Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

Update, almost 2 years after my initial chime-in:  no change.  Now running Mavericks on an early 2008 MacBook Pro, and the wi-fi dropping continues, despite trying new fixes now and then.  About 18 months ago, I partitioned the hard drive to run Windows 7 (Bootcamp), and the wi-fi continues to run WITHOUT dropping when using the Windows side.

Several other forum contributors have noted a very similar experience.  In our cases, the issue would ultimately appear to be software-related.  I don't know if this can be generalized for everybody who has been having an issue.  The only way to know for sure would be for everyone to partition their drives, install Windows, and compare the wi-fi experience in each OS -- yuck!

Billy,

So you're booting into the Bootcamp partition, right? I can try that, I have one set up. It wouldn't make much sense if it continues to work with something like Parallels, but I want to be sure that's what you're saying.

Good test. I wish I'd thought of that.

turns out that limiting to a single protocol was just helping to simplify a problem that traced back to a failing router. i ended up getting a dual band router from ASUS and the entire family is much happier now. no network drops, everyone connecting at optimal speeds and protocols. my problem was much simpler than the descriptions in this thread.

I think this has been posted as an option to try, but I just came across it again and thought I'd repost. This comes from Mac Life, not Apple~ I still find it distressing to see the hundreds and hundreds of posts on Apple's Support pages of people trying to help each other, with NO input whatsoever from Apple. My grandson wants a computer for Christmas this year, and I am not buying him Apple.

http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/50_most_burning_apple_questions_answered

BobRz,

That's right, I'm booting directly into a Bootcamp partition that is running Windows 7.  Good luck with your test.  : )

cool, i just ordered one.  I cheap solution!

I'm sure we're very close to working this thing out. I find trying to stream music through to my bluetooth speakers a bit buggy too and also Airplay mirroring to my Apple TV is also buggy.  Maybe it's all related....

Assuming this runs through the same card there must be some config issue going on with OSX which Windows has already got sorted?

I definitely think this is a Mavericks issue.  My iMac running Mavericks is the ONLY system in the house that drops the network randomly while all other systems never lose the network.  No idea how to resolve this, but here is the workaround I'm posting: 

I've had the 'network drop' issue with my Airport Extreme for the last 2 months.  It reconnects when I pull the ethernet cable and plug it back in.  I've tried downgrading the AE firmware, resetting to factory, etc.  Nothing worked.  I finally threw in the towel and created a script that monitors my network connectivity and restarts my interface if it senses it has dropped:

##############

#!/bin/ksh

while true

do

  yup=`ping -c1 -t2 www.google.com|grep from`

  if [[ -n $yup ]]

     then echo "Internet is connected!"

  else

        ifconfig en0 down; ifconfig en0 up

        echo "Down at `date +%m%d%Y%H%M%S`">>./dropped.out

  fi

  sleep 5

clear

done

###############

I know its a workaround, but its saving me the headache of constantly pulling my cable and putting it back in!

Good luck!

-Mike Gray

Nope. I'm not on mavericks.

Mike,

I am having this problem too.  Thanks for sharing the script.  Personally, I think this problem is a poorly written SMC driver.  I have this problem constantly on my Mac and this shows up more often when I come out of sleep mode and is hardly a problem after a reboot. 

-Mark

Hi Mark,

My problem happens whether or not I'm coming out of sleep mode or not.  Obviously happens a lot more when I'm doing heavy network traffic, (video/streaming/skype).  I had to decrease the timeout value on the script to 3 seconds rather than 5 because it's gotten so bad!    I hope they fix this soon!

-Mike

I'm having WiFi issues on my brand new 13" retina MacBook Pro as well.

WiFi is generally fine, but at irregular intervals the connection drops (while the WiFi icon in the menu bar still reports a connection). It can work for 10 minutes straight, then lose connection, or for two hours straight and then lose connection. I can solve it by turning Airport off and on again a few times and/or by using the Network Assistant to check the connection. Sometimes rebooting the entire computer is necessary.

It's extremely frustrating to have just spend €1650 on a new laptop and then not have WiFi working outright. It's even more frustrating that this has been an issue with MacBooks for over four years and still Apple has not resolved the issue.

*correction: it's been a MacBook problem for almost six years now.

Nope - not just a Mavericks problem.  What has Apple done about this?  Over 800,000 views, 6 years of agony they have caused their consumers.  What on earth is going on ?  Apple is concentrating on China - that's what.

Delete the all those .plist file inside the system configuration folder than restart will fix it

For safety reason make a back up copy on your desktop before doing that

Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration

What if you have many more than one device? Will it mess those up if I change the settings in my Xfinity Gateway to the 802.11g mode?

Thanks, Davocal1