Q: Dropping Wi FI Signal

I have no security on my router, still drops all day.

It seems that the signal is dropping when it sees other networks, it gets confused and drops mine.

I would be curious to see if people are having issues that live away from any other wi fi signals?

Adding my own experience:

I have the same issues others have reported here with my wifi connection. I'm on a first gen MBP with most recent Snow Leopard updates and first gen Time Capsule with most recent firmware. Time Capsule is using DHCP but my computer is set up with a static IP.

I have tried deleting plist files, deleting Keychain entries, setting up preferences over and over. Nothing has worked. Some suggested "solutions" like disabling the 802.11g band are simply untenable. Others, like booting to the SL DVD to setup a connection and rebooting into OS X are just silly.

No other computers in my household (PC's, all of them) experience problems on my network, and I never had this problem on Leopard or Tiger.

This is unquestionably a problem users are experiencing as a result of Snow Leopard, and it's a real shame Apple hasn't addressed it in either 10.6.1 or 10.6.2. It's the most aggravating and persistent problem I've ever had with Apple hardware or software, and *I'm frakking tired of it*.

</mytwocents>

Yes, I take it back, removing wireless security had no effect, I thought it had worked. But tried today and couldn't connect, took a few goes. That will teach me for being optimistic.

Just an update. After 24 hours I still have not had any drops in internet connection. I know this solution will not work for everyone, but it may be worth a try.

Thanks for posting that your solution worked so far. Let's keep our fingers crossed for 48 hours. Let us know tomorrow if you made it. Several solutions have worked temporarily but I think the 48 hour mark is a sign of success.

All of yesterday and today I have been unable to connect to the home network on my Macbook which has been connected to same network since I got it a few months ago. Tried about 30 different suggestions from people on all different forums. Decided I would try login onto other network, it did it fine, but still not my home network. So while on other network I tried to update my mac and see if that would help. There was an update for Airport with regards to dropping networks, updated, tried my home network again and bam it works.

Anyone who can access the net by another means try updating Mac and see if it helps.

EDIT: and then it stopped working again...

I've been checking out earlier threads on WiFi problems with OS-X. For what it's worth, some users encountered weak and/or dropped signals with earlier versions of Leopard. Airport goes "Looking for networks" every 15 seconds (this seemingly bizarre process is normal for OS-X), and for some reason, under some particular and as-yet-unidentified circumstances, it fails to hang on to the connection it already has.

For at least one user, configuring the router so that WMM was on (or supported) did the trick. I haven't seen that suggestion here yet, so it might be worth a shot.

I'm having the same issue. I have 2 computers at home. A MacBook with 10.5, and a brand new MacPro running 10.6.

When I connect to my Airport Extreme and run speed test and just watch the overall performance, the Mac Pro connects at only a fraction of the speed of the Mac Book. Also, the MacBook is showing full bars in signal strength whereas the MacPro is showing 2 bars. And both of these computers are in the same room.

Also, when I connect them both to a neighbors wireless router that has no security, they both perform extremely well. The neighbors router is a linksys apparently on 802.11g. I'm running 802.11n. I decided to see if the problem was with 802.11N, I manually switched to 802.11g on my airport extreme and then reconnected. And the problem still persisted.

Now I'm clueless as to what the problem/fix could be. It definitely seems to be a Snow Leopard issue just by the performance comparison between the MB running 10.5 and my MP running 10.6. But also, could it have to do with the router itself? Since my performance problems seem to completely disappear when connected to the neighbors 802.11g.

In any case, I'm really disappointed with apple. I'm having this problem after returning 3 27inch imacs... (all of which suffered from this problem as well.. but they were returned due to a cracked screen, and 2 screens that were all yellow on the bottom third). Ugh.

FYI: This won't cure everyones probably, there I do have two things of note:

1) My issued turns out to a failing Logic Board. Apple offered a great price on a fix.

2) Apple Support folks DO monitor these forums and they DO pay attention to what's being discussed. I know this because the techs I talked to referred to my posts at times. Thanks Apple.

Dan

What is WMM on a router?

WMM = Wireless MultiMedia.
On my Motorola setup page, it's under the "Wireless" tab.

Here's a description, for what it's worth, copied from techtarget.com:

Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), previously known as Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME), is a subset of the 802.11e wireless LAN (WLAN) specification that enhances quality of service (QoS) on a network by prioritizing data packets according to four categories. Network administrators can change priority levels as they see fit.

Ranging from highest priority to lowest, these categories are:

*Voice: Giving voice packets the highest priority enables concurrent Voice over IP (VoIP) calls with minimal latency and the highest quality possible.
*Video: By placing video packets in the second tier, WMM prioritizes it over all other data traffic and enables support for three to four standard definition TV (SDTV) streams or one high definition TV (HDTV) stream on a WLAN.
*Best effort: Best effort data packets consist of those originating from legacy devices or from applications or devices that lack QoS standards.
*Background: Background priority encompasses file downloads, print jobs and other traffic that does not suffer from increased latency.

WMM also features a Power Save certification that helps small devices on a network conserve battery life. Power Save allows small devices, such as phones and PDAs, to transmit data while in a low-power "dozing" status. The certification gives software developers and hardware manufacturers a way to fine-tune battery use in the ever-increasing number of small devices that have Wi-Fi capabilities.

Usually, you enter http://192.168.1.1 (possibly 192.168.1.2 if you have a VOIP box) in your browser to access the router setup page. They're all different, so poke around among the settings. Some WMM-enabled routers let you pick one mode (voice, video, etc.) If you don't see "WMM" look for "QoS". Older routers might not have this capability at all. All I can suggest is that if you putz around with these settings, you might eliminate whatever it is that OS-X is gagging on.

Forgot to mention this, but if you manage to hose your wireless connection upon mucking with the WMM settings, you'll need an ethernet cable to re-connect and undo your last move.

Thought I'd post an update of observations to date:

1.) Both new 17" MBPs exhibiting this dropping out with wireless when using MacOS (Snow Leopard). Remember these are new so didn't have previous OS that's been subsequently updated.

2.) Although I'd previously reported that they tend to disconnect together, subsequent observations are that this isn't always the case.

3.) No dropouts when using ethernet cable.

4.) No dropouts (using wireless) so far under Windows XP on Bootcamp, or XP on a PC laptop at the same time. Note that my wife's Mac has dropped out when mine running bootcamp XP and my PC laptop didn't.

5.) Interesting comment from some friends of mine who've updated their Macs to Snow Leopard - they say they now experience dropouts on wireless that didn't occur before.

I'm currently of the opinion that this is a software issue with MacOS.

Cheers

James

Just to let apple know, I'm experiencing the same problem. With 10.5.8 I had great wireless range, now with SL the range is awful. I have a friend's identical model macbook right next to me. He's got four bars with 10.5.8, and I can't even connect to the network with SL. Please fix this guys.

Message was edited by: gkoo3306

gkoo3306 wrote:
Just to let apple know...

gkoo3306 ~ Let them know via this feedback form:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

...and to get support directly from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/support/contact