Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

For those Tigers users out there, Apple released an Airport Extreme update...

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportextremeupdate2008001fortiger.html

Apple does not release many details but I ran it last night and it has been working since. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is the fix.

Thanks for the update but still no luck. I will keep working on it and post and update.

egalsim,
After I installed it, I thought perhaps we had something for it appeared as if it was holding the Wi-Fi connection...but it appears to be wishful thinking. My Entrourge connection to our exchange server would not hold the connection long enough to "send" mail. It would pick up mail but perhaps the "handshaking" that goes on with the "send" process is more complex. The mail being sent would just end up in outbox - unsent. That was my first clue. The second clue was the rendering of webpages. When on the Ethernet connections, pages will render very quickly, but on Airport, they will render but much more slowly (indicating that the connection is dropping and reconnecting, dropping and reconnecting).

I have no idea what this is and it appears that it only affects MBPs - BUT - not ALL MBPs. Very strange but still there are MANY frustrated, upset (some of whom are 'switchers') customers who are all experiencing an apparent lack of response from Apple.

In my eyes, this is a 'black eye' for Apple. As a long-time user of Apple products (and one is currently plugged in with an Ethernet cable), I only hope that they find the problem and fix it - SOON!

Well its been several days so far and my MBP has not lost its connection. So tuning of SSID broadcasting works. At least for me.

Should have found this link before I bought my new MBP the beginning of March. Have been an Apple owner since the middle 80's and was really upset when I had problems right out of the box. I thought it was my ISP changing settings (AT&T bought SBC). Called them for help since I've had their router (2wire) for several years and my Powerbook G4 works fine. The first rep laughed at me when I said I had a Mac; the 2nd rep told me to call Apple since they don't support Mac--right!
I called Apple & he walked me thru the battery removal, zapping the PRAM and all that.....nothing changed. He told me to take it to the local Genius Bar (faster turn around time) to have the Airport Card checked & a visual inspection of the antenna . Made an appointment; took it in and it worked perfectly there, of course. Told him I wanted it checked further; he never said there was a Leopard problem. I called 5 days later when it was supposed to be done & they hadn't even looked at it!! They found out how livid I was. Got it back 8 days after taking it in with no solution to the problem and not a word of how to fix it from any of the "Genius's ".
I took it to a friend's who has an Airport Extreme wireless setup. It didn't work there until I changed the SSL setting in my Mail Preferences. The STMP is set for SSL; but the POP isn't. I don't know what that changes, but it worked for me (I'm getting nasty emails from AT&T to fix my settings to SSL, however!!). This morning I used the Airport update; repaired permissions and it worked FINE. I thought the problem was solved. Several hours later, it went back to slow or nothing. I just downloaded the Airport update again from their website; changed my Mail Preference POP back to default and it's working!! I have no faith that this is a permanent fix!
I will be calling Apple again & complaining==this is asinine for Apple to not say something; I've had only a glimpse of what this new computer is capable of after a month and can't get my work done. It will go back to them if a fix, or word of a fix, doesn't come very soon.

Just to update on my situation, I'm still okay with my connection at home after I changed my Airport channel according to a few posters here. I hope that was the fix. as I did install the update a few days ago. I hope Apple can get on the ball and see about a fix for those of us who this did'nt work for.

how prevalent is this problem?

affects all MBPs? affects certain MBPs?

I can only actually access the internet via a wireless network at work so while I'm tempted to purchase a MBP because of its aesthetics and a desire to try OS X, I really don't want to be stranded with a crippled machine

Doesn't appear widespread. You should be able to work it out. I wouldn't let this hold you back as the deciding factor to buy or not buy a MBP. I understand your concern though. Remember, people don't come here to post how great everything is working so even though this is a somewhat long thread there are tons of MBP working just fine.

asmallchild,
<how prevalent is this problem?>
If you look through this discussion board, you will find at least a dozen treads relating to this problem, with hundreds of posts and thousands of views.

I have a 1st gen MBP and I started seeing the problem with Leopard 10.5.2 (as did most others reporting the problem). But, you will also see many who just purchased their MBP (last gen) and they had the problem right out of the box (with the assumption that the MBP shipped with 10.5.2). On the other hand, some MBP owners running 10.5.2 have reported that they have seen no such problem (I call these the 'wonder machines'). Therefore, it is safe to say that some are 'infected' and some are not.

Many have reported calling Apple Care and several have reported visiting the resident Apple Genius at their local Apple Store and all seem to report the same feedback: both the Apple Store Genius and the Apple Care representative were kind, courtous and humane but all were unaware of the problem and had no solution.

This has been going on for more than a couple of months now (I forget when 10.5.2 was released) and Apple has been perfectly silent on the issue.

I now run AP Grapher (a freeware tool that tracks and graphs the AirPort connection) and I can report that after doing all of the recommended work arounds posted on this discussion board, I have 'improved' my connectivity from something like 38% to the current 50% - great for a 'portable' 'professional' computer (I'm now connected most of the time via my Ethernet wire instead of my AirPort).

Good luck with your purchase decision.

Thanks for the highly detailed post.

I think, ultimately, I will opt to go in another direction. The laptop is certainly gorgeous and I've heard nothing but positive things about OS X but even a 50% connection would represent a problem for me.

Again, thanks for the input and best of luck in getting the issue finally resolved. (hopefully sooner rather than later)

OMG, what the **** is going on with this thread!? I read about two pages then realized its going for 14 more. Well I'm having a nightmare issue of sorts with my friend's MBP. Its about one year+ old now and has nothing but the same problems described by everyone. Dropping connections, especially after waking from a sleep. I was told the problem started after installing the (n) channel update from the Apple Store. They use Linksys wireless router equipment ... its a new (n draft) router. There has been problems related to Linksys not working with the HP wireless network printer and then not allowing the WEP or WPA security protocols to work. So, he has the SSID hidden and only allows certain MAC addresses to use the network. Two problems I can see now, being that he's not network savvy and incorrect MAC addressing seems to be a recipe.
Now, he just got a new iBook (white) and it works without a hiccup. My MBP goes over there and has problems ranging from dropped connection and lost connection from sleep.
But now to test my network, running an Airport Extreme base station; its fine ... everybody is fine. Hidden SSID and WPA2 ... even the Dells on the network likes it fine. Its a mystery to me now. I'm considering formating and reinstall on my friend's MBP.

I'm having a similar problem with a Qwest Actiontec gt-701wg with WPA. Every now and then when I close the lid, put the machine to sleep or just start it up from scratch, it fails to see the access point. Then I get the window with open wireless networks that are available. Usually I just cancel that, turn off airport then turn it back on and blam-o! It finds the once forgotten access point. Strange...

Hi - I report a similar problem as well, my connection drops less frequently though. I am using the New MacBook Pro 2.6GHz OS X 10.5.2 and am using BT Broadband and the Wire 2 Router. I thought it might be because I am using MAC address filtering for extra security. It may be also worth mentioning that I don't broadcast the SID. I was using a t-mobile hotspot all weekend with no problems at all, so I think the issue is obviously with specific Routers. I am going to try and override the DHCP lease and input the same info manually to see if that helps. Also will try some suggestions here.

Do you know if using the MAC addressing there are other components to modify?

Reset SMC by shutting down, disconnecting battery and power cord and holding power button for 5 seconds while they are disconnected.

Create a new network location in System Preferences > Network (Location > Edit locations > +)

Check to see if it happens on other networks.

Change the channel on the router.