Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

When I first encountered this problem, as I posted before, I had a MB Pro running 10.6.3. Previously the same MBPro with 10.5.8 had operated flawlessly for nearly three years. On the same network I have an iMac (10.5), a Powerbook G4 (10.5.8), a Sony PC running Ubuntu Linux, and an iPhone. All continue to operate perfectly. Now I restored the MBPro from Time Machine back down to 10.5.8 (this is about three weeks ago) and it has again worked flawlessly.

Now maybe it's just me but it doesn't seem to take Hercule Poirot to work out that the problem seems to be (in my case at least) the combination of MBPro and 10.6.3. I haven't tried 10.6.4 - rather reluctant to have all the hassle again as this is my main machine... The other thing that I would be looking to investigate is whether I have the same issues if I perform a clean install rather than upgrading, which is what I did last time. That would seem to be a possibility, perhaps some stuff left around after the upgrade is causing the problem, although I tried deleting all the plist files, resetting PROM, etc etc and it made no difference.

I know from experience that this sort of issue is a devil to track down and fix, especially when it's connected with device drivers and not always easily reproducible, but I think it's a cert that it does exist...

I was having the identical issue with my iPad; tried removing/forgetting my network settings on it and rejoining/adding back all the configuration info and it did nothing.

Then I decided to restart my router with a full software restart (2wire 2701HG) and in my case that did the trick; my iPad is now holding its wifi connection and streaming HD video flawlessly, better than it's ever done before.

MBP runs 10.6.4 wifi cleanly with no issues, always has, with SL.

So I continue to believe there are a vast number of fiendishly subtle issues which plague different people's wireless network environments.

PCServices.info wrote:
You always seen to be saying that Macs are perfect and that all problems are therefore problems with something else. Having spent over 20 years in the field of troubleshooting computers and networks, I can tell you something that may come as a surprise, Macs are NOT perfect. They may be generally more reliable than PCs but they do sometimes have problems.

Nowhere in my post did I say Macs are perfect.

What I said, and continue to hold to is simply:

*If a Mac joining your network somehow "kicks" other computers off your network, the problem is with your router or cable/DSL modem.*

Why?

There is nothing in the protocol that could command or otherwise force other systems off the network.

The capability just isn't there.

There's nothing that could possibly occur when a Mac joins your network to cause that.

Unless there's a bug in your router that causes it to misbehave.

If you've really spent over twenty years troubleshooting computers, I assume you must be doing it in a logical way. You don't just say "I added that system, it must be screwing everything up!!"

If so, that's not actual root-cause troubleshooting. It may solve the problem, but it's not finding out why the problem is occurring.

There's coincidence and causality, and they're different.

So, is there a universal problem with Mac OS X 10.6.4.? Nope, I and literally hundreds of people I know and millions the world over use it daily without issue.

May there be a bug in Mac OS X 10.6.4 that causes issues in on some networks? Yes.

Is Mac OS X 10.6.4 the cause of those issues? It's impossible to say with the data we have available.

Is it more likely to be a router issue, or a router/Mac OS X interaction? Yes.

Since there's nothing in the protocol providing for "kicking all other systems off the network," if that happens does it have to be the *route or cable/DSL modem* doing it?

Yes.

I never disparage people whose Wi-Fi drops or are experiencing other symptoms of connectivity issues.

But to blame Mac OS X based on coincident effects is not to be making a decision with all the data in hand.

jeasy77 wrote:
So this many people are having the same problem because they are unintelligent? I'm not buying it. No offense.

I am not offend. The brutal fact is most of the people here don't even know about their own router or even logged into it or don't even know their Gateway address.

Several software fixes have been posted throughout this thread. I am saying if they have tried all these fixes, including other wireless access points, then they should take affect Mac in for hardware wireless card repairs. Lemons do happen in any hardware line.

Lastly some mainstream wireless routers IMHO become junk just after a couple of years. To me it's no wonder that certain companies must "upgrade firmware" almost every month To fix bugs says a lot.

You applied kb Airport 5.5.1 before or after of the 10.6.4 combo?

Whilst lemons do happen and user knowledge could be limited in some cases, I can confidently confirm its a problem with 10.6.3 at the very least. I bought a new iMac27 about 2 months back and had the dropping wifi signal whereas my other mac, phones, iPod, Vista machines, PS3 all do not face the same dropping wifi issue with the wireless network (Apple Extreme router).

Surprisingly since upgrading to 10.6.4 the problem went away entirely. I suspect after following this thread closely that some folks seem to have solved their problems with a clean install or deleting old keys from their system in combination with 10.6.4

As well delete the keys?

You applied the kb Airport 5.5.1 before or after update (via combo) to 10.6.4?

JoeMY wrote:
Whilst lemons do happen and user knowledge could be limited in some cases, I can confidently confirm its a problem with 10.6.3 at the very least. I bought a new iMac27 about 2 months back and had the dropping wifi signal whereas my other mac, phones, iPod, Vista machines, PS3 all do not face the same dropping wifi issue with the wireless network (Apple Extreme router).

Surprisingly since upgrading to 10.6.4 the problem went away entirely. I suspect after following this thread closely that some folks seem to have solved their problems with a clean install or deleting old keys from their system in combination with 10.6.4

In my case the updates were

(1) 10.6.3 when I first had the system and
(2) 10.6.4 on the same day the patch came out.

Similarly Airport 5.5.1 was updated via automatic updates which if i recall correctly was before 10.6.4

I did try deleting some keys when I had the problems with 10.6.3 but not sure if that had helped in my case.

The only problem I see now is when the airport is re-booted sometimes the system asks me to enter the WPA2 key when I had to select the airport manually (when it does not auto-reconnect). However I always restarted the system when this happens and when re-booted the system auto connects to the airport. Hopes this helps.

My problem is similar to a number of complaints here, but it seems to be specific to the 802.1x network at my university. I don't have any problems with wireless at home using an AEBS. However, my wi-fi is constantly dropping out on campus. What makes this strange is that this problem started with the 10.6.4 update, which I thought was supposed to fix the issue.

Any advice is appreciated. I've done a number of things, including deleting all network information. I did an archive and install the other day after accidentally messing up some system settings (I deleted stuff from my SystemConfiguration folder based on advice in another forum). That has helped a little bit. I was having the problem that I couldn't reconnect after the signal dropped. I can now reconnect, but that's the extent of the 'improvement.'

I hope a fix is in the works for this. It's driving me absolutely insane. I have to do a lot of research on the internet and the dropping connection is a major pain.

There are probably a dozen things in this thread that you could try, but the one thing that's most likely to work is to roll back to 10.6.3 (or whatever version you were using.) I don't think you'll notice anything different, although monitoring all software updates (to keep 10.6.4 at bay) might be an inconvenience. Stay with it until 10.6.5 comes along, and give that a shot.

Also, have you talked to the I.T. folks? There might be a WiFi guru on campus with the tools and know-how to trouble-shoot this for you. This depends a bit on the university you're at. (CalTech or MIT would be good - and maybe necessary for this problem. lol.)

Apple.... where are you?

I just started experiencing this problem when I replaced my first generation 500GB Time Capsule with a D-Link DAP-2553 wireless access point. I have a Mid-2009 13" MBP running 10.6.4. I see the following in the logs every time the connection dies:

AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 4 (Disassociated due to inactivity).

So, I assumed this was some kind of Wi-Fi Power Saving setting, but I've found no setting to disable it in OS X. On the D-Link you can list connected clients to the AP, and only my MBP says "Yes" in the "Power Saving Mode" in the GUI for the router.

Also, I bootcamp the machine with Windows 7. In Windows 7, I can leave the laptop connected for hours without issue. Seems to me its pretty certain an airport driver issue in OS X.

Also, when I'm in bootcamp, the D-Link AP reports that "Power Save Mode" is OFF instead of ON like the AP reports when in OS X.

Here same problem as well, with slight difference. I use my Mac at work & home. At work, I have time capsule installed, therefore, whenever I woke up my mac from sleep, it connects instantaneously, however, at home, I used wi-fi router and when I wake up my mac from sleep from long time, no way I would connect. I need to reboot to re-connect.

Any ideas. Thanks

David Carlin wrote:
Also, I bootcamp the machine with Windows 7. In Windows 7, I can leave the laptop connected for hours without issue. Seems to me its pretty certain an airport driver issue in OS X.

Why? Just because Windows does something doesn't mean they're following the applicable spec.

Far too many router vendors test with Windows, then ship.

Just because Windows does something doesn't mean it's doing it correctly.

I'm not saying you're not seeing an Apple issue, but the fact that other OSs work cannot be used as a valid reason to say Mac OS X's driver is broken.