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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

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Posted on Nov 26, 2008 9:53 AM

Very interesting. The Beacon and the Association response contains the Information Element to instruct the wireless station about the country code. Knowing the country codes helps the wireless station know what 802.11 channels, data rates and power transmit levels it can use.

Can you please try the following and post back?

Turn off your AirPort then go to the system log, go to Utilities (command - shift - U), then select console. In console click on the triangle next to LOG FILES and click on the system.log. Then in Utilities open terminal and issue the following command:

sudo ipconfig setverbose 1
You will be prompted for your password

This command will turn on more debugging.

Note the last entry in your system log.

Turn on your AirPort and wait for it to disconnect. Then copy everything from the last systemlog entry you noted and post it.
26 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 26, 2008 9:53 AM in response to Kvargla

Very interesting. The Beacon and the Association response contains the Information Element to instruct the wireless station about the country code. Knowing the country codes helps the wireless station know what 802.11 channels, data rates and power transmit levels it can use.

Can you please try the following and post back?

Turn off your AirPort then go to the system log, go to Utilities (command - shift - U), then select console. In console click on the triangle next to LOG FILES and click on the system.log. Then in Utilities open terminal and issue the following command:

sudo ipconfig setverbose 1
You will be prompted for your password

This command will turn on more debugging.

Note the last entry in your system log.

Turn on your AirPort and wait for it to disconnect. Then copy everything from the last systemlog entry you noted and post it.

Nov 27, 2008 1:50 PM in response to DrVenture

I tried all this but it doesn't help. My router have frequency domain set to Europe and cannot be set do different country. I tried to disable mixed mode and try to run router in b and d mode. What is interesting is that I cannot see any other networks in my neighborhood even when I switch router off.

After I switch on and off airport several times I can see network list for a short period of time but then never when airport is set to SY country. It seems to me that this is a kind of interference with something in this place only. On all other locations airport working properly (I tested 4 locations).

Nov 27, 2008 1:53 PM in response to DrVenture

Here is log in verbose mode:

Nov 27 22:41:13 klifton sudo[163]: mstepka : TTY=ttys001 ; PWD=/Users/mstepka ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/ipconfig setverbose 1
Nov 27 22:41:13 klifton configd[14]: IPConfiguration: verbose mode enabled
Nov 27 22:41:13 klifton configd[14]: IPConfiguration logfile '/var/log/com.apple.IPConfiguration.bootp' opened
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Nov 27 22:41:30 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 12
8 132 136 140
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton airportd[164]: FastFinder scanning channels again
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'SY'.
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 149 153 157 161
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton airportd[164]: Could not find "klifton"
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton airportd[164]: Already scanned all remembered channels for "sad"; not found.
Nov 27 22:41:30 klifton airportd[164]: Could not find any preferred networks; trying broadcast requests..
Nov 27 22:41:31 klifton airportd[164]: Broadcast requests also failed..
Nov 27 22:41:32 klifton airportd[164]: Probing highest ranked networks via directed scan..

No new information.

Nov 28, 2008 2:12 AM in response to DrVenture

It seems that Airport switch to 5Ghz band. Those channels are allowed in China and Singapore. My router does not have that band.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listof_WLANchannels

I suspect that there is some kind of interference with something close to that place. Airport performs channel scan and it finds something on that frequency and switch country code. I didn't find anything discussing how can you control Airport country code like wifi supplicant in Linux.

Dec 1, 2008 2:07 AM in response to Kvargla

It happen on second location as well, but this time it self recover from SY mode and connect to the wifi router:

Dec 1 09:58:30 klifton kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'SY'.
Dec 1 09:58:30 klifton kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 149 153 157 161
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Channel 10 for "klifton" is currently not supported.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Channel 7 for "klifton" is currently not supported.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Channel 9 for "klifton" is currently not supported.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Channel 12 for "klifton" is currently not supported.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Channel 6 for "klifton" is currently not supported.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: No networks found on channels remembered for klifton
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Could not find "klifton"
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Already scanned all remembered channels for "sad"; not found.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Already scanned all remembered channels for "ergonet"; not found.
Dec 1 09:58:37 klifton airportd[2530]: Could not find any preferred networks; trying broadcast requests..
Dec 1 09:58:38 klifton airportd[2530]: Broadcast requests also failed..
Dec 1 09:58:39 klifton airportd[2530]: Probing highest ranked networks via directed scan..
Dec 1 09:58:40 klifton kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Dec 1 09:58:40 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
Dec 1 09:58:47 klifton kernel[0]: MAC AUTH succeeded
Dec 1 09:58:47 klifton kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en1
Dec 1 09:58:50 klifton kernel[0]: AirPort: Roam (DeAuth/DisAssoc)
Dec 1 09:58:51 klifton kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en1
Dec 1 09:58:51 klifton airportd[2530]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Dec 1 09:59:06 klifton ntpd[26]: sendto(17.151.16.23) (fd=23): No route to host
Dec 1 09:59:11 klifton airportd[2530]: FastFinder scanning channels again
Dec 1 09:59:12 klifton airportd[2530]: Could not find "klifton"
Dec 1 09:59:15 klifton kernel[0]: MAC AUTH succeeded
Dec 1 09:59:15 klifton kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en1

Dec 1, 2008 11:46 AM in response to Kvargla

Another thing to remember is that wireless cards in MacBooks, just like PCs, are set to the country code in which you purchased them. Once you bring them out of the country you are in, then it will work on a best effort basis.

For instance if I purchase a macBook in the U.S. and bring it around the world, the MacBook could work fine in some countries but not others.

If you choose a local of the U.S. when you first set up your MacBook, you should make sure you used the correct country so that the drivers will properly.

Just FYI...

Message was edited by: DrVenture

Dec 4, 2008 2:30 AM in response to Kvargla

I have one "alu" macbook and two white "plastic" macbook (GMA 950 and GMA X3100). I experienced this wifi problem with the aluminum macbook and with the GMA X3100 MacBook. The one with GMA 950 is running fine (at least for now)

I bought all devices in slovakia but every time I wake up the computer from sleep (or i do a fresh boot up) the country code jumps to "X3" and immediately to "SY" (definitely not slovakia). When this happens i am not able to find any wireless networks (tried also with some third party scanning applications). I have to turn the airport off and on again. Then the country code jumps to "NL" (not slovakia as well) or stays at X3 (which seems to be some equivalent to international). At this point wifi works as it is supposed to.

One weird thing is that on the alu MacBook it is enough to do the "turn on and off" only once. Whereas on the GMA X3100 MacBook I have to do this several times until it finally changes the country code from "SY" to "NL" or "X3".

No other wifi devices on the same location have any problems (palystation 3, iPod Touch, two windows notebooks)

This is becoming very annoying. It would be good to know how to force the country code for airport...

Dec 4, 2008 4:59 AM in response to Kvargla

Update:

On one of the locations another problem showed up. Wifi is associated without problem but if I don't use Internet for awhile it stop working completely. Nothing in the system log. If there is no activity for five minutes of so it stays associated but stop working. It is necessary to switch Airport off and back on and everything starts working again. I will test on third location if there is same behavior. So far: (1) One location isn't working at all (wrong Airport country code); (2) Second have problem if connection is idle for five minutes or so; (3) Third is winning now but we will see if other problem arise there.

I think this days Wifi on laptop is standard. I depend on using it on all locations which I mentioned in posts here. If Apple have problem with Airport they should work to resolve it. If they have problem to replicate issue they should tell it to their customers. Most of people are buying Apple because of stability and simplicity and this doesn't sound that way. So do we get some answer from them or they just will act as other companies telling that everything working in the lab but in field that is different story?

Dec 4, 2008 6:44 AM in response to Kvargla

In fact I tested two locations. The first one -> notebooks behave like I described. The second location is in Czech Republic and there airport works like a charm.. No problem at all.
I'm going to test it at another (third) location (in Slovakia) this weekend so I'll post back then with my findings.

btw: There's kind of a workaround for the 5 minutes disconnections you experience. Just open up a terminal and ping your router (or something) indefinitely. That should keep the network activity up. It is not elegant but it should work.

Strange MacBook Wifi problem...

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