New MacBook Connection Timeout

Stupid question, but do you have any other security items on your router besides password? For example, I also enable MAC filtering on my router. I would check if this is enabled or not on your router and if it is check if the MAC address of your airport is in the list (System Preferences -> Network -> Select Airport -> Advanced; under the Airport tab at the bottom is the Airport ID which is the MAC address).

An other option is at this same page check if the entry is in the "Preferred Networks", if it is delete it and then try to connect.

If that does not work, open the Console (type Console in Spotlight to start it) and click on "All Messages" under "Database Searches". With this open, try to connect and check the messages that are being reported in it, that might give you another clue and if not, post the entries here.

Hope this works for you.

It does seem to me that the Mac is trying but is not getting a response back. The MAC filtering I mention is not MAC the computer, but a unique global identifier for network cards.

From the messages you have here, I can see that the MAC address for your airport network card is: 00:11:95:3f:37:b9 this is the same as what in OSX for your airport would be called the Airport ID.

Now on a router one can enable something that is called MAC filtering and it really means setting the security to only allow computers with a certain network card to access the wireless network. This can be setup in conduction with requiring a password to access the wireless network.

I would really recommend to check your router's settings for security settings especially related to what they will call there MAC filtering. It might be possible that the entry for your apple computer got removed or so resulting in you now not being able to access the wireless network. If you see the entries in your router for MAC filtering then you should see some entries in there since you have other computers that can connect without any problems. What you then need to add or confirm is indeed in that list is the address
00:11:95:3f:37:b9
note that the : might not need to be in there.

Try this. Go to the router control panel and instead of "auto" channel define one. This worked for me.

Let me know.

I have exactly the same problems on both my Mac's (new iMac 21.5' and black MacBook). However, despite the fact that I can't connect (connection timeout message) with Snow Leopard (with Leopard it used to go fine), I also have a bootcamp partition with Windows 7 on my MacBook and there I can go on my wireless network without any problem. This seems to point to a software bug rather than a hardware problem - same hardware works fine under windows but not under snow Leopard! This is actually quite frustrating. Can someone please shed some light on this issue?

Open console and search in "All Messages" for "airport" to determine if you can see a reason why it is timing out.

I get to see 2 messages that are related to this:

#1:
com.apple.WindowServer[66] <error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged. (This is software related, no?)

#2:
SystemUIServer[91] Error joining Home_network: Connection timeout (-3905 timeout connecting)

then on all messages logging, a bit more on it:

airportd[1068] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
airportd[1268] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
kernel AirPort_AthrFusion21: Ethernet address xx (xx for my adress)
kernel AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 1 (Unspecified).
airportd[67] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
airportd[67] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
Apple80211 framework[91] airportd MIG failed (Associate Event) = -3905 (Timeout) (port = 27683)
airportd[151] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
Apple80211 framework[91] airportd MIG failed (Associate Event) = -3905 (Timeout) (port = 27683)
airportd[151] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
Apple80211 framework[91] airportd MIG failed (Associate Event) = -3905 (Timeout) (port = 27683)
airportd[164] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
airportd[164] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
airportd[164] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
airportd[164] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
Apple80211 framework[91] airportd MIG failed (Associate Event) = -3905 (Timeout) (port = 27683)
airportd[164] Apple80211Associate() failed -3905 (Timeout)
Apple80211 framework[91] airportd MIG failed (Associate Event) = -3905 (Timeout) (port = 27683)

further, on the Diagnostic Messages tab, I found the following:

airportd[164] [most time: (8.032505) _association] trace: <CFArray 0x100400930 [0x7fff70feef20]>{type = mutable-small, count = 16, values = (
0 : <CFString 0x10003acb0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "pref netwkAJ"}
1 : <CFString 0x10003acf0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "1 prefnetwk"}
2 : <CFString 0x100112920 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(1.500765) _scan"}
3 : <CFString 0x100103c10 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.000010) _lookup"}
4 : <CFString 0x1001358a0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.017923) _keychain"}
5 : <CFString 0x10040c7f0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(1.033663) _association"}
6 : <CFString 0x100113720 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.007163) _scan"}
7 : <CFString 0x100103310 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.000006) _lookup"}
8 : <CFString 0x100129ad0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.005812) _keychain"}
9 : <CFString 0x10011d4e0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(8.032505) _association"}
10 : <CFString 0x10040cde0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(1.485107) _scan"}
11 : <CFString 0x10040d470 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.000007) _lookup"}
12 : <CFString 0x10040d2a0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.008398) _keychain"}
13 : <CFString 0x10040cfa0 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(1.036649) _association"}
14 : <CFString 0x100133040 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "(0.007384) _scan"}
15 : <CFString 0x10003ad10 [0x7fff70feef20]>{contents = "fallback"}
)}
com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.airport.autojoin.summary
com.apple.message.signature: AssociationFailure - Timeout - 0:12:bf
com.apple.message.result: failure
com.apple.message.value: 13.142405
com.apple.message.value2: 1.000000
com.apple.message.uuid: FF02CBA9-0785-4F9C-8C71-C5A61250825D

It doesn't tell me much, but I hope someone can help.

Thanks a lot in advance.

I have the same problem on 1st gen black macbook running snow leopard. It started when the motherboard was swapped at an apple service center here in the UAE. They swapped the original MB to fix another issue but put a used one in rather than a new one. Ever since it has had problems connecting to wireless.

I then took it to an Apple Service center in the UK and they re-installed the OS and re-seated the airport card and that made it much better for a while. But a month later it started to lose its wireless connection everytime I moved machine.

The computer goes into a state where it can see the network but can't connect. The only thing that fixes it is a reboot.

It seems to happen if the screen hinge is moved. It makes me think the airport antenna is faulty?

Today it stopped working completely and refuses to connect to wireless access points even though it has connected before and can still see the signal strength. Nothing fixes it, not even a reboot.

It asks for the password as though it is not recognising the access point (even though it used to cennect without a problem). When the password is entered it comes up with a CONNECTION TIMEOUT error.

I may try and re-seat the airport card again myself as it is now out of applecare.


Any advice would be appreciated

akeech wrote:
I have the same problem on 1st gen black macbook running snow leopard. It started when the motherboard was swapped at an apple service center here in the UAE. They swapped the original MB to fix another issue but put a used one in rather than a new one. Ever since it has had problems connecting to wireless.

I then took it to an Apple Service center in the UK and they re-installed the OS and re-seated the airport card and that made it much better for a while. But a month later it started to lose its wireless connection everytime I moved machine.

The computer goes into a state where it can see the network but can't connect. The only thing that fixes it is a reboot.

It seems to happen if the screen hinge is moved. It makes me think the airport antenna is faulty?

Today it stopped working completely and refuses to connect to wireless access points even though it has connected before and can still see the signal strength. Nothing fixes it, not even a reboot.

It asks for the password as though it is not recognising the access point (even though it used to cennect without a problem). When the password is entered it comes up with a CONNECTION TIMEOUT error.

I may try and re-seat the airport card again myself as it is now out of applecare.


Any advice would be appreciated

I had a poor performing Macbook and considered opening up and possibly replacing the Airport ($80). I also thought it might be an antenna, I was hoping mine might have just come loose. In the end I skipped the hassle of opening the unit and bought an external USB wireless unit for $50. If you can live with something sticking out your USB port. My unit clips onto the frame of the LCD, alternatively has a stiff USB cable that can be adjusted (like a table lamp neck). Mine is called a Bear Extender, but there are several similar units. Be sure to find one that is compatible with Snow Leopard if you are up to 10.6.

Well, I just solved my problem. Paid 160€ for an Airport Extreme and all works perfect now.

This problem appeared on my MBP 2009 yesterday, out of the blue. Other computers - MB 2006 (also Snow Leopard), windows PC were working fine. Only pattern I can think of is that the MBP is on 802.11N, others are on 802.11G.

Changed wireless router channel from "auto" to 4, everything back to normal.

Message was edited by: RohitSingh