Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

Clearly this is an ongoing and widespread problem (a simple Google search will confirm this) that doesn't only affect a select few users. The connection will work fine on some occasions, and on others either not even find a wireless network, or refuse to connect/stay connected to it.

This should be a priority issue, maybe a firmware/driver update is due soon to fix this (Snow Leopard?) issue.

If you do searches you'll find this isn't only a Snow Leopard issue - many Windows users are having issues as well (and not just on Apple hardware.)

As I said, there are tens of thousands who use AirPort in Snow Leopard with no issues whatsoever.

We just don't know enough to know what the root cause of the issues is, given how many have no problems, and, as I mentioned, that I have never, ever seen a Wi-Fi drop in an Apple Store despite checking the logs on most every system I come across.

We just don't know enough to know what the root cause of the issues is, given how many have no problems,

so how many that have problems do you need ? specifically?

baopham wrote:
so how many that have problems do you need ? specifically?

What we know now is it's not a general case problem affecting everyone or even a majority of people.

So given that it's hard to nail down precisely what the issue is, but I'm sure Apple is, given the stories we've had here of Apple Engineers visiting various customers with Wi-Fi issues.

Remember I'm just a user like all of you - not an Apple Employee, nor a paid shill, nor a "fanboy."

Just someone who's done enough debugging to know that you can't make some of the assertions being made in this thread without a lot more detailed data, and that's the type of data Apple is collecting - at least from those who bother to open a case with AppleCare.

so how many that have problems do you need ? specifically?

Enough to solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, we don't have the box, so we don't yet know how many pieces there actually are.

Cheers,
tod

P.S. Be "we" of course, I mean the cabal of computer gurus who decides where all the bugs should and should not go.

William Kucharski wrote:

baopham wrote:
so how many that have problems do you need ? specifically?

What we know now is it's not a general case problem affecting everyone or even a majority of people.

So given that it's hard to nail down precisely what the issue is, but I'm sure Apple is, given the stories we've had here of Apple Engineers visiting various customers with Wi-Fi issues.

Remember I'm just a user like all of you - not an Apple Employee, nor a paid shill, nor a "fanboy."

Just someone who's done enough debugging to know that you can't make some of the assertions being made in this thread without a lot more detailed data, and that's the type of data Apple is collecting - at least from those who bother to open a case with AppleCare.

I think people following this thread should be aware of a related thread here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2140119&tstart=15
That thread has over 13,000 views so unless folks just find dns issues entertaining there probably is some reason for all those views.
A frequent poster here has said this in that linked thread

"Update:

Apple closed my bug:

Mac OS X internal name resolution often uses DNS servers in reverse order
as a duplicate of Bug ID #6928835, so they know about it and are investigating it. "

Anyway all that is likely related to the connectivity problems-which of course have nothing at all to do with Apple, it's products or any defenders of the faith.

radlure wrote:
A frequent poster here has said this in that linked thread

"Update:

Apple closed my bug:

Mac OS X internal name resolution often uses DNS servers in reverse order
as a duplicate of Bug ID #6928835, so they know about it and are investigating it. "

Anyway all that is likely related to the connectivity problems-which of course have nothing at all to do with Apple, it's products or any defenders of the faith.

That "frequent poster" is me, and DNS issues have nothing to do with Wi-Fi "drops."

Well, I hope this issue can be fixed in the next update of 10.6.2. It's really annoying and widely affecting a group of users. Here I'm in China having the same trouble as many of you.
Come on Apple, do something, please

Perhaps a little OT, but no one knows the extent of the wireless issue...no one knows how many have SL AND use wireless to connect to the internet AND are willing to post to this site (perhaps even capable if wireless is their only connection). Non-response should NOT be equated with they have no problem. TMK, there is no systematic sampling in-place to know how many have an issue with wireless...now back to your regular programming...so lets stop arguing how BIG of an issue this is.

Those of us who have been around AD for quite a while do have a good feal for how many posts there are when something is a bonafide universal issue, something most users are experiencing and something that is relatively rare.

For better or worse, this issue is more common than "rare" but isn't anywhere near "most."

I realize that none of that helps if you're one of the people experiencing the issue, and that's why I advise trying your system in an Apple Store and contacting AppleCare, especially if you're within the 90 day free phone support period for Snow Leopard.

William Kucharski wrote:

radlure wrote:
A frequent poster here has said this in that linked thread

"Update:

Apple closed my bug:

Mac OS X internal name resolution often uses DNS servers in reverse order
as a duplicate of Bug ID #6928835, so they know about it and are investigating it. "

Anyway all that is likely related to the connectivity problems-which of course have nothing at all to do with Apple, it's products or any defenders of the faith.

That "frequent poster" is me, and DNS issues have nothing to do with Wi-Fi "drops."

I knew the identity of the poster I quoted. Both at the thread I linked and at non Apple sites dns issues have been implicated in losing connectivity.
Just saying it has nothing to do with it is no more evidence of anything than claiming you aren't a paid Apple employee.
In fact that very thread mentions losing connection several times.

I really doubt that there will ever be a solid honest answer to this.
Perhaps Apple believes it needs to protect itself and so this all is plausible deny-ability? Sure anyone who raises questions like this is both disloyal and crazy but why can't there be an honest answer to what's happening?

This thread is about a dropped Wi-Fi signal.

That thread is about inability to reach the Internet.

Two entirely different things.

When your AirPort signal drops, you typically have only grey bars in your AirPort menu bar signal strength icon:



rather than one of these:



When you cannot reach the Internet, you have one or more signal bars but get complaints from Safari or other applications that "You are not connected to the Internet."

Two entirely disparate issues, even if people may report them as being the same issue.

I honestly don't know what "honest answer" you want.

Things work for most people.

Even with those having the DNS issue I referenced in the other thread, that's more of a configuration issue than a Mac OS X issue per se, as Mac OS X is acting differently than other operating systems, but it is not acting in a method contrary to Mac OS X's own documentation.

Some people have issues with association drops or an inability to receive an IP address via DHCP.

There are troubleshooting steps that can be taken to try and resolve the issues, and they actually do work for about half the people experiencing problems.

For the other half, I realize how frustrating it can be, and Apple is investigating issues to try and determine where the problem lies.

But if your issue is something specific with your configuration or router, Apple will never even know about it unless you contact AppleCare.

As a reminder, here's a FAQ on what the AirPort menu bar icons mean:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3821

There's a major flaw in OSX's automatic network connections. Turn them off in the network settings and manually configure each wireless connection using the network assistant, then manually switch connections as needed. Add 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 to the DNS servers tab.

Hi,

I'd just like to add my weight to this problem... I've been experiencing this wireless dropping issue for the past week, roughly a week after upgrading to SnowLeopard.

As a bit of background, I'm an embedded software engineer with more than a fair bit of networking experience...

Since upgrading I've now caught the wireless-dropping issue, this isn't the DNS issue (which I've worked around) or the WEP/WPA issue (which I've also now changed), I've completely reset practically everything, followed all the supposed resolutions to this problem that I can find but to no avail. I'm still without wireless access and considering the downgrade to Leopard.
My wife's (nearly identical) MBP (on leopard) has no issues, my Mac Mini (on SL) does but at a very reduced probability of occurence.

Looking through the system.log, I see problems recorded from the Apple80211 daemons (I would post the actual lines but don't have access at the minute).

My conclusion is that this is definitely a SL (possibly late-leopard) issue and sounds to me like something is going wrong with an (attempted) power saving scheme reducing power or sleeping the Airport card inappropriately (maybe mess around with the power saving settings to see if it helps??).

Anyway, nothing really to add at this point, but a lot of the previous posts sound very familiar to me and I'd like to confirm that this does indeed seem like a SnowLeopard bug.

SteveT

SteveTickle wrote:
Anyway, nothing really to add at this point, but a lot of the previous posts sound very familiar to me and I'd like to confirm that this does indeed seem like a SnowLeopard bug.

If that were true the problem would be universal among people with the same hardware, and it's not.

That's what makes the diagnosis so frustrating.