ffredburger

Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

Hi folks,

Well, I read a ton of posts regarding MacBook Pro wireless networking issues before buying a wireless router last month, and now it's "me too."

Our iBook has no problems whatsoever with dropped connections, but the MBP loses access every few minutes or so. I usually follow a sequence of "Turn AirPort Off"/"Turn Airport On" to cycle the connection, and sometimes this works. It's an almost constant problem. This is a standard configuration MBP.

The router happens to be a D-Link DIR-615, but I've seen enough posts about problems with the Airport Express and MacBook Pros to know it's not the router that's the problem--it's the MacBook Pro (I notice a few similar posts even on the first page of this forum).

Dear Apple: what are you doing about this issue?

Has anyone else somehow resolved this problem? If there was only a couple of posts about this issue, then it might be written off as problems with a specific router, or specific users. But when there's a ton of messages all complaining about the same problem, then it's more likely a significant defect that needs to be fixed by the manufacturer, and won't be fixed by standard troubleshooting procedures of the mundane kind (Tech Support Theater: "Is your router turned on?").

Dear Apple: where are you?

MBP, Mac OS X (10.4.11), non

Posted on Jan 20, 2008 8:45 AM

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Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

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  • by SuperSizeIt,

    SuperSizeIt SuperSizeIt Mar 26, 2008 9:35 AM in response to egalsim
    Level 3 (579 points)
    Mar 26, 2008 9:35 AM in response to egalsim
    It's been over 24 hours and so far so good. No loss of connectivity to my ABS "g" so far. It seems that your workaround is working. Thanks for the tip. NO thanks for Apple for screwing this up.
  • by egalsim,

    egalsim egalsim Mar 26, 2008 11:38 AM in response to SuperSizeIt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 26, 2008 11:38 AM in response to SuperSizeIt
    I'm glad it's been working for you, but it is by no means a real solution. I really hope that Apple figures out this problem quickly and releases the proper patches. This clearly seems to be a software issue.
  • by Calvin Waddy,

    Calvin Waddy Calvin Waddy Mar 26, 2008 12:14 PM in response to calebk
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mar 26, 2008 12:14 PM in response to calebk
    I have had this same problem for about three weeks now. I even went so far as to have my ISP come out and do a check. This is ridiculous. I can connect no problem anywhere else but at home. My trusty G4 Quicksilver is just fine. My brand new one month old MBP is not. I just started trolling the boards today to see if there were other people with the same problem and sure enough...I will try some of the suggestion put up here when I get home, but this is just not cool at all.
  • by 4Runner,

    4Runner 4Runner Mar 26, 2008 4:45 PM in response to calebk
    Level 1 (65 points)
    Mar 26, 2008 4:45 PM in response to calebk
    I don't see it like that. There are too many of us without issue so this is not as black/white as you make it sound. Lots of variables. If everyone was seeing this issue and Apple was non-responsive I would agree. This not, however, not the case. Still, it is disappointing to say the least. Kind of brings me down to reality that Mac is susceptible to the common technology issues as Windows. I was in your shoes for a couple of weeks and somehow mine is now corrected so I do feel your pain. Wish I could help!
  • by Pippilotte,

    Pippilotte Pippilotte Mar 27, 2008 3:24 PM in response to SuperSizeIt
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mar 27, 2008 3:24 PM in response to SuperSizeIt
    I'm not as technically aware as many of you. Could someone kindly explain how to set the router ("g"?) to "not broadcst SSID". Many thanks in advance.
  • by havtan,

    havtan havtan Mar 27, 2008 4:22 PM in response to ffredburger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 27, 2008 4:22 PM in response to ffredburger
    I've had enough dealing with that problem(macbook 10.5.2).
    I gave up!

    I'm starting to think apple wants us to buy their new AEBS.... so this is why it's not their TOP priority!!
    Well, I won't.

    Apple WAKE UP!!
  • by egalsim,

    egalsim egalsim Mar 27, 2008 5:13 PM in response to ffredburger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 27, 2008 5:13 PM in response to ffredburger
    OK everyone, in my quest to find a better work around, I re installed my Leopard installation, then installed the 10.5.2 update and also installed this support driver meant for Time Machine, but also contains new drivers for our Airport cards. Here is the link:

    http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/timemachineandairportupdatesv10.html

    So far, I have had some success, although the network does still cut out at times, and I am now able to broadcast my SSID. Good Luck everyone!

    Message was edited by: egalsim

    PS, I would suggest everyone try the time machine update link first before re installing Leopard. The time machine airport driver is only 10.4MB and is probably the fastest thing to try.
  • by SuperSizeIt,

    SuperSizeIt SuperSizeIt Mar 27, 2008 11:44 PM in response to Pippilotte
    Level 3 (579 points)
    Mar 27, 2008 11:44 PM in response to Pippilotte
    Are you using an Airport Base Station? If so its really easy. Open up Airport Utility located in your Utilities folder which is in the Applications folder of your Hard Drive.

    I have 5.3.1 for the Snow ABS. Once log in, click "Wireless" from your menu buttons.

    Click "Wireless Options"

    Check the box "Create a closed network"

    The will stop your ABS from broadcasting your SSID.
  • by Merged Content 1,

    Merged Content 1 Mar 28, 2008 5:17 AM in response to ffredburger
    Level 6 (11,040 points)
    Mar 28, 2008 5:17 AM in response to ffredburger
    ok ladies & gents, add me to the raw of the WI-FI puzzle, now even my book has the latest up dates, 10.5.2, it's loosing it's connectivity every 1-2 min, did that TC update, but still the same, i think i have to dump the wireless technology till AAAAAPPPPLLLEEEEE finds a solution for my dam 4000$ machine!! yes i paid 4 dam thousand dollars for this thing!! wireless keyboard ans mighty mouse as well, full bundle of original software, ILIFE, IWORK and LEOPARD as well, now let me tell you what i have, i have an EDIMAX W router with 2mb ADSL speed, windows based machines, NO PROBLEM what so ever here, but my 4K$ machine, have all problems that make me a hair close to just dump it right into the trash pin!!, i called apple care here put they seemed far away from even knowing that there is a problem !! i told her (lady) please open www.apple.com, go to support link then click discussion link, down to MBP has a constant drop down in its wireless thing!! people !! these guys don even know that we are suffering here !! for the time been, i might go back 5 years back to the wire era and use LAN cables to access internet. Thanks for your time.
  • by SlippySlope,

    SlippySlope SlippySlope Mar 28, 2008 6:40 AM in response to Merged Content 1
    Level 1 (54 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 28, 2008 6:40 AM in response to Merged Content 1
    Think the tremendous heat generated by the MBP has cooked something on the motherboard or the AP card? The heat is so intense that you can't even put the 'laptop' on your lap for fear of harm to your body. AppleCare already replaced my motherboard once. Only a thought that occurred during my long morning shower
  • by Calvin Waddy,

    Calvin Waddy Calvin Waddy Mar 28, 2008 10:52 AM in response to SlippySlope
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mar 28, 2008 10:52 AM in response to SlippySlope
    Hi all. I spent the better part of Wednesday looking at boards for a solution or at least some solace in finding some company with the same problem as me. I was glad to find a few people at first then the list of people with the same setup and problems kept on growing and growing. There are a few peers on this board with some solutions which I tried when I got home(Pram, battery pop out, change security settings etc.) I ended up screwing my network up even more by changing some settings in my Airport utility as my beloved G4 would'nt connect. Thursday I resolved to call Apple and surprisingly only waited about 15 minutes on hold. I decided while I was waiting to just CHANGE THE CHANNEL on my Airport through the Airport Utility.
    Bling!! My internet connection which has not seen the light of day for about three weeks on my month old MacBook Pro popped on. I reset my trusty G4 back to the original security settings and it too gave me my connection back. I don't know if this helps everyone as I hate seeing all this woe about our machines. I just wanted to add a somewhat happy story to this thread. I still beleive we should'nt have to go through all this crap with such a "professional notebook". Get it together Apple.
  • by mcpccea,

    mcpccea mcpccea Mar 28, 2008 12:29 PM in response to ffredburger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2008 12:29 PM in response to ffredburger
    I am having some of the issues that others are having.

    I am having a different problem though. I can't connect to a lot of b/g networks but can cannot connect to N networks. I have done all the reset the PRAM stuff as mentioned with repairing permissions but no luck.

    It is definitely something with 10.5.2. I reloaded with clean OS back to 10.5 and could connect to B/G networks fine. Once I loaded 10.5.2 update and NOTHING else I dropped connection to the B/G networks.

    I used a clean 10.5 OS and used Migration assistant to move over my profile. I guess I will have to wait for some fix.
  • by egalsim,

    egalsim egalsim Mar 28, 2008 12:33 PM in response to mcpccea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2008 12:33 PM in response to mcpccea
    Clear your wireless network list, and then reinstall this update by itself:

    http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/timemachineandairportupdatesv10.html

    IF it works, let us know.
  • by swguy,

    swguy swguy Mar 28, 2008 2:02 PM in response to mcpccea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2008 2:02 PM in response to mcpccea
    this is absurd. I'm still having problems with my pricey MBP after trying many fixes listed here, and also watching this thread get longer and longer and lon.....
    The fact that apple does not appear to be responding in ANY fashion to this issue leads me to think that they are aware of the problem but don't want to discuss publicly, possibly because it may be a BIG problem, like, involving a major OS fix or even recalling hardware. Or else they are overwhelmed trying to fix all the other bugs in Leopard.
    This is really bad for a company that likes to brag about being better than Windows (and for the most part, it is). So, if you're steamed about this, send a note to the press folks who cover Apple (courtesy of a friend who does PR--and is also a Mac user):

    Apple Insider blog (see the item and related comments about Apple testing their latest Leopard update)
    news@appleinsider.com

    Jim Dalrymple, Macworld.com News Director
    www.macworld.com/contact.html

    Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal
    feedback@allthingsd.com

    Tom Yager, Infoworld
    tom_yager@infoworld.com

    David Pogue, NY Times
    david@pogueman.com

    Gregg Keizer, computerworld
    gkeizer@ix.netcom.com

    Jon Skillings, CNET
    jon.skillings@cnet.com

    and...
    Apple Customer Service
    408-996-1010 -- ask to speak to the Customer Relations department
  • by Brandon Parris,

    Brandon Parris Brandon Parris Mar 28, 2008 3:48 PM in response to swguy
    Level 1 (85 points)
    Mar 28, 2008 3:48 PM in response to swguy
    So far I have fixed this issue on 6 laptops. 2 original MBP's, 1 santa rosa, and 3 Peryns. All were running leopard 10.5.2. All I did was install the time machine/airport update located here:

    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/timemachineandai rportupdatesv10.html

    It has worked on 3 different routers with the aforementioned 6 computers. I consider this update to be the fix. If it is not working for you, make sure that your router is reset to it's original factory settings, as well as your network settings. On one of the computers I fixed, the guy had changed several settings on his macbook pro like DNS and such from tips that he got on these forums. When I initially installed the update on his macbook it did not take because he had messed up his settings pretty bad. Once I reset his network settings back to normal on his router and macbook it worked like a charm. Just remember to write down any and all changes that you make to your router and network settings, because once you start introducing these variables into your system, you may install the fix and not have it work due to these changes.
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