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27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

I really wish Apple had email or online support...

I have a 27" i5 imac that I bought just before Christmas, I had lots of problems with the wifi on it, it would not connect and when it did it was very slow, all while my macbook and iphone in the same room showed full signal and a fast rock solid connection. I rang Apple support, it took ages but they were very helpful and eventually we solved it and in the end it seemed to be WPA that was the problem and whilst I was not happy switching to WEP it seemed to work so I went with it.

Fast forward a month or so and I have started having problems again, it is fine when I boot but as the day goes on it gets slower and slower before finally refuses to connect at all. I am wondering if this could be something over-heating but in truth I am puzzled.

Anybody else having issues?

imac i5 27" and macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 21, 2010 3:11 AM

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Posted on Feb 21, 2010 5:31 PM

I am having the same exact problem. Bought a 27 inch iMac about a month ago, the wireless connection was a little slow off the bat, but then I was able to fix it. Recently after turning it on the signal is picked up fine for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden the airport can no longer pick up any wireless network. Meanwhile my iPhone and MacBook have no issues. I called apple support and they had me complete a litany of useless diagnostic tasks - emptied my cache, did a hard reboot, repaired disk permissions , etc. None of it helped. Seems it's a hardware issue. Anyone know if this is a known issue with this model? I'm afraid the airport card itself may be defective in some way.
443 replies

Sep 28, 2012 5:39 PM in response to KFJulius

I blamed OS X too, until I realised I'd been a cheapskate with my router, I should have stuck with my airport express. Luckily for me, all I had to do to get a decent connection was to go through a very convoluted process to upgrade the firmware on my router.


Another alternative is to drop your level of security as outlined in other posts, that worked for me in the first instance and seems to work for most people.


Just think if you were running a late 2009 PC the whole system would probably be obselete by now. No-one's forcing you to be brand loyal, but when you weigh up the alternatives, Apple ain't that bad.

Oct 1, 2012 11:27 AM in response to jonathad

Well, I had forgotten about this issue because I was using an ethernet connection and, of course, having no issues.


I disconnected it about a week or more ago and - hallelujah - I forgot about it - because I'm having no problems!!!!


🙂


One other thing I changed, which may or may not have any bearing on the problem I was having - I dumped Shaw Broadband 50 about a week ago! It's the same router but just on High Speed now, instead of Broadband. I wonder if that had anything to do with things.


I sure hope that by saying something I don't start getting problems now - hahahahaha.


So far, so good - I hope things stay ok.


Judie

Oct 19, 2012 8:07 AM in response to Cali pharaoh

Cali Pharaoh's method worked for me. I changed the channel my wifi router was transmitting on to Channel 10 from Channel 1 & then I changed the mode from AES > TKIP. Wasn't hoping for much but by golly it works. I've been testing it for 3-4 days now. No wifi drop outs while using my iMac & also when waking up from sleep (the iMac, not me).


Hope this helps.


FYI, I'm using mid-2011 27" iMac running 10.7.5 Lion.

Dec 21, 2012 9:19 PM in response to neil74

I struggled with this problem for months and then a accidentally wiped the settings in my AirPort Extreme - after doing a reset on the extreme and redoing the set up (using the airport utility in ML) the problem cleared up totally. Noticed that the new utility set my channel to "automatic " so I left it at that. (Leatned afterwards that Time Warner no longer provided Dns Server addresses but implemented some scheme where they were automatically assigned to the router... So I also entered 8.8.8.8 in the space where the DNS Server goes (it's Googles DNS Server)...and problem has not recurred at all.

Dec 24, 2012 7:01 PM in response to pberk

I have had these problems for the last year or so. Was getting 40mbs up and down on an iPad and iPhone on the same network in the same location as my 27" iMac. iMac rarely went above 3mbs. Performed a "Restore default settings … " my Airport Express yesterday and set up in the standard way (using 802.11n only 5ghz, Channel Automatic) and now the iMac is getting the same fast speeds as the other devices.

Dec 29, 2012 12:14 PM in response to neil74

Any fixes for this yet..i been having the same problems. My router is upstairs, my Imac in the basment, so I was going to try a wireless adapter first. If that does not work, I am going to have to hard wire it. I am losing so much connection speed with this problem. My Ipad is getting better connection speeds at this point.


Any ideas..i tried a couple posted solutions none have worked thus far.


And I was so happy to get my iMac..now this!!!!!

Dec 29, 2012 2:22 PM in response to pberk

I'll check..but all my other devices are working great Windows Desktop (50 mbps) Laptop (50 mbps) iPad (35 mbps) iMac (20-23 mbps)


1. With my iMac being in the basement I will try a USB Wireless Adapter next or extender.

2. If that dont work Ethernet cable


Sometimes my iMac dont recognized USB devices at first start up.


But thanks for the tip.

Dec 29, 2012 8:22 PM in response to TDR74

You don't need any utilities to see if nearby connections are providing interference, just go to "about this mac" in the mac menu (top left of screen), click on "more info" and then click on "airport".


If you set up automatically Apple certainly does not necessarily put you on Channel 11 (which would defy the "auto" monicker really, wouldn't it ?). It will scan the network and attempt to place you on the channel with least interference automatically. If you are using a 5ghz connection rather than a 2.4ghz connection, the channel number selected is likely to be very high (Channel 149 seems reasonably common).


Certainly, manually selecting a channel and sticking to it CAN help - slightly - but I have tried every single suggestion posited here since the start of the thread (other than buying a new router), and there has been no cure for my connection woes I'm afraid. Other people seem to have. There's no guarantee there will be a solution for you - you just need to try the various things which seem to have worked for some people.

Jan 6, 2013 6:30 PM in response to neil74

I've been struggling with this issue months, and none of the suggestions on the web has worked for me. It's obvious that there's an issue with 10.7.5 Lion, but our friends at Apple don't seem to be inclined to do anything about this ridiculous problem.


I finally gave up -- I went out and spent $50 on a WiFi range extender, turned off the WiFi on my iMac and made a wired connection between the extender and the iMac. Not terribly elegant, but it works like a charm.

Jan 30, 2013 6:43 PM in response to jfischer58

I just got the latest 27" IMAC and have been having intermittent outages. I will lose connection to the server temporarily, then it will come back on. I use Comcast and I have Netgear router and I have gone in and made several changes; nothing has worked.



At this point, I don't know if it is an issue with Comcast or Apple.

27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

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