Airport can't connect to network when woken up

Question

Level 1

9 points

Airport can't connect to network when woken up

Hello,

I have a problem when waking up my Macbook Pro, I can not connect
to wireless at home (from time to time). It takes me several times to
close and open notebook to connect. The problem is only at home, I have
tried three different Wireless APs. My iPhone and other notebooks have
no problems connecting at all. I am certain that problem is not with
APs (I've tried to change channels, etc.). What I think is a problem is,
that sometimes Airport card wrongly detects country code and reverts
to a few channels. This is from the logs -- unsuccesful connection:

1. 11.2009 11:52:09 airportd[7004] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
1. 11.2009 11:52:09 kernel directed SSID scan fail
1. 11.2009 11:52:17 airportd[7004] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
1. 11.2009 11:52:17 kernel en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
1. 11.2009 11:52:17 kernel en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140
1. 11.2009 11:52:20 kernel en1: 802.11d country code set to 'SY'.
1. 11.2009 11:52:20 kernel en1: Supported channels 149 153 157 161
1. 11.2009 11:52:53 kernel Assertion failed: file "/SourceCache/AirPortDriverBrcm4311/AirPortDriverBrcm4311-410.91.20/src/wl/sys/ wlc_scan.c", line 1375: wlc valid_chanspecdb(wlc->cmi, chanspec_start)
1. 11.2009 11:52:53 kernel Assertion failed: file "/SourceCache/AirPortDriverBrcm4311/AirPortDriverBrcm4311-410.91.20/src/wl/sys/ wlc_scan.c", line 1375: wlc valid_chanspecdb(wlc->cmi, chanspec_start)
1. 11.2009 11:53:01 airportd[7130] Scan() error 16 (Resource busy)
1. 11.2009 11:53:01 airportd[7130] __performScan() EBUSY, sleep 1 sec, try again
1. 11.2009 11:53:01 kernel en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
1. 11.2009 11:53:01 kernel en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140
1. 11.2009 11:53:02 airportd[7130] Scan() error 16 (Resource busy)
1. 11.2009 11:53:02 airportd[7130] __performScan() EBUSY, sleep 1 sec, try again
1. 11.2009 11:53:03 airportd[7130] Scan() error 16 (Resource busy)
1. 11.2009 11:53:03 airportd[7130] __performScan() EBUSY, sleep 1 sec, try again
1. 11.2009 11:53:03 kernel en1: 802.11d country code set to 'SY'.
1. 11.2009 11:53:03 kernel en1: Supported channels 149 153 157 161
1. 11.2009 11:53:04 kernel Assertion failed: file "/SourceCache/AirPortDriverBrcm4311/AirPortDriverBrcm4311-410.91.20/src/wl/sys/ wlc_scan.c", line 1375: wlc valid_chanspecdb(wlc->cmi, chanspec_start)
1. 11.2009 11:53:04 kernel Assertion failed: file "/SourceCache/AirPortDriverBrcm4311/AirPortDriverBrcm4311-410.91.20/src/wl/sys/ wlc_scan.c", line 1375: wlc valid_chanspecdb(wlc->cmi, chanspec_start)
1. 11.2009 11:53:04 kernel directed SSID scan fail
1. 11.2009 11:53:12 airportd[7130] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
1. 11.2009 11:53:13 kernel directed SSID scan fail
1. 11.2009 11:53:21 airportd[7130] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
1. 11.2009 11:53:22 kernel directed SSID scan fail

Successful connection:

1. 11.2009 11:54:51 kernel en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
1. 11.2009 11:54:51 kernel en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140
1. 11.2009 11:54:52 kernel Auth result for: 00:19:cb:e4:c9:9a MAC AUTH succeeded
1. 11.2009 11:54:52 kernel AirPort: Link Up on en1
1. 11.2009 11:54:52 kernel AirPort: RSN handshake complete on en1

Also, I was not able to find current Airport Express firmware update for
10.6.1. The last one I found on Apple.com pages was 2008-004 (which does not
work on 10.6.1), so I'm not sure if I have the latest firmware.

MacBookPro4,1, Mac OS X (10.6.1), Card type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8C), Firmware: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.19)

Posted on Nov 1, 2009 3:09 AM

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Answer 1

morsi

Level 1

10 points

Mar 22, 2010 1:27 PM in response to jooray

Well I think I can tell you why you probably get the problem, unfortunately I can't tell you a fix.

Somehow your mac gets a wrong country id, probably from a defective or incorrectly configured access point that tells it is in another country than what is actually the case. Different countries have different restrictions on channel use. What is commonly available channels in UK or USA might be restricted in say France or Japan, this means the access point will not connect on those channels. This is "good" because in the USA it is a federal offense to use restricted radio channels and I know France is similarly hard on it because some of those channels are used for rescue and military services.
{quote:title=jooray wrote:}

1. 11.2009 11:52:20 kernel en1: 802.11d country code set to 'SY'.
1. 11.2009 11:52:20 kernel en1: Supported channels 149 153 157 161

{quote}
So by setting country code to SY your mac has restricted itself to 4 channels that doesn't seem to be available in the X3 regional area. Now the tricky part is that it doesn't have to come from your access point it could be set by scanning around at other access points in your area. I don't know if there is a fix for this because it seems like it's the airport driver on your mac that doesn't auto change back, but crashes in the process. I would bet if you started up in bootcamp and used windows this would not happen, and I know that's not a solution.

You should be able to see what the country code is set to in System Profiler under Network>Airport, mine looks like this:
Country Code: US
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

Maybe if someone out there knows a way to manually set country code in the system software that would work, but I bet it's one of those things like dvd regions that apple has locked down real tight because their FCC approval requires it.

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Answer 2

Apr 19, 2010 5:01 AM in response to jooray

Hi there,

I've had the same problem with my brand new MBP.
Checking with System Profiler, i saw the country code for airport interface is set to US with the US supported channels.
That didn't fit with my wifi router (not a Airport Express, but philips snb5600 BTW) which is probably set to the Belgian Settings so i couldn't get a connection, having this error
SystemUIServer86 Error joining WifiRouter: Connection timeout (-3905 timeout connecting)

I haven't found out how to change the Country Code on my MBP, but i've found how to change the channel on my Wifi Router.
I chose one of the supported channels mentioned by System Profiler
(Supported Channels : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165),
et voilà, the connection arrived almost immediately.

Hope this could help someone...

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