Q: MacBook Pro constantly losing wireless connectivity

I have the same problem and its so annoying and frustrating.  I tried changing my settings but it drops literally every darn minute.  I feel like slamming this laptop into a brick wall or snapping it in half, but obviously after paying 1700 for this laptop-- it wouldn't be a smart idea.  I hope they fix this laptop, in the mean time I will be informing people I know about this problem because its so annoying!

I had the same issue. And did this that i posted https://discussions.apple.com/message/15513946#15513946

You can try to see what happens

Add me to the long list of tortured MacBook Pro wireless users.

I cannot see how anyone can doubt that this is an OSX/Airport issue. I travel frequently and I encounter this problem again and again on a variety of good quality routers (it all began in November 2010). I am moderately successful with a number of the work-arounds that are posted all over the Internet.

At present, with a brand new NetGear WNR2000v3, my MBP goes kooky if I try to apply a password to the network. I will again find a work around. However, it is tedious and so reminiscent of Windows behavior.

I have lost many hours on this issue. And Apple has lost the confidence they once enjoyed from me.

My intuition tells me that nothing is being done because Apple wants to promote their own (over-priced) products by making the competitions' products so incompatible.

Shame on you Apple for not addressing this widespread problem.

It's not that it's definitively not a Mac OS X issue so much as it's likely to be a router or configuration issue given the literally millions of Mac users using their machines with multiple router vendors' products daily with no issues at all.

All those people I see using their Macs daily in airports, coffee shops, hotels, corporate environments and so on aren't doing so via Apple routers.

So the obvious solution is for me to get rid of my current $2,500 MacBook Pro, buy a fresh one, and hope I become one of the lucky millions.

Shame on me for not thinking of that!

Actually, all I need to do is get an Apple router. Hey, maybe that's what they wanted me to do in the first place!

Heyy I have had the same problem with my new 15'' MBP to :/ However i have updated it this week and my wireless connection seams to be working great now. I never used to get much signal in my room now i get full bars and my room is miles away from my bt home hub Hope this helps on Mac osx 10.8.6

Upgrading software to 10.6.8 seems to have helped quite a i bit.  Oterh devices on network are now more stable also.  I presume JDTWAT meant 10.6.8 rather 10.8.6?

2011 MacBook Pro 17", 2.3GHz Intel Core i7, 10.6.8

- doesn't consistently remember my saved network (WPA2 Personal).  i have to re-join the same network, and every time i do, i  select the "remember this network" checkbox. when it does happen, it mostly happens when opening the lid from sleeping, but sometimes also after rebooting. occasionally i can disable/re-enable airport from the system icon and it works.

- on two occasions, airport failed to even detect the network adapter. i had to reboot twice before it gave me any option to connect to wireless, at which point i had to re-join my saved network. /var/log/system.log showed errors around not being able to read the interfaces.

- searching on the web shows that this is a problem that appears to go years back to the original macbook pro line, and continues to be a problem

I am an experienced technical professional. This is my first mac, and although I am very much liking it, these fundamental network problems are making me re-think that $3k was worth the investment.

OK. So I got an Airport Extreme. (I had the fortune to be able to get a next-to-new one from a friend for a very good price).

Guess what? More or less the same connectivity problems.

I can only conclude that there is something wrong with my MBP. There must be a corrupt file somewhere, or some conflict, or …

What a drag.

(iPad is also having difficulties)

To mapar70: Maybe a PC running Linux is the way to go if you want a computer that will connect reliably to the internet. What do you say?

There maybe some tips here:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10331876-263.html

A pretty thorough overview of the problem.

@mapar70:

I was wondering why the interfaces may be disappearing. Especially since you have a new MBP from 2011. Mine is from May of 2010.

I have found at one point issues with the blue tooth interface not showing up, but this hasn't happened until about a year after purchase.

I had to go through the steps to reset the SMC:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

And my problem went away.

Also, I have a working theory about using b/g wireless and bluetooth together. My Macbook Pro is located very near the Airport Extreme dual-band. Bluetooth and b/g both transmit on 2.5ghz and they do interfere with one another from time to time. The only reason why we even need b/g (2.5ghz) on our network is for the iPhones to connect to wifi. I use the wifi on my iPhone 4 sparingly as a result. Wireless N is no issue otherwise.

But try the reset of the SMC and see if that helps.

Your mileage may vary....

Mark

Won't help.  I have the same intermittent problem with my Airport Extreme and 10.6.8.

StephTizio wrote:

 

To mapar70: Maybe a PC running Linux is the way to go if you want a computer that will connect reliably to the internet. What do you say?

I'm not quite ready to give up. I'm still loving the MBP, it's just an inconvenience to have to reconnect. The MBP hardware is fantastic. I've considered installing linux as a second boot to see how it performs, but I am skeptical that linux (or any other OS) will give me the same battery life even on the same hardware.

I've discovered that whenever the network isn't recognized after lifting the lid, I can close the lid and re-open it, and it reconnects every time.

This may be a timing-related issue. For example, maybe the keychain isn't getting my WPA2 credentials until after the network connect timer expires(?)

William Kucharski wrote:

 

It's not that it's definitively not a Mac OS X issue so much as it's likely to be a router or configuration issue given the literally millions of Mac users using their machines with multiple router vendors' products daily with no issues at all.

 

All those people I see using their Macs daily in airports, coffee shops, hotels, corporate environments and so on aren't doing so via Apple routers.

No Bill, this is pretty definitively a MacOS X issue because none of the other equipment that connects to my WAPs suffers from this problem. Additionally when I enable debugging on the Airport I can see error messages about coming out of power save mode that lead me to believe that this is either a problem with the 802.11 framework in MacOS X or with the Broadcom chipsets used in Apple products or with some interaction between them.  This is a really stupid comment on your part, it's incredibly dumb. Seriously, would you argue that because millions of people drove a Ford Pinto without being burned alive that there wasn't a problem with the gasoline tanks? Or perhaps you'd argue that since millions of people took Vioxx without having fatal heart attacks within the first two weeks of taking the drug that there wasn't a problem with Vioxx. Or perhaps you'd argue that since millions of people ate at Jack in the Box back in the early 1990s without contracting fatal E. Coli infections that there weren't any problems with the food handing procedures at Jack in the Box or with the quality of the beef they were buying.

I think that this problem has to do with the Broadcom chipsets in the Macbooks and how they handle power save mode. I think that the chipset goes into power save mode when the OS goes to sleep and then doesn't wake up when the system wakes up.