Dropping Wi FI Signal

Same problem here. The diagnosis may be so frustrating yet it is less than having a brand new laptop without wireless access. Trust me. Is downgrading to Leopard a viable option really? Good to know that the good people at Apple are working on it. Am I right?

Just to add another 'same here'.

Wi-Fi sometimes works for days with no problem. Sometimes it's connected to my gateway router (Linksys WAG160N) sometimes to my Airport Extreme. Once the signal drops I have to restart the MBP to get it working again. Sometimes it drops again within a couple of minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days. Sometimes it drops within a few minutes several times in a row. When it drops the airport can't find any wifi networks. I have 4 networks and there are 3 others normally listed. My neighbours are on channels 1 & 6, my Ariport is also on channel 1. My Gateway router is on 11 with 9 as the wide channel.

I am a CCNA qualified network technician and have done all the usual testing. There is nothing wrong with either router and my windoze machines all carry on working when the MBP isn't.

This is getting beyond a joke.

The problem only started with the upgrade to SL. Never happened before. Same routers, same ISP, same MBP. Only thing that's changed is the OS and therefore the drivers.

GET IT SORTED APPLE 😟

Message was edited by: PCServices.info

PhilVN wrote:
Same problem here. The diagnosis may be so frustrating yet it is less than having a brand new laptop without wireless access. Trust me. Is downgrading to Leopard a viable option really? Good to know that the good people at Apple are working on it. Am I right?

PhilVN, All I have to say is I've had this problem since January before SL even came out, and I continue to have the problem after the upgrade to SL and a new airport card and a completely new laptop. The only thing that helped was replacing my router with a Apple Airport Extreme. I've had other WiFi connectivity issues on campus that only started happening since the upgrade to Snow Leopard; I tried to do a clean install of SL (didn't help), reverted back to Leopard (didn't help), and also installed Windows Vista Business on Bootcamp and VMware Fusion (didn't help). It seems that once your network starts dropping your MBP there is not "viable" fix other than getting a new network. But I suggest backing up your documents on a Time Capsule or DVD and then install Leopard and see if it works for you. What works for one person doesn't work for someone else, so if you don't mind, and have the time, do what you can and exhaust all your troubleshooting options on your own and with Apple and then if you still don't come to a resolution talk to Apple about refunding your purchase.

OK, so it's neither the IP nor the DNS.

Just now, my Airport on my MBP decided to DISCONNECT itself from my Airport Express - in other words, I see my Airport Express still on the list of all the local Wi-Fi signals present - but, all of a sudden, in the middle of my Online Banking sesssion (!!), the MBP decides to cut the signal and pretend that my Airport Wi-Fi is nowhere to be found. There are 2 other computers connected to it, one directly on the hardline Ethernet connection and not Wi-Fi, and that one is still connected.

My MBP decided to NOT reach out and catch the Wi-Fi signal! So, I had to Restart the computer - and of course, the signal is there! my MBP decided to pick it up again.

The light on the Airport Express has been GREEN the whole time. No loss in connection to the web.

I do not understand.

Please read my post -

it is NOT the IP/ DNS problem - what we're talking about is the actual DISCONNECTION, the computer deciding to all of a sudden pretend that the Wi-Fi signal is no longer there! My MBP literally decides to not stay connected. So I restart the computer, and of course, it IS there, and I re-connect without a problem. But for some reason, whether it's SL related or not I am not an expert so I don't know, but it decides to disconnect from catching the Wi-Fi signal.

The variability does nothing to indicate that it isn't an SL bug, there are many other variables other than the OS version, but the one common factor is SL (or late leopard) versions of the airport driver.

Not to throw anyone off their particular trail, but after reading this forum and all of the others that seemed related to this issue in the "AirPort" forums, I finally did resolve my particular issue. However, it was not before I tried every version of the AirPort Extreme/Express firmware and all of the great suggestions herein. I even repaved the entire hard drive and reloaded Snow Leopard from the install disc and did not copy any settings over from my backup (I got the networking running before individually bring all my data back so as not to corrupt the settings with old data). I'm back up now (finally and solidly). In summary, I do not think this is an AirPort issue and I don't believe it's an Apple Networking issue. I don't think you need to wipe out your hard drive either. That's the teaser -- here's the short story and then my solution.

I have an Airport Extreme Gigabit Ethernet router and an AirPort Express configured to extend the network and mostly used for streaming iTunes to a stereo system. The main router is connected to a Qwest Actiontech DSL modem (R1524SU) circa March 2004. After upgrading to Snow Leopard, it all went to He--. I'd be surfing with Safari and the spinning wheel would start but then never connect to the targeted website. It would just keep spinning, iTunes would stop (if streaming music), Mail would stop, the whole thing would go down the tubes. Powering on/off the Airport card in the laptop didn't do anything. Using AirPort Utility to reset the router functioned, but did not clear the issue. The only solution for me was to cycle the power on the DSL modem and then cycle power on the router. Note that this also occurred a couple of times with 10.4.11 and 10.5.8. But, Snow Leopard was a whole new level of pain -- the thing would lock up every 2 minutes!

After about a month of messing around on and off, I finally gave up. But, a night finally did come where I had to get something done and needed what was on the laptop. I turned off the AirPort card, turned off the AirPort Express router (just because I was mad), and plugged an Ethernet cable directly into the DSL modem. Guess what? it locked up in less than 30 seconds -- without the AirPort in the loop. Eureka! I immediately called Qwest and asked for a replacement for the DSL modem (after a long troubleshooting session with a nice boy named "Victor" who's line test told him that my modem was "dropping authentication"). Because I was renting it, they didn't complain and shipped it to me two days later.

The new model is the Actiontec PK5000 and it was simple to set up and hasn't skipped a beat. It has 4 Ethernet ports and built-in wireless, but the administration tools let you turn that off. Other than password there was no setup required. Back on line in 10 minutes. It made me laugh at how much time I wasted on trying to figure out what was "wrong" with the Extreme and Snow Leopard. I think it's as simple as Apple moving the networking software forward with the latest standards and my DSL hardware remaining static without a firmware upgrade. (Don't get me going on how there's no upgrade on the Qwest site for Mac user's.)

The lesson? We spend all that time loading all those Mac OS and software updates on a weekly basis but tend to forget the other important pieces of equipment in the chain.

I hope this helps others with their problem.

Angus

I've been having the same problem. I'm using ATT DSL over a 2wire 2701 router. I recently erased my HD and did a clean reinstall. I used the internet without any problems for about a day, then I tried to setup ichat with my aim account. Shortly after this, it started dropping the connection a lot. I closed iChat, still having problems. Then I deleted the keychain entry for ichat. This worked for some reason, I played around on the net without any problem for a while, then decided to try to reproduce the problem. I set up my iChat again and the drops started. Then after deleting the keychain entry, the problem has gone away and it hasn't dropped since.

I know this seems fairly random, but I would love to know if this works for anyone else. I'm still hesitant to say that this fixed my issue, but I'm hopeful!

amilesm,

That was an excellent post, but unfortunately, is not what's happening to me.

My MBP on Airport stops connecting. When this happens, I check the Express and the light is still green and it is functioning - and at the same time that this is happening, my PC is hooked up directly to the modem with the Ethernet cable and has a perfect connection.

My Airport in my MBP has only dropped me twice so far in a couple of months, but obviously it's NOT the Ethernet/Modem connection. It might perhaps be a cause of the slowdown and totally disconnection.

First off, I will admit that I did not read all the posts in this thread, so maybe someone addressed this. If so, I apologize.

As soon as I upgraded to SL, my internet started dropping out intermittently. All of the sudden it would just take forever to try to load a page, and would eventually say I was not connected to the internet.

I finally realized that it was happening every time time machine started up.

I turned time machine off, and now everything is working fine.

Obviously not a perfect solution, b/c I want to be able to use time machine- but a workaround for now.

Hopefully that will help some of you.

This thread has become unhelpful IMO. There are multiple issues being reported as the same issue. Folks (in an effort to help) are performing al kinds of "fixes" and when the problem goes away they assume the last thing they did fixed it. This is classic correlation vs causation. What we can conclude so far is the "problem" is not simple and is likely an interaction of software, hardware and firmware...therefore it may be intermittent and difficult to diagnose or fix. It simply doesn't help to post..."here is what I did and the problem went away"...especially since for some of us we have tried all of your "latest" suggestions and it still doesn't work.

Apple doesn't "have" anyone here denying anything. We are users, just like yourself.

The only people here who work for Apple are those who have a white Apple logo under their user i.d. and the Discussions Hosts (moderators) who have a purple Apple logo under theirs.

Other than that, there is no official Apple presence on this board, so there is no reason for anybody to be "sweeping" anything "under the rug."

There may be some users here saying, "I don't have the problem," and that is the truth. There is no reason for anyone to lie about it. If they did have the problem, they'd be griping, too.

Now, if you are going to an Apple Store or contacting AppleCare and they are giving you less than stellar answers, that's a horse of a different color. But no users here are trying to sweep anything under the rug. We (some of us) can give you ideas about troubleshooting methods, but that's all this site is for, user-to-user assistance, so please keep that in mind when you're making silly accusations. Apple hosts this site, mainly. Their official participation here is quite limited.

using fanboys to deflect the focus

Again, Apple is not "using" anyone.

Users here post of their own free will and do not follow some "Apple Creed."

If your new computer came with Snow Leopard installed, then downgrading to Leopard is not an option.

I might add that when people resort to calling other users "fanboys" and "cheerleaders," helpers very often exit a thread in disgust, leaving it to those who want to rant and moan at one another.

Once a thread disintegrates to that level, it's unlikely that anyone can find actual help in it, although it is true that misery loves company. So have yourself a nice pity party here.

Incidentally, I'd really try to help if I could, but (a) networking is not my forté, and (b) I haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard yet.