Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

Yep, I have now tested all of the above suggestions and ideas. No luck ... just finished Disk Utility repair idea above - but no luck.
Fortunately my employer has me working on an XP laptop so I can actually communicate with the rest of the world.

Get realy Apple, apparently an issue since 10.5.8 ... eons ago ...

I own a 2006 MacBook1,1 Intel Core Duo 2GHz that shipped with Tiger.
Ever since I purchased and installed (after erasing completely my HD) Snow Leopard I have had problems with my wi fi connection, with the signal dropping anytime I would get more than 2 meters from the wireless router (Belkin N+ F5d8235-4). My wireless card is: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x86). The connection may sometimes last for a few minutes but eventually ends up lost (the indicator bars become grey) and i cannot reconnect until I am back within this reduced range. This also happens at the university and on other wireless networks, so I highly doubt this has anything to do with the routers. At home we also have 2 iPhones, one white iBook G3 and one G4 tower both connecting flawlessly on the same wireless network. My MacPro, running SL on ethernet works just fine.

I tried every single possible solution i could find on the internet, including all these listed above in the thread.

Deleted the .plist files
Set as inactive Bluetooth, FireWire etc and put airport as the first network port
I have an unsecured network but i still tried to set both a WPA and WEP password and tried all the suggested fixes that involved passwords etc.
Tried to set the router to "g mode" and change the channel
Created a new location
Deleted all settings in Keychain
Reset PRAM
Turned off IPv6
Recreated the airport service
Booting from the SL DVD
Looked for my router's firmware updates
Replaced Kext files with cd originals in case they were corrupt
Reset my cable modem
Disabled UPnP
Changed DNS settings
Ran Disk utility repair

After doing all this I made a fresh install of SL but the drops still occurred. Since I needed internet very badly I downgraded to Tiger (again a fresh
install..) from the original MB CDs but to my astonishment I do still have the same network issues. Also I noticed that wireless card's firmware version has changed since the downgrade.

Does anybody have suggestions?

Thanks!

With such a thorough analysis of the problem you should definitely go here and report a bug!!!

https://bugreport.apple.com

That REALLY stinks that you're back on Tiger with the same problem!

On the unibody laptop with 10.6.2 and experiencing the dropped WiFi signal as well.

Come on Apple! You've done WiFi right before, I know you can do it!

Same exact issue, 10.6.2 upgraded from Tiger (not a fresh install). Tried a bunch of things, even re-running the 10.6.2 combo update. I'm using a MacBookPro2,2 which is still under warranty. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this is SL related so a hardware swap is unlikely to fix it.

Wireless connection via AirPort appears to be working just fine, but every 30 minutes or so everything halts. I can't connect to anything, ping, dig all fail. The only fix, which is annoying, is to turn off and back on the AirPort. This is kind of ridiculous, and I'll be scheduling an appointment at our local store.

To add insult to injury, the brand new battery Apple gave me last trip to the Genius bar is reading "Service Battery", and my iPhone 3GS camera has effectively stopped working. Hopefully I can get it resolved this week. I'll post here if I get it fixed, along with details for those who are out of AppleCare.

Exactly the sam problem here. Mac Mini Intel Core Duo 2 GHz that shipped with Tiger.
After upgrade to SL, I have to position Mac Mini no more that 50 cm from wireless router inorder to work properly. Even then, connection strength falls but not enough to drop connection I guess. Signal strength starts at -50 dBm and after couple of minutes drops to -70 dBm (measured by System Profiler). I have to turn off and on Airport inorder to go back to -50dBm. Noise ratio stays at -95 dBm. It's definetly SL problem since everything worked well with Tiger.

If you're having trouble with this still, give this a shot:

1. Download and run Onyx (it's a free maintenance utility)

2. If Onyx tells you that you need to repair your start up disk, do step 2a otherwise proceed to 2b

2a. Boot from the original SL disc and go to Utilities > Disk Utility, verify and repair the disk as needed.

2b. Run the "Automation" scripts in Onyx to repair your disk permissions

3. Boot from the SL disk and install over 10.6.2 (i.e. don't wipe the system, unless you want to). This will effectively downgrade you to 10.6.0.

So far so good on 10.6, it isn't 100% up to date but at least things work again. I'll do more testing tonight to ensure its working correctly, but if the update caused this then a downgrade should do the trick.

This fixed the problem for me...

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL973

pretty excited when i saw this just now and upgraded immediately. a bit too early to tell if all the bugs have been ironed out. keeping my fingers crossed though.

Thanks, it seems to work. It's 0130 here, but I couldn't wait to test it...
It feels just a bit slower than I was used to, but it holds for some time. Tomorrow a more thorough test.

still getting the drop out if i leave the room. at least if im sitting next to the router now it will stick for longer.

Update installed, drops still here.
Apple should fix this issue soon because since it began, only showing (sl) leopard behavior with wifi, it persuaded at least 10 people i met of don't buy apple laps

Still dropouts, even with this fix. I have to be very close to router to avoid the dropouts.

It just doesn't work !

After the Airport update it got even worse. WiFi siglal is being dropped every 15 - 20 minutes. Before the update it could persist for 1-2 hours.

After the upgrade to SL i noticed:
1. Airport drops connection frequently. Reason: "Disassociated due to inactivity."
2. iMac doesn't want to sleep accordingly to Energy Saver settings (no problem to put it to sleep manually)
3. Freequnt beach ball spinnings (especially after wakeups). SL wakes up approx 5 times longer than Leo


I tried all the VooDoo (resetting SMC, PRAM, deleting plist files, reconfiguring various settings, reconfig of my router, clean SL install) with no success.

What is most important my Ubuntu, XP and Vista machines work with no WiFi drops, put to sleep on scheduled intervals, and wake up promply. And all this with no VooDoo applied, and for at least half price.

It is not funny anymore, but after all it makes me laugh at Apple.

I think I may have stumbled onto something.. I have two routers, 1) wireless(g) running WPA2 security and 2) the other Wireless(n) WPA2... I have a MBP and a mini.. I found that the mini while connected to the G network with WPA2 did not drop the connection. The MBP however connected, to the N using WPA2 kept dropping the connection, every few minutes... I changed the N router to use G only and it has not dropped the connection for over 2 hrs now... I think this may be an issue with the Airport card and N-networks. This may not solve everyones problems, but at least for those who can set their router to G it will serve as a stop gap until apple FIXES IT !

Cheers.