information was provided to your system by your DHCP server, perhaps on a DHCP renewal.

peder42 wrote:

Yes, possible. Not exactly probable, though...

Given the vast majority of Mac owners have no problems at all using Wi-Fi on a wide array of networks, the issue comes down to figuriing out what's different in your case (or in the cases of others having issues.)

While it could be a Lion bug of some type, it's very much not universal so instead you have to try and narrow down what factors are at play, and the best way to do that is to work directly with AppleCare, as they have the databases of what other users have experienced issues in conjunction with what routers, what network settings, etc.

About 2-3 weeks ago, I had severe problems with wireless drop-out every few minutes on

the MBP. I did 2 things: 1) upgraded to the latest version of Lion (from Snow Leopard)

and 2) updated the firmware on my router. I have not had any problems of this sort since

then. I seem to recall, also, that about a month ago, I had to reset my router, which no

doubt reset to the original firmware. If I had to venture a guess (at least for my particular

issue), it is the router firmware update (from the original router firmware) which caused

the problems to cease. Apologies if this does not help anyone else, but it try updating

your router firmware to the latest version.

If you have the same wifi problems on any access point, then I am not sure about

a good solution. But if your problems are due to one access point (such as the one

in your apartment or house), give the firmware update a go.

On December 8, William Kucharski wrote:

 

Does the MBP's Wi-Fi work for the vast majority of customers on the vast majority of networks?  Why yes, it does. […]

 

On December 13, William Kucharski wrote:

 

Given the vast majority of Mac owners have no problems at all using Wi-Fi on a wide array of networks […]

I'm sorry, but do you have any support for these statements? (Not that I doubt your word, but I'd like to know what 'vast majority' means -- 90%? 80%? 75%? 51%?)

Or perhaps are they mere assumptions, based on such facts as that there is no class action pending on this issue … yet?

I have been having this issue for about 1 year now (and have been monitoring this thread for just as long). Still no solution. I am probably lucky in that I can get it working by just refreshing my browser a few times, but nonetheless its VERY irritating.

I am considering returing my macbook which is perfect in every other aspect. This is my first Mac too after years of Windows and I must say I'm disappointed.

fane_j wrote:

 

I'm sorry, but do you have any support for these statements? (Not that I doubt your word, but I'd like to know what 'vast majority' means -- 90%? 80%? 75%? 51%?)

Sure - walk into any Apple Store.  Is there a line out the door of people whose Wi-Fi doesn't work?  No, there are not.

Are there tables of demo machines all connected to the store's network via Wi-Fi? Yes, there are.

Do you see people virtually everywhere using their Macs via Wi-Fi at coffee shops, bookstores and other locations that don't use Apple routers?  Yes, you do.

Are there stories on the nightly news the way there were when a reasonably small minority of people were experiencing call drop problems on their new iPhone 4s?  No, there are not.

Finally, if this were even close to universal issue and Apple's drivers were at fault it would have been addressed by now and/or AppleCare would have a stock workaround.

Extrapolating the over one million downloads of Lion done the first day, the over six million done by October and the fact that Lion has been the sole shipping operating sytem since July and hardware sales have not dropped to zero, you make the call.

None of this is meant to belittle the issue or its importance to you or others here having a problem; rather the solution is to work directly with AppleCare on the issue rather than come here and complain; AppleCare is a route that has paths directly into Apple Engineering, Apple Discussions may but only in an indirect way.

But how can you POSSIBLY say it is just coincidence.  My MBP was working STELLARLY  with 10.4.  Then I upgraded to 10.6 and EVERYTHING started going crazy with the wireless connection.  Sorry pal..no sale that ALL of our MBPros just self destructed at the same time.

greekguy9999 wrote:

 

But how can you POSSIBLY say it is just coincidence.  My MBP was working STELLARLY  with 10.4.  Then I upgraded to 10.6 and EVERYTHING started going crazy with the wireless connection.  Sorry pal..no sale that ALL of our MBPros just self destructed at the same time.

I never said it was coincidence, but that certainly doesn't mean it's Apple's bug or bugs, either; go back and read one of my multiple "3 + 2" vs. "2 + 3" posts for an explanation of how these things could happen.

If you carefully track the multiple threads here you'll see many, many people have had problems, they're fixed either by a router change, a new router or an update from Apple, and they drift away again.  I've also mentioned I personally haven't seen a Wi-Fi drop out since 2008.

If your Wi-Fi operation was broken by 10.6 and has been broken since, once again I have to ask what AppleCare has to say about your issue, as if it's Apple software or hardware that's truly to blame, they're the only ones who can actually direct someone to address it, and can most easily do that if you tell them about it directly.

William Kucharski wrote:

fane_j wrote:

 

I'm sorry, but do you have any support for these statements? (Not that I doubt your word, but I'd like to know what 'vast majority' means -- 90%? 80%? 75%? 51%?)

Sure - walk into any Apple Store. [...]

I see. IOW, your peremptory statements are based on... air. You wouldn't happen to be by profession a politician, would you? Well, thanks anyway -- at least now I understand how much weight to give to your comments.