Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

nobhill-

You have several problems showing.

You are using Channel 5 in the 2.4GHz band. There are only THREE Channels in that band, and it is subject to interference from microwave ovens, baby monitors, other Routers, certain portable phones, and Bluetooth devices.

RSSI (Signal Strenghth) of -67 is a bit low, can you move the Router closer to the computer?

There is a table in this article with some guidance:

User tip: AirPort - Optimal Base Station Placement by Tesserax

Transmit Rate of 54 is the highest it can be on that channel using 802.11g. But the standard Channlels are 1, 6, and 11, which spill two channels up and two channels down. So you have shoehorned in between established channels to get through. Middle chart below

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from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11

You have far too many other networks visible (12) for reliable operation on the three channels available. Your neighbors are contributing to the interference.

You should get a dual-band Router right away to add six to twelve additional channels and get away from all those other networks.

marc1gs-

That one is a bit different. There you are still using 802.11n, which means there are only about two clear channels. Your signal strength is higher (numbers closer to zero), but the Transmit speed is lower -- 72 out  of 150, so this must be seeing more interference.

Are all the networks listed your networks? If so, you are fighting with yourself over Channel 1. If you could allow the Routers to choose their least busy Channel (set the Router Channel to "automatic") they would spread themsleves out to less busy channels every time they were Reset.

Also, if you give all the networks the same password and the same name, they would form one "roaming Network" and give you the best possible connection available at any given time.

So I've been having the same problem and I did not read all of the 134 pages but I read a lot. And tried different things and nothing seems to work. But what I've read is that people have this problem at all locations where they try to connect to the internet, am I right? Now I've got a new workplace and I installed a TP-Link for everybody who works there. Nobody has a problem except for me. I only have this problem at this workplace. It keeps losing the connection and if I reconnect it works for several minutes. Is there anybody who has tips for me (in layman's terms)?

Greets,

Johannes

Save your time and money. All you need to do is buy a wifi USB dongle. Search amazon "edimax wifi USB adaptor"

This will save you reading through all the rest of this crap!

Hi Grant,

I have tried switching the channel, resetting and rebooting my router, reconfiguring the settings, changing security.. Nothing seems to work.. I have 3 MBP's at home and am wondering if there is no solution !! Any suggestions?

Greenpro-

Your Mac is seeing a good strong signal at -52, so your reception is good.

Using the 802.11g mode, channels -1, 0, 1, 2, and 3, are all being used for ONE 54g Channel, Channels 4, 5, 6, 7,and 8 are being used for another, and Channels 9,10, 11,12, and 13 are being used for the third. So you have not changed the Channel to a better place. Setting it for "automatic" generally gives the best possible results, but you can manually try 1, 6, and 11 to see if you get better results manually.

Your transmit rate of 54 out of 54 indicates that interference is not causing slowdown.

A single Base Station should be able to support 50 devices if there is not too much interference. You have only one competing Network.

I really hope someone can help me. I've read through the first dozen pages and the last dozen pages, but not all 134 pages.

My Mac never had problems staying continuously connected to my ancient Motorola wifi box. I recently replaced it with a Zyxel PK5001Z and now my wifi connection drops at seemingly random times. My old network had no security, but my new one uses WPA2 Personal.

I think my hardware is fine because when I use Boot Camp for Windows 7 I have no problems. Only when I'm using 10.8.4 do I have problems.

I've followed every suggestion I've read (except that last guy who said to buy a USB dongle...) but none have helped.

- Delete plist files and reboot.

- Delete network from Keychain Access.

- Renew DHCP lease

- Configure IPv6 for local-link only. (It's back to Automatic now.)

- Make sure wifi box channel is "Automatic."

- Try 802.11g and then 802.11n. (Both had the same problem. Right now my wifi box is set to automatically choose. It picked 802.11n.)

- Rename wifi network and set a new password.

There are no other wifi networks in range. The houses where I live are all pretty far apart. There are 3 devices on this wifi network: Mac, Android phone, Android tablet.

Screenshot of my Option+Click:

http://i.imgur.com/zcjE7bv.png

PHY Mode: 802.11n

BSSID: b2:b2:dc:9d:33:20

Channel: 8 (2.4 GHz)

Security: WPA2 Personal

RSSI: -63

Transmit Rate: 144

MCS Index: 15

I'll greatly appreciate any further configuration suggestions. Thank you for your time.

Signal strength of -63 is good, not great.

802.11n and a speed over 72 means you are using a 40Mhz Channel, which spreads over nearly half the available Channels (see the third chart in Red from Wikipedia, above). If you have several other Networks visible, this will give you interference from neighboring Routers.

One theory is that the problem with losing (or not re-establishing) connectivity may be related to Apple's constant re-evaluation of what is the "best" available network. This may be helpful in a campus or corporate Networking environment where multiple Routers from the same Network are visisble and usable, but is not helpful in a busy Home Network environment, where other Routers represent interference, not alternative connections.

So if you have a lot of other networks visible, you should consider getting a Dual-Band Router, which adds 6 to 12 additional channels in the 5GHz band.

Thank you, but if that is the case, why does this problem not happen with sons's MacBook Pros when they are using them in the same room as me at the same time?

Surely that indicates a problem with my MacBook Pro, not the way the wifi is set up.

Dashzap-

Please post what you get by holding down Option and clicking on the WiFi icon on the MenuBar. It will look similar to this:

What do you get for PHY mode?

Channel?

RSSI?

Transmit Rate?

How many other networks do you see?

.

Hsfromnsw,

What exactly will this do and which one would you recommend?

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=edimax+wireless+usb+adapter&tag=googhy dr-20&index=electronics&hvadid=25188672621&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=102 16047916598768121&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5i9kilyn7w_b

chefcarolb-

Still no issue using Firefox!!  When I try to use Safari it's FREEZE CITY!

Do not buy any of these to fix your WiFi problem, because you do not appear to be having a WiFi problem at all.

If it works with FireFox, your WiFi is working correctly, and your Safari setup or plug-ins are the problem.

So I have had this problem (WIFI not working, "Hardware not installed", WIFI not turning on) for six months and have had to connect my macbook pro to the internet via ethernet cable which as you can image was very restrictive :/

I have had numerous laptop technicans befuddled by this WIFI problem and most concluding with how my WIFI card must be broken and that I will need to buy a new one. The last suggestion I had on the matter was to buy a USB wifi dongle.

So I ended up buying this one, http://www.asus.com/nz/Networking/USBN10_NANO/ Unfortunately my macbook pro didn't want to read the install disc and it didn't autorun so it didn't work. After reading more forums I saw that you could download the program from the net and sure enough it worked.. BUT STRANGER when I took the USB dongle out the WIFI was still working!! The program appears to have reminded my four year old macbook pro that it is indeed WIFI capable.

So to find this miraculous program its located here http://www.asus.com/nz/Networking/USBN10_NANO/HelpDesk_Download/

Same link as above just under SUPPORT>Driver&Tools

You then click on a file when its downloaded and a file called MAC will appear, then click on install. Within 5 minutes you should have your WIFI back. My macbook pro crashed again today but without having to get the shortest ethernet cable you've ever seen out again - I was able to install the program again and WIFI was up and running once more. Moral of the story - didn't need to spend any money to fix this and not even using the USB dongle.

So happy!!

Bottom line: my WIFI problem was fixed after I replaced the cable connecting my wireless card to the motherboard!!!

Although the the causes of the problems can vary depending on each specific case, I suspect that many people had the same problem as mine!

Keep reading to find out more details.

Like many of the folks who came to this forum, I had the WIFI not working problem for almost half a year too! Here were my symptoms:

- At the beginning, my WIFI would suddenly stop working, the WIFI icon on my Macbook Pro became empty without any bars. The wifi would not restore no matter what I try, unless I restart my laptop.

- After have this problem for a while, I started to see "Hardware not installed" problem. Sometimes a reboot would solve the problem, sometimes it couldn't. Many folks attribute this to a software or OS problem, but to me, since my WIFI would suddenly stopping working while everything else was normal, it seemed more like a hardware problem. The "Hardware not installed" message was also supporting my guess.

- Nonetheless, I tried everything I could to solve the problem, including lots of software- or OS-wise resttings. None of them really worked. Some of them seemed to work after retbooting, but it was unclear if those were due to the reboot it self or not.

Finally, I happened to read some posts regarding the WIFI cable that was connecting to my motherboard and the wireless card. Several people got the problem fixed after replacing the cable. But as many had pointed out, this could be due to either the cable, or the wifi card. I therefore tested my wireless card while it was functioning, by opening my macbook pro while it was running, and carefully disconnecting the wireless antennas and the wireless cable one by one. It turned out that I only lost my wifi when the wireless cable was disconnected; WIFI signal was weak but existent when all antennas were disconnected. This was the same too my bluetooth as well, despite that my bluetooth never had any problems. So after those tests, it appeared to me that it was my cable that was causing the WIFI problem, especially the "Wireless card not installed" problem.

So after so much frustrations with different types of wifi USB dongles (none was compatible with 801.1X enterprise authentication), I decided to replace the wireless card cable. I bought one replacement cable from eBay, and followed the instructions on iFixit.com. After replacing the cable, my wifi was recovered and I have not had any problems for 3 months since then!

So bottomline: it is very likely a loose cable issue rather than a software issue for most people. Replace your wireless cable or, in a worse scenario, your wireless card, then you will likely solve the problem.

Good luck everyone!

Hi,

Your problem seems to be related to TP-link.

I bought a TP-link N300 router to replace my old Linksys router when I was diagnosing my wireless card problem. But it turned out that the TP-link router is not very campatible with my macbook pro.  I lost connection every few minutes, and my wifi speed was sporatic. I only found this out after my macbook's wifi was fixed. So I switched back to my old Linksys router is haven't had a problem since then.

So I'd suggest using a different type of router and try again!

Good luck!