Level 1

0 points

Strange MacBook Wifi problem...

Hi there;

I bought brand new aluminum MacBook just a few days ago. I have a Wifi setup at home which working with several Windows computers and also with my old iBook G4 without any problems. New MacBook have problem even to see network. What is strange that I test MacBook on three other locations and it is working without flaws. One location uses same router model as I have (Vigor2900VG). I had one day when I can use wifi for whole day here but that been only once.

It doesn't see even other networks in the neighborhood but only here in one particular location. I investigated in the system log and I found this:

Nov 24 22:31:39 klifton kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Nov 24 22:31:39 klifton 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
Nov 24 22:31:39 klifton kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'SY'.
Nov 24 22:31:39 klifton kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 149 153 157 161
Nov 24 22:31:40 klifton kernel[0]: directed SSID scan fail
Nov 24 22:31:47 klifton airportd[2499]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Nov 24 22:31:47 klifton airportd[2499]: Already scanned all remembered channels for "sad"; not found.
Nov 24 22:31:47 klifton airportd[2499]: Could not find any preferred networks; trying broadcast requests..
Nov 24 22:31:48 klifton airportd[2499]: Broadcast requests also failed..
Nov 24 22:31:49 klifton airportd[2499]: Probing highest ranked networks via directed scan..

It seems that wifi card is set to some strange country and it start to use channels which my router doesn't have. Do anybody have experience with this?

I tried all basic things like changing channels on router. Switched to different standards (b,g,mixed). Play around with security settings etc.
Marian

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 24, 2008 2:41 PM

26 replies

baro69

Level 1

5 points

Dec 8, 2008 11:59 AM in response to baro69

funny thing:
i tested it at another location and had no problem at all. When I returned to the "problematic" location the wifi worked flawlessly on both notebooks. The "county code" issue just disappeared.
I have not done any changes to wifi routers (there are three in here) nor did I change anything on any of the notebooks (no new updates, no new software installed, nothing)

Now it is the second day and airport works.

baro69

Level 1

5 points

Dec 31, 2008 4:57 AM in response to Kvargla

Hello again,

If you have still problems with the "SY" country code, you might find helpful a little script I have created. It will turn off and on the AirPort card until the country code is different from "SY". Usually this takes approximately 3 to 5 interface resets.

Open up "terminal" and browse to the directory where the script is located. type "chmod +x AirPort.sh" -> this will make the script executable. This is only needed once. Then type "sudo ./AirPort.sh" -> You will be asked for your password. Now just wait few seconds until the script finishes. You should now be able to browse WiFi networks until your next reboot / wake from sleep.

Enjoy, Hope it helps..

http://rapidshare.com/files/178437123/AirPort.zip.html

Dec 31, 2008 6:58 AM in response to Kvargla

Try re-installing the WI-FI driver on the computer.

~ Harris

baro69

Level 1

5 points

Jan 1, 2009 12:46 PM in response to maclover009

How do I do that ?

Even though I don't think it would help I would like to give it a try.

Jan 2, 2009 1:19 AM in response to baro69

I have the same problem with switching to 'SY'. I have tried script you provided, but it did not work. It reported that the airport was started with X3 country code, but when I check the system.log, the 'SY' is still there.
Did you found any other workaround or solution to this problem? Is it possible to override the "change country code" command?

baro69

Level 1

5 points

Jan 2, 2009 2:01 AM in response to matejvanco

I haven't come across any command to change the country code directly. It would be absolutely great if something like this existed.

As for the script, it was made by me and it is working fine with my notebook. Probably you could try to alter it a little bit. Open it with any text editor and find lines 27 and 29. There you will find two sleep commands. The number behind the command stand for seconds. I'd recommend changing the numbers to something higher so that the script would wait a bit more until it executes checking for the proper country code.

phr3ak

Level 1

4 points

Feb 8, 2009 8:42 PM in response to baro69

the file has been erased. Can you reupload it please?

Rasto

Level 1

8 points

Mar 4, 2009 12:46 AM in response to baro69

Could you please reupload the file again? It was done under the account allowing only 10 downloads... thx

baro69

Level 1

5 points

Apr 15, 2009 12:44 PM in response to Rasto

here's the link

http://www.edisk.sk/stahnout-soubor/58176/AirPort.sh_842B.html

or

http://files.filefront.com/AirPortsh/;13604872;/fileinfo.html

Message was edited by: baro69

westykid

Level 1

4 points

Apr 29, 2009 9:03 AM in response to Kvargla

I have this exact same problem with my white macbook 2.4ghz here in the UK. The wireless connection keeps randomly dropping upon which a whole boat load of country code changes occurr. Here is an example from my system.log following a recent failure:

Note: Frequent transitions for interface en1 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:0223:12FF:FE02:FCF6); network traffic reduction measures in effect
Apr 29 14:25:20 localhost kernel[0]: WLC E_COUNTRY_CODECHANGED
Apr 29 14:25:20 localhost kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Apr 29 14:25:20 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
Apr 29 14:25:22 localhost kernel[0]: WLC E_COUNTRY_CODECHANGED
Apr 29 14:25:22 localhost kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'JP'.
Apr 29 14:25:22 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

I am in the UK, not Japan!

My iphone 3G, Powerbook (1.33 G4), and Macbook Pro (2.2) all connect and stay connected flawlessly. The problem has existed since new (3 months+) and I have been fighting with Apple support ever since - interestingly, when booting XP (sp3) froom Bootcamp I have no problem.

I too use a Draytek router (Vigor 2800G). All I can assume is that some how, there is an incompatibility issue with OS X wireless on some newer Macbooks and Macbook Pros which is software (OS X) related.

Jul 28, 2009 12:17 AM in response to westykid

I solved this issue, by having my accessPoint NOT use channel 12-13, wich are channels not supported by my mac (apperantly).

I dont know how to do it on other brands, but on my Cisco AP, I used the "channel" command to exclude the two channels.

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Strange MacBook Wifi problem...