Wireless N and County Code mess with SL

It took me a while to find out what was causing my Wireless N connection problems using 10.5.8 Leopard, and now with Snow Leopard. It seems that somehow the Airport Card Country code (and therefore the supported channels and frequencies) changes with the associated MAC Address (or some other serial number that Apple can tell where the AP should be from) of the Connected Access Point. I know this because when my Airport is disconnected it shows me no Coutry Code. When I connect in my wi-fi college it shows me US country code, and at home (using a WRT610N), a different one that's unable to use wireless N frequencies. Am I the only one having this problem? I don't want to use Wireless G, and I have no idea how to fix this!

Here's what appears in my 17" mid-2009 MBP info:

PS: My WRT-610N is set to work with .N connections only, both 2.4 and 5GHz. So my MBP won't connect at home because the Country Code it sets doesn't support .N.

@ Home (WRT610N)

Software Versions:
Menu Extra: 6.0 (600.22)
configd plug-in: 6.0 (600.27)
System Profiler: 6.0 (600.9)
Network Preference: 6.0 (600.22)
AirPort Utility: 5.4.2 (542.23)
IO80211 Family: 3.0 (300.20)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.19)
Locale: FCC
Country Code: ZW
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Wake On Wireless: Supported
Status: Not Associated

@ Airport without any wi-fi connection

Software Versions:
Menu Extra: 6.0 (600.22)
configd plug-in: 6.0 (600.27)
System Profiler: 6.0 (600.9)
Network Preference: 6.0 (600.22)
AirPort Utility: 5.4.2 (542.23)
IO80211 Family: 3.0 (300.20)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.19)
Locale: FCC
Country Code: X0
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165
Wake On Wireless: Supported
Status: Off

@ College

Software Versions:
Menu Extra: 6.0 (600.22)
configd plug-in: 6.0 (600.27)
System Profiler: 6.0 (600.9)
Network Preference: 6.0 (600.22)
AirPort Utility: 5.4.2 (542.23)
IO80211 Family: 3.0 (300.20)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.19)
Locale: FCC
Country Code: US
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165
Wake On Wireless: Supported
Status: Connected
Current Network Information:
USPnet:
PHY Mode: 802.11g
BSSID: 0:5:9e:8c:b4:ed
Channel: 6
Network Type: Infrastructure
Security: None
Signal / Noise: -72 dBm / -89 dBm

Message was edited by: andre.mengatti

17" 2.88 Ghz MBP 5.2 500GB 5.4K Hitachi, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Aug 31, 2009 10:59 AM

58 replies

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,821 points

Oct 21, 2009 9:55 AM in response to putnik

putnik wrote:
I am no expert, so please tell me, is making a new location in the airport preferences going to cause problems when I move around? Can you enlighten me as to why it (seems to have) cured a disconnection problem.

All a location is is a combination of settings for your network connection, e.g.:

1) Interface order
2) IP address settings (manual/DHCP)
3) DNS server settings
4) Gateway settings

If there is a preference error in any of the settings above, it could result in the failure to connect to a network.

None of these settings have anything to do with the regulatory domain country code, which is something that is both normally hidden to the user and is something the user cannot (directly) modify.

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Oct 27, 2009 4:28 PM in response to dkam

Definitely a problem with Snow Leopard. For years I've had a Macbook, Macbook Pro and Mac Pro all connected to a 5Ghz Airport Extreme. Suddenly after upgrading to Snow Leopard, only my Macbook couldn't see or connect to the 5GHz network. Switching to 2.4Ghz, there was no problem. The other Macs were fine on 5GHz. So I found all these threads about 5GHz and Snow Leopard and country codes. The Macbook is now consistently reporting it's Airport card country code as FR, which is incorrect, and means that it can't connect to the Airport Extreme when it's configured to Automatic channel selection (has always defaulted to 149 here).

So manually changing the Airport Extreme channel by option clicking and selecting 36 which is one of the legal channels in FR is a permanent workaround.

I need to check what country code my Macbook Pro Airport card is reporting when next to the same router.

This is more than a coincidence.

Also, if the Macbook is physically next to the Airport Extreme, surely it's country code would be set by its 802.11d beacon and not someone else's French router in the vicinity? I'm convinced there's no French routers in my neighbourhood.

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,821 points

Oct 27, 2009 10:48 PM in response to gasboy

gasboy wrote:
Also, if the Macbook is physically next to the Airport Extreme, surely it's country code would be set by its 802.11d beacon and not someone else's French router in the vicinity? I'm convinced there's no French routers in my neighbourhood.

It's not based on proximity or signal strength but rather whatever beacon packet containing a valid 802.11d regulatory domain is received first.

So if your AirPort card is set to a French domain, there is most definitely a French router broadcasting in your area.

If you're interested, this Intel document gives a bit more information:

http://download.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro2011b/accesspoint/overview.pd f

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Oct 28, 2009 12:15 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Thanks William. I've checked my other laptop, a Macbook Pro, which has had no issues at all since Snow Leopard. When booted up side by side with the Macbook it consistently reports its Airport Country Code as AU which is correct, and the Macbook consistently reports its Country Code as FR. This is on the same network. I think it's interesting that someone else on this thread from Australia has had exactly the same problem, ie FR instead of AU.

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,821 points

Oct 28, 2009 1:14 AM in response to gasboy

Well it could be a bug or it could just be dumb luck.

Beacon packets are sent at intervals, so it may just happen that one machine is listening for beacons at the exact time the FR router is transmitting…

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Oct 28, 2009 1:49 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Wow. Every single time the Macbook happens to be FR and the Macbook Pro happens to be AU?? Seems unlikely...Oh and my MacPro is AU also.

dkam

Level 1

0 points

Oct 28, 2009 4:29 PM in response to gasboy

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, both my MacBook and MacBook Pro frequently register themselves as in "FR" rather than "AU". The only way to make the network work is to watch the kernel log and switch the wireless card on and off until it reports itself as being in "AU".

I have a job open with Apple support.

putnik

Level 4

1,185 points

Oct 29, 2009 12:47 AM in response to andre.mengatti

See also this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2183102&tstart=15&messageID=10 480511#10480511

Not a problem with my neighbours...

Message was edited by: putnik

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Oct 29, 2009 2:08 AM in response to dkam

Yep it's definitely a bug. No way there's that many French routers materialising post Snow Leopard in AU. LOL. Did you see my workaround? Just change your router channel to something other than 149. 36 works, it's legal in FR

Oct 29, 2009 8:29 AM in response to gasboy

How about Zimbabwean routers? lol

I wish I had a workaround with a different channel, but they don't even allow the use of 5Ghz networks in that country... so I'm stuck rebooting my airport card with that script every time my lap goes to sleep. Sometimes it reboots about 15 times to get the right country code...

Still waiting for an apple fix on this.

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Oct 29, 2009 12:59 PM in response to andre.mengatti

Yep Zimbabwe and 5GHz and Snow Leopard. ROFLMAO. I would switch back to 2.4GHz for now. Have you filed a bug report with Apple? They need to know

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Oct 29, 2009 11:51 PM in response to gasboy

I've filed a very detailed feedback report with links to this thread and another regarding this problem, so let's see how long it takes Apple to sort this

MosziNet

Level 1

11 points

Nov 30, 2009 8:47 AM in response to gasboy

Hi,

did anybody observe that with the latest SL update (10.6.2) airport always connects with N speed ?!
I'm pretty sure that it's not possible that all of the other 8 routers in my neighborhood have been updated with the correct country codes, still my macbook now always connects to my router on the correct channel ...

maybe apple silently corrected this issue ? (at least i didn't see anything related to this in the
release notes of 10.6.2 ... )

Message was edited by: MosziNet

gasboy

Level 1

39 points

Dec 10, 2009 1:25 AM in response to gasboy

Fixed with Airport update 2009-002. Correct country code!

putnik

Level 4

1,185 points

Dec 10, 2009 7:12 AM in response to gasboy

Here in Madrid, I have installed 10.6.2 and the Airport Client update.

"About this Mac>More Info>Airport" profile and "sudo dmesg" both still return FR.

I am beginning to believe my original prognosis that buying my Belkin router from a multinational supermarket chain with its headquarters in France (Carrefour) is more than coincidence.

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Wireless N and County Code mess with SL