AirPort gone crazy after 10.5.3

Since the last update a couple of days ago (10.5.5?) airport has been behaving very erratically. Dropping connection, not connecting to my preferred network, even my lists of available networks are showing routers and access points which I know for a fact don't exist!

I haven't experienced this ever before, and it seems that no one here has a solution.

<edited by host>

Thank you! This makes sense!!

I am so frustrated after phoning Applecare telling them that my old iBook (10.3.9) and my new iPhone work FINE but my iMac refuses to connect! Then it tells me my password is invalid (!!!)

The only help I got from Applecare was to do a system upgrade to 10.5.5, well, they didn't tell me to do that, I think they must have done it for me somehow. (I would have preferred if they had suggested I try that at the beginning of my hour long phone call!) That seemed to solve the problem for a day or 2. Now I can't even connect onto my neighbors unlocked internet account!

So if it is a software problem, does anyone know if Apple are sorting it out? I am getting fed up of phoning tech support only to be greeted by someone who is reading from a script!

Despite my utter frustration, I will phone Applecare tomorrow and see what they say about what I have learned here. I must say I get real mad when, after i PAID for after care, the 'support' suggest I come here for answers!! (No offense to you lovely people, but I think you know where I am going with that one..)

Thanks everyone! And it is nice to know it's not just me..

Ok guys....I now have irrefutable proof that this is an Apple software issue related to the "Airport Extreme Update 2008-002" software update. I just spent an hour on the phone with Applecare and proved this. He first had me trash my system preferences, reboot, and create a new network connection. I did as he said and my signal still dropped after all that. He thought that maybe I had a bad airport card (hardware issue)....well, to prove him WRONG we did the following:
Get your OS X 10.5 install disc out, and insert it, reboot...hold down the "c" button on the keyboard while it boots. This will boot the computer from the CD instead of the harddrive. Once you get to the "Welcome" page after it's booted up from the CD, you'll see the wireless bars in the top right corner. Click on that to turn airport on, and join your network. Once joined, you'll see a strong wireless signal. Now just let it sit there for several minutes...like 10 minutes. You'll notice that the signal stays strong without dropping. What this proves, is that the computer is now running it's wireless settings from the install disc, not the harddrive. The install disc does not contain that Airport Extreme Update 2008-002 because the disc was made before that update came out. Booya! That's proof that it's not a hardware issue, or router issue. Since other Macs running 10.5.x are not having this issue, that proves that it is not an OS issue either. It is an Airport Extreme Update software issue, and it only affects intel iMacs. I asked the Applecare guy if they are aware of this issue, and he said that they were. I then asked what they plan on doing about this, and he stated that since it is a software issue, all I can do is wait until they release another update that fixes this. He did not know when this would be. So for now, I just have to live with it. My workaround is to toggle the airport off and back on. This will give me some bars for a few more minutes until it drops again. It's a major PAIN, but I have no other choice right now. Hope this at least sheds a little light on the problem to you guys.

Ok...I'm really ticked off right now. Apple just released the code that is suppose to fix this. Airport Extreme Update 2008-003 was released Today for those running 10.5.5! I just downloaded it, and honestly I think it may be even worst! I get full bars for a minute, and instead of it steadily declining, It just flat drops to 0 bars for a few minutes and then goes back to full bars on it's own. I'm going to keep playing around with this, but I shouldn't have to. They should just fix this properly. When I boot off my install disc and turn on the wireless while running off the disc, I get full bars the entire time. When I boot off the harddrive, it get intermittent connection. This is a software issue, and just the fact that they released this new update is proof that Apple is acknowledging it as a software issue. I'll trash my system preferences and build a new network connection , etc, before I completely give up....but my first impressions are not good. Anyone else having better luck with this update?

Looks like its back to the ol' drawing board for Apple.

This is my first Mac. Not a good way to impress a new customer ...

I worked with Applecare's senior techs last night about this, and confirmed that Airport Extreme Update 2008-003 (or any Airport Extreme Update) actually upgrades the firmware on the airport card. What does that mean? That means that even if you downgrade your OS, it will not fix this problem because the firmware stays on the wireless card's hardware. You will need to either wait for the next firmware to come out and upgrade, or...gasp...send the iMac in to repair to have the wireless card swapped out and downgrade to an OS revision that does not have this firmware bundled in. I'd say maybe 10.5.2. They e-mailed me an Apple log capture application, so I captured the logs and sent them back for review. Once engineering looks over them, hopefully they'll have a better idea of what needs to be fixed. What shocked me the most though was that the senior techs were not familiar with this issue. What that tells me is that not enough people are calling in to Applecare to report this. Please call, and call often. Soon enough, every tech there will know about this issue until it gets fixed!

I have been facing this problem for ages. There is no hope in terms of hardware changes (I am in the 3rd card). It is an OS thing. The only thing that worked for me was to downgrade to 10.5.2 and not upgrade OS for anything. I was keen to test the lastest aiport update and got f ** again. After a lot of research I think I know the problem, and why this issue happens to some wifi-routers while with others it goes fine.

It is everything about the 802.11d specification. My laptop work really fine with brand new cisco APs in my work. At home with my draytek, it suffers like ****. I did some data analysis and discovered that at home I don′t have the country beacon. I get the following error in system log for every failure:

ct 27 20:15:55 localhost mDNSResponder[24]: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default “MacBook-001F5BF54D30” instead
Oct 27 20:15:55 localhost mDNSResponder[24]: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default “MacBook-001F5BF54D30.local” instead
Oct 27 20:15:56 localhost kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Oct 27 20:15:56 localhost kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140
Oct 27 20:15:56 localhost mDNSResponder[24]: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default “MacBook-001F5BF54D30” instead
Oct 27 20:15:56 localhost mDNSResponder[24]: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default “MacBook-001F5BF54D30.local” instead
Oct 27 20:15:57 localhost mDNSResponder[24]: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name; using default “MacBook-001F5BF54D30” instead
Oct 27 20:15:57 localhost mDNSResponder[24]: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default “MacBook-001F5BF54D30.local” instead
Oct 27 20:15:59 localhost kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'JP'.
Oct 27 20:15:59 localhost airportd[365]: FastFinder scanning channels again
Oct 27 20:15:59 localhost kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 52 56 60 64

It seems to keep jumping from country to country. If it is just this, the solution for apple would be really simple, just let users select the country they are in the wifi configuration.

Is there any way to send parameters to the driver when loading it? I would like to fix the country to something and see if the problem is still the.

The thing I really hate about mac os is that instead of having the best of both worlds (power of unix usability of windows), we have the worst (complexity of a Unix and hands ties like in Windows)

Yes, the problem is actually with the "Airport Extreme Update" firmware that gets sent to the wireless card on intel iMacs. I've heard of this issue with all intel desktop Macs, but none for Macbooks. So your issue is news to me. This Airport Extreme update was bundled into 10.5.3 and later, so that is why 10.5.2 works for you. There are others here that reported that they've connected a 3rd party external wireless card (USB), and it works fine. So that proves it's not the OS at fault. It's the Broadcom firmware on the Airport Extreme card that is the cause of this. I was originally running 10.4.11 when I had the problem. It happened immediately after upgrading to the Airport Extreme Update 2008-002 release. I'm now running the OS 10.5.5 to fix it, but it didn't make a difference. The Airport Extreme Update 2008-003 is even worse than 2008-002. I'm now on the 2008-004, and it's slightly better than the -003, but still drops signal. I've been a diehard Mac fan for over 12 years now, and this is the worst bug I've experienced so far. I practically have no internet, and it's been this way since June/July (whenever it was that I upgraded). And my wireless gateway is running 802.11g. So it's not just a problem with the 802.11d standard.

Looks like the new AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004 has fixed this problem, at least for me for the last 2 days (have connected, dropped once, but reconnected without issue.) Has anyone else had success with this?

Thank you to eROCK1, your posts on this subject have been very helpful to me.

I believe I have the same problem - the wireless status indication fades in and out sometimes full signal, sometimes greyed out. When it's greyed out, clicking on the icon shows, "no network selected." Sometimes during this condition if I access the Internet (with mail, a browser or some other application) the Internet access will be successful and the wireless status indication will be dark (ON). I have all the latest software updates (10.5.5, including AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004). My wireless router is an Airport Extreme. I thought this problem started around the time I installed Boot Camp within the last two weeks some time. I did not relate it to an upgrade of the AirPort Extreme, but I don't know for sure.

This is occurring ONLY on my Intel iMac, but NOT on my Intel MacBook or Intel Mac Mini. My iPhone works fine with WiFi also.

Furthermore, wireless reception on the iMac appears to be solid with Windows XP in BootCamp and also works perfectly when booted from an external hard drive with OSX 10.5.1.

I'm not sure what all this proves, other than I don't see how it could be a hardware problem. I'm not sure I agree that it's a firmware problem, since if the firmware is already in the wireless card, why does it work in Boot Camp and from an external drive with a lower version of the OS? Unless the firmware is updated everytime you boot up?

Count me as one who has gone with the 3rd party wireless external card. I would like to be able to use the actual built-in card, but can't wait around for Apple.

Here's a summary of my symptoms and what I've tried.

My current symptoms are:

Most of the time the wireless (Airport) status bars are greyed out and when you click on the icon, it says "no network selected" and it shows a neighbor's network, but not mine - However, in System Preferences the Network page says the status is Connected and shows my network name. Most of the time all applications that use the network, email, browser, etc. work just fine and I was also able to print to the iMac's printer through the wireless network from the Mac Mini. Also, I used Apple's Network Utility.app to ping Comcast's DNS server and it worked fine with the same times as my MacBook which doesn't exhibit any problems.

So, the Airport status says, "no network", but system preferences says "Connected" and the Airport card does seem to be working.

1. Problem occurs on white 20" Intel iMac ONLY. Mac Mini, MacBook and 2 iPhones work FINE.

2. The problem on the iMac ONLY occurs with OSX 10.5.5. The iMac works FINE in Boot Camp running Windows XP, and when booted from an external firewire drive running OSX 10.5.1

3. Turning Airport OFF and then ON shows proper operation of the Airport status icon for a short while.

4. I'm using WPA2 Personal Wireless Security. I had switched from WEP 128 with no change.

5. I'm using an Apple Airport Extreme wireless router, version 7.3.2 in 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible) mode.

6. I used iStumbler to verify that I'm not on top of a neighbor's channel. (I'm using channel 3).

7. I repaired permissions and deleted preference files as mentioned by Kevin Hiscox. This made no difference.

8. I added a different DNS server as recommended by someone. This made no difference.

9. I unplugged my wireless phone. This made no difference.

10. The PROBLEM is occurring on my internal HD with OSX 10.5.5, AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004 (shows up in logs). Wireless card Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.9).

11. The problem does NOT occur when I boot from an external drive with OSX 10.5.1 and Wireless card Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx (4.170.25.8)

As mentioned by eROCK1 here or on another thread, turning Airport OFF and back ON at least temporarily cures the problem. I also agree with eROCK1, now that I verified a different firmware version when the card is working properly (booted from an older version), that the problem is with the Airport card firmware. In any case, I'm quite sure it is a software problem that was created by Apple and should be fixed by Apple.

One thing that puzzles me is that there are people in the different threads that have had this problem since May. I'm 64 and my memory is not a good as it was, but I think I've only had this problem for a few weeks. Since I upgrade immediately whenever there is a new software upgrade, I certainly had the 10.5.3 and 10.5.4 software when everyone else did, yet I'm quite sure that I did not have this problem until recently. The only thing I do remember doing around the time I first noticed this problem was to create a new partition and activate Boot Camp with Windows XP SP3 in it.

Well, last night the problem came back so I guess AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004 does NOT fix this problem after all, at least not completely. I was able to get Airport working however by restoring 2 preference files in the Library Folder on the HD from a time machine backup of an hour earlier. Those files are: Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist & Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

I don't believe this technique was successful before the 2008-004 update.

Many thanks for all your investigations and posts. It certainly seems to explain the problems I've been suffering for some time. I even moved my router and Airport Express base station into the same rooom as my iMac to see if that improved things.
This morning I raced my G3 iBook (10.3.9) against my Intel iMac (10.5.5): sitting next to each other on the same desk, with only iStumbler running on each, the iBook connected to Apple UK's site in 11 secs, while my iMac took 4 mins 13 secs.
I'll get on to Applecare today to hassle them/register my complaint.