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Wifi constantly crashing since upgrade

OK this is getting unusable ... every 10 maybe 15 minutes at the most i get the spinning wheel and my whole system freezes for 15 / 20 seconds and then it comes back to life but the wifi is hunting.

This has only happened since upgrading tonight.. Tips anyone ?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 2, 2009 2:22 PM

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49 replies

Nov 21, 2009 3:19 PM in response to Hobbes2424

Hobbes2424:
Have you attempted to change the router channel. It may be set to automatic. If you have other wifi in your area it may be intruding the signal, i set mine to 11, its an off channel and no interruption from sorrounding wifi. I have seen threads about manual dns set up. You may want to follow up on that, my issue was very relivent to yours and its no longer an issue with changing the channel up. I keep a solid connection.

Nov 21, 2009 9:27 PM in response to LCaller

Hey LCaller
No it's all airport i don't have an never had a Vodafone card on this machine. I'm wondering if that's come over from a time machine backup of my last machine..

Yes Sir you are correct about TM.

+Only use your Time Machine backup to restore your system to the computer that is the source of the backup. If you want to use your backup to transfer your information to a new computer, use Migration Assistant.+

After looking at your post of your console log, I think it's best to start over & reinstall SL then use MA to restore your stuff.

Nov 21, 2009 11:12 PM in response to Hobbes2424

The router is not the problem, it's Snow Leopard or my MBP's hardware that is defective/dying.


SL relies on the hardware configuration for network connections so I think the MBP's hardware is configured with the draft of 802.11n & needs to be updated.

Use this link to check the MBP's WiFi & see if 802.11n is enabled. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2447

If 802.11n is enabled then delete the old connection then set it up again.
If 802.11n is disabled then search Apples Downloads for the patch & apply it.

If the problem is persistent, replace the hardware.

Nov 22, 2009 6:41 AM in response to Buzz Lightgear

N has been enabled for a couple years now and it's never had this "killing the airport until restart" issue . It doesn't happen every day at all either. It's sporadic and I can't seem to recreate the issue on my own. I have a feeling it's when there's a lot of data transfer for a long period of time. I'll try it out again later I suppose but why would that happen? I also get this in the console around the time it stops working.

kernel ntpd[26] sendto(17.151.16.22) (fd=26): No route to host
kernel AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 4 (Disassociated due to inactivity).

The first one of course being the time server and the second showing that there's no data being transferred via ethernet? I'm not even using that connection so I disabled it in the network prefs. I'm not sure why that popped up.. But basically when it occurs, 2 things can happen: everything stops responding on the menu bar (beach balling, etc.) so I'm forced to hard restart OR the airport will drop the connection and won't connect to any network until restart.

As far as I'm concerned the configuration of both the router and the MBP are normal and fine. I think it's more of a hardware issue but I'm not sure. I honestly don't know what to do at this point.

Nov 22, 2009 3:54 PM in response to Hobbes2424

I'm not even using that connection so I disabled it in the network prefs.


This should solve your issue because the WiFi (en1) was competing with the wired Ethernet (en0). IMO: Only enable WiFi when needed.

Also if there are multiple active network port configurations when you try to connect, Mac OS X tries the one at the top of the list first, and then tries the other port configurations in descending order.

Dec 2, 2009 7:15 PM in response to LCaller

Have same problem since upgrade from 10.6.1 to 10.6.2. Airport suddenly is not connected. Thought it might be the Airport Extreme so changed it out to a Linksys - did not help so was not router I assume. Have checked iPhone when this happens and it still is connected to router. It might be up for a couple hours or it might do it repeatably every few minutes. Sometimes have to restart to get it back, sometimes wait a bit. Selecting connect from the Airport menu seldom works immediately after it drops but again does some times if I wait awhile.

Dec 28, 2009 10:02 AM in response to LCaller

Same problem here.
I only have wifi network and it's without any security (no WPA no WEP, nothing).
After the update to SL the airport keeps disconnecting from the wifi signal with the message:
AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 4 (Disassociated due to inactivity).

Macbook unibody early 2009
Snow Leopard 10.6.2
The wifi is 2.4 GHz (B+G) on channel 11 from a Sitecom Mimo XR router.

How can I change this annoying behaviour?

Dec 30, 2009 7:50 AM in response to giobien

I'm also having a similar problem. I have gone home to my parent's house for Christmas and my wifi connection just drops out after a while and then Airport says it can't find any networks at all. I have had no problems with any other wifi networks at all. My wife and brother who are also using Macs have no problems and my other family who are running PCs are having no problems. When I try to search for networks it just says that it is timing out.

I have tried turning Airport off and then on and it doesn't help. I have tried restarting the Mac and it doesn't help. I have tried logging into the Guest account and it still has the same problems. I also wiped the saved networks list in Network Preferences and even deleted the Airport preferences file all to no avail.

I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 on a September 2006 MacBook and the router is made by 3Com and has WPA security.

Jan 17, 2010 7:13 PM in response to AndrewRennie

I have been experiencing this problem as well. I have a late 2009 iMac a 2007 MacBook and the previous model iMac (wife's computer). All three machines are running SL. The wife's computer and the MacBook have no problems with the wireless connection at all. My iMac drops connection at random and sometimes can not reconnect until I reboot. Usually after the connection is dropped the AirPort can not even detect any network work, and if it does it can not connect for several minutes. When I can reconnect the signal is usually shown as being very weak, the other Macs in the room will show a full signal. I have tried a couple remedies but so far the problem remains. Has anyone made any progress?

Wifi constantly crashing since upgrade

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