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menajemh Author

Level 1

0 points

macbook air airport disconnecting solution for lots of people.

This kind of solution u will find it on many topics in this forum, just i wanted to make it available for all of u that are having the drop wireless connection. sorry for my english.

Go to System Preferences/Network/Airport/Advanced and under the TCP/IP tab change the Configure IPv6 to "off". Use WPA encryption, no WEP, i had this problem of dropping the wireless connection on my macbook pro, my imac and my macbook air, then changed this configuration and no more problems.

I use a netgear router, changed router channel to 6, WPA encryption.

I do not know if this is a Leopard problem or routers problems, and is not our job to do this, it's Apple's. We have to make apple know about this problem and help one each other on the best way we can. i've seen lots of people that have airport routers from apple and they are experiencing this issue also. so i believe we have to set things under last standards most frequently used. This kind of dropping connection happened to me everywhere till now, that i fixed those configurations.

Please post other solutions or details that may help others.
Thanks

imac intel core duo, MBP, MBA, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Mar 18, 2008 8:12 AM

70 replies

menajemh Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 23, 2008 4:06 PM in response to Kurt Anglese

i think the ipv6 thing is some kind of security encryption and is v6 cause is on the 6th version. i believe is not standard yet cause this is causing to us a lot of problems, not only to macbook air, also macbook pro, imacs, or others that upgraded to leopard. keeping on a channel is to avoid getting on interference with other channels, who knows, maybe the automatic does not work properly. the rest i don't know but i got all this searching on the discussions. really think we have a major problem with network on leopard and also on tiger 10.4.11

natn2208

Level 1

0 points

Apr 24, 2008 2:20 AM in response to menajemh

I did as instructed, and now the home PC appears under 'Shared'. The only problem is every time I try to open it it says 'Connection Failed'. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the PC, or what. Don't suppose someone can help with this?
But either way, thanks for the help, because at the very least, I'm now one step closer!!!

jacoch

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2008 2:32 AM in response to menajemh

Not really. IPv6 is the successor of IPv4. Currently, an IP address use the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where each block can be from 0 to 255. Unfortunately, with the extensive use of IP addresses (almost every single phone can connect to a network), ISPs start to be short of available IP blocks. That's why IPv6 has been created. But to work properly, you either need to have all network devices support IPv6, or have one of the router doing IPv6/IPv4 translation. Currently, there are no providers supporting IPv6 (at least in our country). So you can for example use IPv6 internally and have your internet gateway do the translation when connecting to Internet. This scenario is possible if all your internal devices are IPv6 compatible. But there are big chances that you are still using IPv4 only. So disabling IPv6 in that situation has no effect. More information on IPv6 here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipv6).

May 16, 2008 10:26 PM in response to menajemh

My MBA stopped seeing the Airport Express at all. It sees other networks in the building, but not mine. I have restarted the Airport Express, the MBA, tried through Airport Utility, nothing. Both my iPhone and my old PB see the Airport Express without any glitch. The PB runs 1.5.2, just like the MBA, has IPv6 enabled and WEP encryption - but it works.

Do you have any idea what to do in this case?
Thanks a lot!

May 24, 2008 11:13 PM in response to menajemh

I just tried everything (change channel, wpa, Ipv6) and it looks to work fine in the last 30 minutes. Is the first time in 3 weeks that my MBA is connected so long! Thanks for the advise, I will let you know what happen next tuesday from my office.
This is my first MAC and I am dissapointed with internet going in and out ! Never happen to me with my PC.
THANKS

May 25, 2008 7:40 AM in response to TheMiz

TheMiz wrote:
I have never used Wi-Fi outside my house

I leave for Mexico on Saturday and I planned on taking the MBA
I have no clue what I have to do to use the Wi-Fi at the hotel

Any tips ?

If you're sure the hotel has wireless, when you get to the hotel, first look for some instructions about their network name and how to log in. Then click the little Airport antenna "fan" in your top memu bar, which should create a drop-down with all the available nets listed. Click the one for the hotel to connect, and enter a password if asked. If not password protedted, your wireless transmission will be "in the clear" and theoretically 'anyone' with the right software could read what your sending and receiving, so be a little cautious.

In my experience (in America) the wireless net probably isn't password protected but you'll have to go to some web site to log into a server with your guest information, and that will be the gateway to the internet.

Travel safe!

Jul 2, 2008 7:14 PM in response to Kurt Anglese

This is an update to my earlier post where I thought this was the solution.

The problem returned a few days later. The iPv6 thing probably didn't do anything and it just started working again for a while by chance. I'm back to getting disconnected everytime the iMac (running Tiger 10.4.11) sits idle for more than about 5 minutes. However, I only need to go up to the top right on the signal menulet and reselect my network signal. What could be causing this to loose connection and dim (gray out) the signal bars.

Jul 4, 2008 2:35 PM in response to jmvicaria

Completely switched to Apple...MBA, iMac, iPhone, Time Capsule, Apple TV. Now my MBA can't find the home network!

How do you change channels on the Time Capsule or Modem?

Jul 18, 2008 5:39 AM in response to ifan369

Glad to hear that some of you have resolved the problem by specifying which channel your router & MBA connect on.

However, I travel for business which is why I bought the MBA. I cannot have every hotel, airport, customer, trade show, etc configure their router to channel 1. Quite frankly, if I was only using my machine on my home router, why buy an MBA, the MBP isn't that heavy that I cannot carry it from the kitchen to the den!

Apple needs to resolve this not ignore it. Claim what they want about the spec but they seem to not have the issue with any of their other equipment. My entire office uses MBPs and I use an MBA, I am the only one with a problem.

1Peter

Level 1

0 points

Jul 21, 2008 5:28 AM in response to menajemh

try this:

look in your

system prefs -> accounts -> login items

for something called realplayer downloader.

if it's there delete it.

reboot. et voila?

I ran around in circles with this, til I talked to an L2 (or 3) Mac tech person who has been on this particular issue and recommended this fix. apparently this little daemon runs and continuously asks for updates, which freaks out the network, and then the your network doesn't want to talk to the machine running it anymore.

good luck!

mzn

Level 1

0 points

Aug 20, 2008 4:48 AM in response to menajemh

menajemh,

thanks for the posting. I just purchased this MBP and received it yesterday. Experiencing intermittent disruptions in connectivity using Airport with my d-link dir-625 wireless router. Using WPA-personal and 802.11N. 2 PCs work perfectly so I doubt its the router. Status bar claims that Airport is still on and connected, but no TCP traffic. I turn airport off, then on, and all worked again for another unpredictable period of time. Upsetting. I am evaluating this for a customer that wants to use this exact MBP configuration for 9 people. There is no way I can recommend this product. Support rep was nice but clearly a novice and had me answer questions that had nothing to do with it.

I plan to dig deeper, but time is money and will probably send this machine back to them.

-Mike

CateinTo

Level 1

4 points

Aug 20, 2008 9:39 AM in response to mzn

Hi ... someone mentioned the constant scanning -- my airport is also constantly scanning, at home and on other wifi signals, and periodically dropping. I tried the turning off of the V6 thingy and changed the channel on my airport extreme to 9, but I'm still getting the constant scanning. It's like it can't fix on a signal or something. I've only noticed this to be such an issue since I upgraded to leopard. I do not have the realplayer login item someone mentioned upthread. ANy other thoughts?

mzn

Level 1

0 points

Aug 20, 2008 4:17 PM in response to CateinTo

Hi ... well here are some new findings from my efforts today:

1) Even when I have an established/working connection, my Airport monitor still toggles back and forth between the "on" / "scan" status. The Apple Support Rep claims this is correct behavior.

2) I went into my router's wireless settings and changed from mixed mode (i.e. automatic support for 802.11 b/g/n) and forced it to be ONLY 802.11g. I was connecting at 100+mbits using "n", now with "g" I am at 50+mbits (not liking that).

The result, after changing to "g" only, is actually good, despite the slower connection speed. I did NOT have one disconnect for over 8 hours and I was running Terminal Server Client over a PPTP-VPN the whole time. Again, not happy about running at 1/2 the speed, but I see now that there must be a poor implementation of "n" on the MBP or the router. Which devise to blame, I have not yet determined.

After reading this topic over once more, I see there are likely more than 1 problem experienced.

Will report back as I uncover more.

-Mike

Aug 20, 2008 8:12 PM in response to mzn

The only solution that worked for me was setting up a separate router for 802.11n only. Then connecting the MBA in WPA2 mode to the router. It has worked perfectly. The airport will not keep going into scanning mode. It shows scanning for a few seconds then shows I'm connected. This never happened when I was on a 802.11b/g router.

This isn't a good solution though. Hot spots in hotels and other public places are generally 802.11b/g so the MBA isn't a laptop I can count on when I travel. I forgot about this on my last trip but luckily there was a AT&T 3G signal in the hotel.

Regards-Michael G.

mzn

Level 1

0 points

Aug 22, 2008 10:16 AM in response to mgerbasio

I am going to call Apple Support this evening to see if there is a way to force the Airport client to stay in a 'g', 'b', or 'n' mode exclusively. I do not see settings to allow this (like you can on the PC). If so, I believe we can create meaningful test cases.

BTW: When I click the status icon and get the drop-down menu, I too see a moment of "scan" status and then it switches to "on" (and remains in the "on" state until lose focus and click again). When I had my router set for Auto-detect b/g/n, the status would constantly toggle back and forth between the "on" and "scan" state. ....for what ever that piece of info is worth 😉

-Mike

macbook air airport disconnecting solution for lots of people.