WiFi dropping connection in OSX but NOT in Windows 7

Same thing happens both at home and all your networks at work?

I am having the same problem on my macbook. I've replaced the router already and it happens all the same. My fiance's 13" macbook pro is similarly affected. I do not experience this issue with booting to XP through BootCamp. This is fortunate since that is where I do my gaming, but it is frustrating having to turn airport off and back on every few minutes. When I browse to a slow website, it is impossible to tell if the connection has dropped or if the site is just slow or non-responsive. This is my first mac and it is leaving a questionable impression. I will gladly throw this into the secondhand market and pickup an ASUS if it means I can browse the web without this inconvenience.

Apple: Please fix this issue.

I'm sorry to say that I don't think it is going to be fixed. I'm already waiting/hoping for a solution for more than three years. Try to sell it as you mentioned. Apple only wants fanbois as customers 😉

I'm going to add my own voice of protest to this forum - I've had my macbook for 2 months working on a Belkin wireless N network with 4 other windows devices working with no problems on it. The network connection drops every time with the Macbook - once I've restarted the internal wireless network connection, it's fine. On the one hand, it's good to know that I'm not the only one suffering this, but on the other hand, it's a bit shoddy of Apple to ignore this problem. I'm going to try and be persistent with apple on this issue because it's a shame such a promising piece of kit is so badly marred by what appears to be a fixable problem.

+1 on this. Has been going on for years with the MacBook Air. Just bought a brand new MacBook Pro 13" and it does the exact same thing when in OSX. Works fine in Win7.

It is a shame...makes me want to throw this beautiful piece of aluminum sculpture out the window.

Same problem here (two MacBook Pros and three Windows boxes on the network, only the Macs drop). One possible clue: it just started happening when we moved to a Netgear N router. It was fine with a Belkin N router.

Having the same issue. I've had my Macbook Pro for about two years but have only been experiencing this problem in the past month or so. I'm guessing it might be due to a recent software update.

At first I thought it was my router, but all the other computers (windows based) on the network have had no issues at all, even when my connection drops.

I've tried a few fixes I've found - flashing the PRAM, putting airport at the top of the list, setting my router to use G settings instead of N, putting my router on a different channel - but nothing works! Super frustrating since I use my mac for work AND play and no matter where I am I get disconnected!

Hi all,



I also have this problem, exactly as described. I've heard that driver issues tend to work themselves out around the x.7 release (10.6.7 in this case). Let's hope that that's true.

Not to be mean but it would be more helpful to share more info about your working enviroment like
Do you use a router?
What brand?
Which band is it on (b/g/n)?
Which channel is used?
Encryption method?
Etc

just saying it dont work wont give enough info to Apple. I did have a MBP (2009)
and it worked great with my Belkin N1 Router (using WPA) but seen the drop-out with my other old Compaq pc so i know how annoying it can be.
I just ordered a new 15" so hopefully it will continue to work great (cross my finger) 😀

Well I DID answer all of this in my earlier post except for the encryption method. It's a Netgear N router.

When the problem started we were on WPA2.

Since we're out in the boonies, we turned security completely off and it didn't help at all.

Changing the channel has also not helped.

I'm having the exact same issue on my 13" unibody Macbook @ 2.4ghz w/4gb.
Wifi works flawlessly in Win7, but as soon as I boot in to OSX 10.6 or Linux (Ubuntu 10.4) wifi drops constantly. I have to stop and restart the airport, or rmmod/modprobe before wifi comes back. I have the same results at home on a DLink DIR-615 running OpenWRT Backfire, and at work on a Proxim mesh. Both environments are running WPA2 PSK.
Also, my wife has the same issue on her white 13" macbook.

+1 for me

I have this problem with all of my Apple HW (a brand new MacBook PRO i7, a iPhone 3GS and an iPad WiFi) likewise. But not with Win laptops and other WiFi enabled devices.

All Apple devices connect fine and have a good net connection immediately after initial connect. But after a few moments up to some minutes, the connection drops. Only switching off and on wireless network in the settings re-establishes connection.
The pattern is stable - never the connection recovered itself automatically, and never restarting wireless in the device did not help. Only the usable duration varies a lot, sometimes it's up to 30mins, sometimes it's only moments.

It seems to be WiFi router specific however - I only have problems with the Zyxel NBG 417N, whereas the much older Netgear WRG 614 and a Zyxel G570-S in my office does not show the problem at all.

Maybe it is a 802.11n problem. Of my routers, only the NBG 417N is n-capable. Unfortunately, the NBG 417N does not have an option to disable 802.11n so I can't verify.

All in all, it's a really annoying problem. For months now I try to tweak the settings in my router, but nothing has helped. I was about to blame the Zyxel and replace it, but reading this thread I guess it's a more general Apple problem.