MacBook Air periodically 'forgets' its connection to WPA network

Hi,

Have you tried using it at an alternate site that offers free web access? If AirPort can discover and stay connected at such a location without the same issue you're seeing at home/work, I think then you'd at least have eliminated the MBA's internal antenna as the cause, and have it narrowed down to the MBA's Network configuration/software(preferences?).

I just got my Air Saturday and I seem to be having a very similar issue with Airport dropping connection. Airport stays active, I do not need to turn on or off agian, but simply hold/pull down on the menu and watch as it searches for the connection and BAM, its back up and running, sometimes for a minute, sometimes for longer. If I am browsing it does not have the problem, but I was setting up the machine, installing software, and running updates. I think I had to pull down on the Airport menu a dozen times or so just doing the first batch of 10.5.1 system updates from Apple. Related to this dropping, I just couldn't use disk sharing what-so-ever. It just kept dropping before I'd get anywhere during an install. I am going to run in to my office Sunday and see if it can maintain a better connection there!

EB, Maybe this helps in some way. And to anyone reading, help is very much appreciated! Thanks, JO

I am testing the Air at work now (we have a Linksys Wireless G using WPA login) and the connection seems to hold. I have been able to use Remote Disk and also have been able to download large files from a website without dropping. My set-up at home is a Motorola Wireless G cable modem not using login encryption. Thoughts?

Me too! At first it didn't even show an airport but rather an ethernet (?) connection. Created the airport connection as per apple care yet it won't maintain the connection. It keeps dropping out and scanning. I'm on a wireless connection that my other mac uses flawlessly.

I also had hard drive/migration problems that even Apple Care couldn't figure out. Should I consider trading machines? Many thanks for any help

At first it didn't even show an airport but rather an ethernet (?) connection.

"At first"???

How do you account for that, considering that your MBA does not have ethernet capabilities??? I'm guessing you mean not really "at first" but "after ... ..."

I also had hard drive/migration problems that even Apple Care couldn't figure out.

Your issue is obviously a software issue, of your own making, not a hardware issue. I can figure out your problem even if someone at AppleCare can not - you migrated software to your MBA that does not belong there.

The question is should Apple consider trading machines? I don't think so, but since it's a new product and they evidently forgot to include the "User Guide" with your MBA...

Erase your hard drive completely and reinstall OS X.

not using login encryption

What's that all about? Why not use encryption? Is your router's firmware not up to date?

"However, after a couple of minutes all of my internet services abruptly go away. Shared volumes are lost and I am unable to open any web pages. However, my airport indicates that I am still connected to the router. Turning airport off and back on temporarily relieves the problem, which always resurfaces in a minute or two."

I have similar problems and find this very irritating since my 5 year old iBook always worked like a charm standing on the same place with the same network.

Whatever, listen I am not mister tech -- that's why I am looking for help! I mean that my router at home is setup so that you do not have to enter a code to use it -- whatever that is called (WPA)!

Many thanks for the reply but it showed an ethernet connection before I ever migrated anything...ie new out of the box. The AppleCare guys weren't so surprised...apparently have seen it on other boxes too. They talked me through adding airport to the device list and we got that working. They had a plausible explanation on why it did that but I was so happy to see an airport connection that (as I am sure you would expect) I didn't pay enough attention to repeat it accurately here. What they could not resolve was the repeated dropping of the connection (all this before I migrated.) I reinstalled OS X unsuccessfully 3 times, with apple care's help, before giving up and putting disk 2 in without a prompt which apparently completed the install. Apple Care seemed happy with that.

I migrated by myself following all prompts and I am sure you may be correct and I screwed that up somehow but it does not explain the hardware issues I had out of the box, brand new, unaltered by me and not of my making. Which is why I queried the hardware.

many thanks again for your suggestions

The migration was after all this and I did it on my own, following all instructions and prompts

This is a HUGE issue. I cannot stay connected to my WPA but I can to my WEP. I have been unable to stay connected to any WiFi I attempt to connect to.

I doubt whether using WEP or no encryption really solves the problem for when I started working with the MBA and transferred the users from my iBook it has worked with no problem whatsoever until about 2 days ago.

So, I rather feel all is caused by some update.

If that's the case, you can check your update log for possible suspects.

Useless! it only tells you that an update (like "mm-dd-yy hh:ss mac OS X-update 10.5.1" and a whole lot of others) has been done.

It does not reveal any detail and worse(!) Apple still has (in contrary to MS XP!!!!!) no simple way of reverting an update.


The latter (not being able to revert a system update) has been a negative on Apple's part now for many many years. With MS system I simple click "System restore", choose the date I want and presto in seconds I am at that point backwards in time.


Now, the only way to do a system restore is to install the system from scratch but this is not feasable on a MBA since it one has to do that using Wifi which has clearly become unreliable.