Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

j0390,

All I can say is, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm........... strange. I've always been on WPA2, ALWAYS, from Tiger onto Leopard.

And my router is connected to the Airport Express, and the Express is always showing Green. The router doesn't have as many problems, my PC is always connected there and has no problems.



Strange..........

Jodin -

That is interesting...... because I was thinking that perhaps the 802.11n is the problem? So the b works better, eh? But then I may not be able to go very far?

Golfer, my router give me either the g or b options, but mixed mode (g AND b) doesn't work (it drops occasionally). So, I must use only b.

Am I the only one that only has a problem when waking from sleep? I have yet to have my connection spontaneously drop, but probably about 30% of the time when I come out of sleep the Macbook will claim my wireless network is not available. Turning off Airport and then on again makes it magically find it. This is definitely a SL issue since the machine worked flawlessly under Tiger and I have 3 other things on the network all working fine. I'm pretty disappointed that this problem is still around in 10.6.2.

Same problem here. My new iMac with SL has been intermittently dropping the wireless connection since I brought it home last month; while my old Mini running Tiger keeps chugging away like a champ. I've had three visits from AT&T, two calls with Apple Support, one trip with my iMac to the Genius Bar, bought a new 2wire router, changed router channels, switched from WEP to WPA and upgraded to 10.6.2. None of these solved the problem. Very frustrating.

But two hours ago, I tried something new. I switched off Time Machine. I haven't been dropped since.

I don't know if this is the solution (and if it is, it's not a happy one)--but so far so good. This is the longest I've gone without seeing "...because your computer is not connected to the Internet" since I brought the iMac home.

No guarantees, but might be worth a try for some of you.

Just to confirm other suspicions, I have a Imac 20" at work which is running through ethernet (No problems) an original mac mini which could not be upgraded to SL ,due to not having the intel chips,at home accessing through airport extreme (no problems). A macbook pro and a second imac at home both upgrade to SL (frequent dropping off wifi).
It is now the case that I have to bring both the Macbook and second imac to work and plugging them into the ethernet system here to get any updates as when attached to the ethernet at home the 10.6.2 update was going to take 50 hours.
To me this surely represents an OS issue.

Sorry I forgot to add that my wife also runs an ASUS notebook through our wifi system and has had no issues with drop outs.

My optimism was misplaced. The problem has returned, so don't bother switching off Time Machine.

Thank you for this advice. Renewing the System Preferences is certainly one of the first things to do.

I found that using a cleaner utility like OnyX seems to have cured the one of mine that was still losing wifi connections. I was totally OC in my use of all the utilities and routines.

Hint: Disable the "volume check" and "auto update" in preferences before running the cleaner as there are several reboots required.

It would be nice to know what exactly needed to be got rid of.

I've tried most of the fixes suggested in this thread. Some help -- but nothing is the fix. I did try the suggestion of using OnyX, and took the laptop to work to run all the fixes. I did connect to our Cisco wireless network all day, and didn't fall off once. I've shut down my Macbook, and brought it home. On startup at home, the computer connected to the home wireless network without asking me to input SSID's or passwords, etc. (the usual stuff). Time will tell if OnyX cured it, and I will report back.

If it doesn't fix anything -- I am beginning to think it may be an issue with the firmware on our DLink DI-524 wireless router and the Snow Leopard OS.
The fact that Apple hasn't addressed this with an OS update is a bit concerning.

And OnyX did not fix the issue. The computer was right in the middle of a farmville game... and wireless died, and while typing this message died again.

Hi,

Im not sure if anyone suggested this yet - Im not going to read 21 pages to find out! But I was having a similar problem. Apparently there is some sort of problem with the airport firmware version 7.4.2 and snow leopard, so I downgraded to 7.4.1 and I had no more problems with connections.

To downgrade:

Open Applications > Utilities > Airport Utility

Click on your base station and click "Manual Setup". Then in the "Summary" tab, click on the word "Version". From there you should be able to select a previous firmware version.

Hope this solves your problems.

Good luck!

Message was edited by: alwaysalwaysapple

Get 10.6.2
Create a new netwotk location
Reset smc & pram
Check your login items and /Library/StartupItems folder

Connect to the network from the install dvd and perform some ping tests with network utility.

if safari is going slow... thats a seperate issue

Wouldn't it be nice if your work connection is still ok:) At least you could then eliminate the computer from the equation?

My Turn. Last week I received a brand new macbook pro, loaded 10.6 preinstalled. It works fine at work on the 802.11a network with wpa2 enterprise encryption. I brought it home and immediately noticed issues with my wireless. I've tried 'everything' thats been posted here and elsewhere and the only thing that works consistently at home is setting it to 802.11b with wpa2 and a static ip, and even then i still get dropouts, but its the most reliable. I've tried mixed b/g and g only. I can't try n as I don't have an n router to try. This testing was done with a second macbook pro from 2007 with 10.5.8 and it works flawlessly. I've also tried two pc's and they have no trouble.
I then went to a neighbors house with both mac's and the issues are still there. One works and the other has issues. This is not a router specific problem, or an upgrade vs. clean install issue. This is a software/hardware/driver issue pure and simple
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APPPLE! YOU REALLY NEED TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE! YOU AND YOUR SOFTWARE ARE AT FAULT AND YOU NEED TO COME UP WITH A FIX.
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