Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

snarlyone: which make/model wireless router are you using? I was using Linksys WRT54G running DDWRT firmware. Finally I gave up and switched to Apple Airport and the problem went away.

Robin Bonathan wrote:
It really is about time apple offered a fix on this, all my other computers in house do not dropout, iphone does not drop out, etc etc.

In your case, it's likely not Apple's issue, it's likely a signal/interference issue.

By changing your router's channel to 7, you're avoiding whatever is likely interfering with your signal in the frequency range of channel 1.

Saying that other devices don't have issues ignores that each device has different propagation characteristics and antennas; by moving to an interference-free channel you'd likely speed up your other Wi-Fi devices as well.

No

In fact its the exact opposite.

The router looks for interference and choses a channel that is free automatically.

Channel 1 is free of interference, however 10.6 drops the signal etc (only osx 10.6 devices).

If I manually change router to channel 7 (which has interference from neighbours routers) it works.

What are you using to judge whether there is or isn't interference on a particular channel?

If it really is a channel 1 issue, you may have a hardware problem that needs to be addressed.

I had a Windows laptop that refused to talk to a router on Wi-Fi channel 1 and it turned out to be a failing Wi-Fi card.

The router display interference on each channel and its strength.

2 brand new mac books only failing on same channel (but only after snow leopard installed).

No other computers in house have same problem

No its not hardware, its software.

I had a weird problem last week that might be a lesson to others with wifi problems.

My Mac mini could maintain a wifi connection via airport, but two iPad's and an iPhone kept getting either no connection or very weak connections. Previously, all devices had been connected without problems for several months. This problem just arose suddenly. After rebooting wifi router (D-link DIR-615) and all devices, still no change. I tried turning off all devices and powering them up one at a time in case one was faulty and causing interference. Still no change.

Finally, I noticed that someone had left our cordless phone off the base station. When I de-powered the phone,, problem solved. I wasn't aware that some cordless phones cause problems with wifi, but a quick Google showed that this was a known problem. Especially for 2.4 GHz phones. Since I've replaced by cordless phone, there have been almost no problems.

Hope this helps someone in the same position.

Just for the record I have the dropping connection problem too, on ALL our Mac OS devices, macbook (SL latest rev, and also occurred on leopard), Iphone, Ipod. All windows PCs, laptops, wifi adaptors, friends (windows) laptops are fine.
Router is kcorp lifestyle, fixed to ch 6.

Setting a fixed ip addr helps a bit, the constant pinging solution helps but still drops every < 60 mins. It would be worse without fixed ip / pinging.

I have to make some (any) change to network settings to restore the connection.

dmesg command reports:

AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).
eneteventfunc - vendor 1, class 1, subclass 2, event code 12
...
Auth result for: 00:03:2f:20:39:73 MAC AUTH succeeded
AirPort: Link Up on en1

I upgraded to Snow Leopard yesterday and immediately lost wireless connectivity to my home network (via 2Wire router) that has been stable since set-up about a year ago.

I have spent hours working on this, and finally contacted Apple Customer Service. The service is FREE since I just bought the SL upgrade. The first level tech was great, but unsuccessful. The second level "wireless specialist" had me delete the 3 suspect plists, and my system immediately returned to normal.

Here is the *easy and quick* procedure:

1. Open the Macintosh HD
2. Open Preferences
3. Open SystemConfiguration
4. Drag the following 3 files to the desktop: (so that they will be temporarily copied there)
a. preferences.plist
b. Networkinterfaces.plist
c. com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
5. Drag the same three files from the SystemConfiguration folder to the trash. You will be prompted for the Administrator password.
6. Restart the computer
7. Test your browser (repeatedly!). If it works, drag the three files from the desktop to the trash.

IT WORKED FOR ME. I hope that it works for you. Keep Smilin'! Phil

Hi Phil,
I got the same problems of you and of all the users inside that forum.
I followed your procedure...and it seems to works!
I was gettin' fool about this fu*** problem! Great!
Guys, I both let you know my feedback asap!
Thanks.

Has anyone figured this out yet? I see a lot of System config files deleted and SMC and PRAM resets. I have replaced my airport card Item# ACD3001. I had a Linksys WRT54G when it started acting up. And come to think of it that was about the same time I had installed SL. I replaced the software on the router with Tomato (A Linux Base router software). Then just replaced it with an Apple Airport. None of that worked.

It seem to me that,like I have read in this thread that it does seem to happen more with browser activity of course Dreamweaver has done it also. I reset my SMC and PRAM the other day and thought i had fixed it. I downloaded ten 160MB podcast at the same time plus uploaded and downloaded a 1.32GB file to my iMac. Every thing was fine until I put it to sleep that night. It always seems to go down during a high load on the LAN. I can browse all night but the second I go to download something or watch a stream of any kind. I have to restart to get it back up.

I have installed the Linksys ay my Moms house and it still seems worse on it. Like today trying to remote desktop to my iMac I would have just enough time to open something before the connect was lost.

Like just now I had to the tell tail sign of my wi-fi dropped with my iDisk connection lost asking if i want to ignore it or not. GRRRRRRRR
That goodness for copy and paste.
I am just about ready to put it on ebay.

Maybe Lion will fix it!!!

Are you in an apartment community or somewhere that there could be more than one router fighting over the gateway IP address?

No I'm in a residential with three other very low strength routers but it does not just happen at home. I use it at my moms house in the morning and at work sometimes. Both very different scenarios. It locked me out of wifi this morning in fact just watching you tube video. (no its not parental controls). It will be going along just fine and then boom I get the disconnect notice for my idisk the video freezes up and if I look at the wifi drop-down, my access point is there but unchecked. If I turn off the wireless and try to turn it back on, it asks me to log back into a known router and fails to ever connect. This morning was weird though because I had a video I wanted to finish so I copied the url to a text edit page and it would not save, text edit locked up. Not sure if that's related, But like I sad, I'm about ready to eBay it cause I'm not going back to Leopard on it.
When I replaced the wifi card in the laptop I was looking at a forum that said if that didn't work than I should change something else out also but I have not been able to find that post again.

New Update: I Sucked it up and reloaded 10.5. I let it update all was good for about thirty minutes. I was moving very small files from my iMac to start rebuilding and low and behold the wifi turned off this time. And now will not turn back on.

I love mac, But Dang this *****!!!!

Hi guys. I'm facing alot of drop connections as well. Sometimes could be 8 times in 30 mins, Its really getting on nerves. But I tried a simple thing and I think I manage to found a solution to my problem. Could anyone try and see if it works. I tried it and now no more drop wifi signal.

My Solution is:
Open System Preference-->Select Networks-->
Click the Gear icon on the bottom of the left window--> Select Set Service Order-->Drag Airport to the Top of the List.

Really hope this helps. Mine has been running almost 2 days without drop Wifi signals. Somehow after some updates my Airport service order was at the bottom.

Sorry for the my English and instructions as I'm in Asia.

not forgetting Wifi has been set to 802.11G only.