27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

Also, if worst comes to worst, any suggestions on an external usb wifi device or something?

Hi Larsalicious,

I found a pretty nifty little gadget that just requires a ethernet port, a tivo wireless N adapter (NOT THE G ONE!).

It sounds silly, but this works like a wireless bridge that works off your ethernet port, no drivers, usb ports used etc. It works at wireless N 5 or 2.4ghz and works wonderfully. It is completely platform neutral, it passes all data from your ethernet over wifi to your network router. Initial setup is connect wifi card to your ethernet, comes up with dhcp address in your ethernet card, type in default gateway (which is your wifi card at this point). Starts up a config manager to setup what wifi hot spot to connect to. It reloads itself and your magically connected to your wifi network via ethernet DHCP is passed through so your computer gets your network's ip address assignment, dns etc. It's pretty neat and it solves every problem I noticed thus far with the mac built in wifi. A great example is the random 900+ ms response time when your doing a continuous ping. I can't even get this external adapter to go over 15ms when transferring a large file from a media smart server to the desktop.

There is definitely something seriously wrong with the wifi card in the new imac. It's something that came from a company called Atheros.

I know this type of device exists other then tivo brand. But specifically this is the new wireless N tivo network adapter and it works great. It's cool to know if in the future you need wireless N wifi connection for something that is wired based or has g only like the ps3, you could just use this.

AT 70 dollars its not cheap, but hey it does what it does, and it does it very well.

I am starting to wonder what wireless router everyone is using and what frequency range 2.4 or 5ghz.

I am wondering if this is an issue with draft N standards causing conflicts. The problem with Draft, they are not finalized yet. So if Atheros or whoever makes the wifi cards do something differently, that's where problems come in.

Considering I have no issues with any other computer, but its not evident in the new mac book pro and the imac, it has to be the new wifi cards apple is using not being compatible with my wifi.

I am using a Linksys WRT610N and primarily using the wifi card on 5ghz.

I do have quite a few devices on my wifi network, including a Sony Dash, mac book pro, imac, two tivo's, a ps3 and connected wired a HP home media server.

I'm pretty sure that all these problems are to do with ****** update code in Snow Leopoard (which would explain why it's people with newer macs, and updated software that are seeing the problem more often).

I have a two year old 24" iMac, and a 2 year old Mac Mini that have both been working PERFECTLY for the last couple of years on Leopard.

recently I purchased a snow leopard CD and installed. Both machines worked fine for another couple of months.

However, within a couple of days, BOTH machines started having very severe issues connecting to my wireless network. Sometimes they connect but won't be assigned an IP address, sometimes they won't connect, sometimes they are fine then disconnect.

Pings are intermittant, there is packet loss etc, exactly as described by everyone else. I have tried two different airport extremes, an Airport express, and a 3com wireless router. I have tried WEP, WPA and turning off security. Nothing fixes the issues. In the end, I have had to revert to running ethernet cables to the macs in order to function. My next step will be to format the machines and re-install, but I'm not looking foward to all of this. I am contemplating going back to leopard, because my gut feel is that this issue is being caused by Snow Leopard or one of it's updates...

Yeah I don't know, the random high pings are also there when running in windows as well. however I don't have issues with connections to wifi hot spots.

Also its interesting to note when I connect to a 2.4ghz wireless G older router I don't have the connection issues but I do have randomly high pings and random dropped packets while running a continuous ping.

Can anyone who has issues post what wifi card their mac has installed? I have no doubt most everyone who bothers to come here and read will say Atheros.

I will give apple a call tonight and ask them about it o ra potential fix. Usually something like this works or not, its not usually a random issue unless its a firmware bug or something. I just wonder if apple is going to update it with a future 10.6.x update. I know if all else fails, buy a ethernet baed wifi module and all will be ok

Yes, mine is Atheros 9280.

I've seen an improvement in the performance of my airport by turning it off before I shut down my machine at the end of the day, then turning it back on after I boot up in the morning. I have no idea why, but at least it's no longer a constant annoyance.

Same problem with 21.5" iMac late 2009. Wireless worked well for nearly a year and is now not working at all. It is showing that it sees the networks and is connected, but nothing is loading and network utility shows very low traffic and some errors. I share wireless with neighbors and cannot change the setup, but since my 5 year old ibook and every other laptop ever used in my house has no issue, I don't think the setup is an issue. Currently sharing internet from the laptop airport via ethernet to get by. Am considering some sort of external wireless device like the Tivo n adapter mentioned here because I am not interested in the hassle of the genius bar and this really sounds like a hardware issue without much of a solution.

I have a 24" iMac purchased in Dec 2009. After an hour or two the wifi connection is lost or inconsistent. I usually don't notice until I am receiving emails on my blackberry and not on Mail. Very, very frustrating.

Just called apple support. This is what they suggest:

System management control reset:
1. plug out everything that connects to the imac
2. press the power button for 7 seconds
3. don't start the imac yet!
4. as SOON as you start the imac, press command/option/P/R.

If this doesn't work, then you need to pretty much bring it to the store to have it looked at.

I got similar problems after a bit, first of all Airport wouldn't pick up an IP address and connect after a while- I changed the channel to 7 from the router and also changed to WPA encrpytion and that seemed to sort it out for a while. But then after a few months, while it still said it was connected in Airport, with an IP address, the web pretty much ground to a halt and became very intermittent. I rang Apple and after one guy just messed around with resets and didn't know what was wrong he put me onto someone more knowledgeable, and his channel change fix is working for now:

Click on the apple symbol top left. Click on 'About this Mac' and then click 'More info'. In the list on the left half way down there is 'Network' and click on 'Airport'. This will bring up a list of all the wifi networks around, with the one you are connected to at the top. Find your network and see what channel it is on. Then look through the other networks and see what channels they are on. In my case while I'd changed my channel to 7 there were also 3-4 other wifi networks in my vicinity on 7 as well. I then went and changed my router to a channel that none of the other wifi networks were broadcasting on and it has fixed the issue for now.

It may go wrong again of course but for now this suggests that the Imac wifi pick up is just a bit weak and rather prone to interference. Changing the channel per se wont help if other wifi networks, even weak ones, are broadcasting on that channel.

Hi, my wifi works now but before used to loose connection on start up, I just made a new location on system preference-network.
Problem is that I can only connect on 2.4ghz, no way to get the 5Ghz and I am connected to a brand new time capsule, any help?

SOLUTION

I have been having this same, flakey wifi problem with my 27" iMac and actually had similar issues with my Macbook last year. The solution was to install a program called LITTLE SNITCH -->

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

It seems to have worked for this. You can download a free demo and run it for 3 hours each time (before being asked to restart in demo mode), and so far so good for me - it seems to have sorted the wifi problem out.

This suggests to me the issue is not a problem with the wireless card at a hardware level. Maybe a problem with Snow Leopard.

Hopefully this will help some of you. This problem has driven me up the wall. If it works for you, go buy a copy of Little Snitch and remember how much of your sanity it's saved :O)

Anyone tried the littlesnitch solution? It would be weird if it was solving anything.

Anyway, everything suggested on this thread failed for me (not tried little snitch though). At the point where, to download videolan, I had to connect my MBP to the iMac using ethernet and drop the .dmg in the dropbox over the default ip address. lame (throughtput was 7kB/s avg (local download), before dropping completely)

So I've decided to fix it myself since Apple has been no helpful at all. i.e buy more Apple stuff, which is kind of lame... I'll get an apple tv to replace my mini, so I'll move away the Capsule from the mini and next to the iMac. That'll work, for me. Please Apple, pay attention to this thread.

IT IS SOLVED!!!

YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE PORTS. READ THIS ARTICLE. I HAVE AN I7 IMAC AND IT WORKED PERFECT FOR ME.

http://www.ianhoar.com/2010/09/09/imac-os-x-wifi-issues-finally-solved/

thanks for the advice. My imac issue also solved. changed the channel to another and speed increased significantly.