Q: 27" imac wifi problems (intermittant)

Hi David -

No news yet. The local Apple reseller didn't have the 2T Time Capsule in stock, only the 3T for a whopping $500. Don't have that much $$ in the account after having bought the iMac just a few weeks ago. I was told that due to flooding somewhere in South East Asia that the Time Capsules were on back order.

Whatever....!

I haven't decided whether to try to order directly from Apple or what. I may have to just clean off one of my current high volume drives so I can do a backup before I try downgrading the router driver. In the meantime, I'm doing fine just restarting the WiFi whenever I lose connection. And, I have to admit that since I changed my router channel to 11 I've had far fewer problems.

Frustrating. I'll be sure to post when I do get a backup drive, Time Capsule or another solution, or if any new fixes leap out at me before that.

Cheers!

Stuart

'JUST TO CLARIFY...it was my purchase of a new, 5th generation Airport EXTREME (**Not** Airport EXPRESS) that solved the WiFi problem.  It's now been two weeks and everything has been great. 

An expensive "fix" - but at least one that works!!!!

Point taken! So, this leads me to ask: is the WiFi router innnards of the Time Capsule more akin to the Express or the Extreme? I'd hate to purchase the Time Capsule for the benefit of a relatively inexpensive 2 terabyte external drive only to discover that the attached WiFi router is actually anaemic somehow.

Excellent question.  As I am not familiar with Time Capsule, I am hoping someone else can come up with the answer for you.

Another option for you would be to get an Iomega 2TB external drive (roughly $170) and the Airport EXTREME router (just under $200 w/tax).  That is exactly the set-up I have and you'll save $100!

By the way, the Airport EXTREME is connected by WiFi to my new iMac quad core i5, my wife's old iMac G4, an HP wireless printer, and two iPhones.  The connections are all solid and strong.

Airport Extreme is installed and working with both Mac and Win computers. I have tried to configure a 2TB external drive but, despite it being seen by the Airport, I can't seem to get to it. I would think that it would show up as a shared drive or as a Remote Volume, but I can't see it. Does it need to be formatted in a particular way? I want both Mac and Win machines to be able to read and write from it.... once this is set up, I'll back up the iMac and downgrade the Wireless driver...although, since I got the Airport Extreme up and working, I haven't had a disconnect problem...

I found your wifi fix. I have the same problem for months and here it is. Download the combo update if you are using 10.7.2   http://www.facebook.com/iMZDL/posts/200897176672710....... All your problems are gone!

Scrap that..... Going down again... Apple get your stuff together

Well, it seems that WiFi connectivity is the least of my problems. Since I started using the AirPort Extreme I have relatively few connectivity problems, but other issues are surfacing daily. Finder constantly freezes, along with other apps, can't bulk copy without the process failing...

Apple? I second ericw815's sentiment. Get your stuff together!

Thank you.

Happy to report no issues since Airport Extreme purchase.

It is fine that you are happy with the workaround you found, of course. Sadly that is not a solution to the problem that most of us are willing to accept. For what I have read, 10.7.3 --allegedly-- fixes this problem.

David I agree that having to spend $200 is not the ideal solution.  I was just pointing out that if someone was sick of the problem and had the ability to spend $200 to fix it now then they could and it would work. 

I think it's BS to have to spend but it I got tired of waiting for Apple to fix it's stuff.

I had the same problem.  Wireless WPA2 connection would drop every couple of minutes.  Other macs and iPhone were fine.  Imagine trying to retrieve 1.15 GB of Motion updates...

Solution:  open a terminal session and set up a continuous ping,  occuring every 5 seconds. 

ping -i 5 <default gateway address>   

Do not use 10 seconds, as this did not affect the droppings, and, for some reason, using 1 second made my replies go into the several hundred milliseconds range.

Cheers

This solution that Paul31 suggested seems to have fixed the problem for me (and it is VERY easy):

Has anyone tried this:

http://rys.pixeltards.com/2011/09/04/osx-lion-wifi.html

how to vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtxRfFAh8Pg

basically downgrades your wi-fi driver from 4.x to 3.x  The theory is that the 4.x driver has a bug that causes the issue.

Hello everyone,

First, sorry for my English but I am from Mexico and my English is not perfect

I just buy my IMAC a few days ago, and my router is away from my computer so I have the same problem that all of you, my iBook, iPad and iPhone, works perfectly but this one doesn't reach the Wi-fi signal properly, so I did many tests and for me, even when I am not happy with this cause I cant believe that a 2,200 dls computer, has this kind of problems, the problem is solved this way:

I asked on the store,were does the Wi-fi card is?, they said that the apple behind the case  sends the Wi-fi signal and I confirmed that with the apple support, so the thing is, the aluminum case doesn't let the signal goes everywhere, that's why the iMac doesn't find the routers surrounding the computer, the only signal range is the one that the little apple behind sends, so if the router is not on this range, you will never have a good wifi.

so for me, there are three ways to solve this problem

1) Point the little apple, directly to the router

2) Get an AIRPORT express

3) Move your router closer to your computer

I already talked to the support service and there is not any software solutions for this problem because is a hardware problem,A DESIGN PROBLEM, I already pointed the little apple to the router and now is working but just with that router, not with the other Wi-fi signals that I have around the computer

So don't spend more time trying to find a software solution cause it will not work for long, its a hardware issue, the new IMac just doesn't have a good Wi-fi range

hope this could help

Hello Matt,

The solution I posted above yours fixed this problem for me two days now.  My signal was dropping every 5 minutes prior to this fix. I would definitely try it!!

http://rys.pixeltards.com/2011/09/04/osx-lion-wifi.html

how to vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtxRfFAh8Pg

basically downgrades your wi-fi driver from 4.x to 3.x  The theory is that the 4.x driver has a bug that causes the issue.